David Sztanke

Pianist, singer, arranger, composer, performer. David Sztanke was born in 1979. He first learned classical percussions before switching to piano around the age of 11 and then to alto and baritone saxophone a bit later on. At 20, David leaves France for New York City where he got a scholarship from Juilliard School to join the "Jazz" 1st section. He stayed there for one year as an intern. He was then playing mostly the saxophone. He also became the protégé of the great Mario Rivera - multi-instrumentalist, historical musician of the New York Latin-jazz trend along Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri and so many others. It was then that David came back to the piano, which overtime will become his preferred instrument. Passionate about current music trends, he also very regularly accompanies hip-hop, electronic, or rock bands. In 2004, David - back in Paris - was hired by the rapper Mike Ladd for a 6-month tour to which several leading bands of that then blooming stage took part: Antipop Consortium, Busdriver, Rob Sonic, etc. David also started his own band in 2006 - Tahiti Boy and the Palmtree family - in which he reconnected with his original love: the pop music of the Beatles and Bowie, and film soundtracks : Legrand, Morricone, Rota. The musicians making up the band have distinguished themselves within important groups from the French independent stage: Tanger, Syd Matters, Jamaica, Rover, Frànçois and the Atlas Mountains... Tunde Adebimpe - the singer of TV On The Radio - has been invited to sing on their album. He also performed on stage with the band on several occasions. The 1st album of the band - "Good Children Go To Heaven" - was out in 2008 to great acclaim, then David was asked to compose the soundtrack for the movie Fashionweek by Claude Zidi Jr, and to work on the soundtrack of the 1st long feature film of Mikael Hers, Memory Lane, which received an award at the Locano festival. He also played the part of Florent in that film. In parallel to his own projects, David Sztanke wrote some arrangements for various bands : Woodkid (he also plays the piano on the multi platinum album « The Golden Age »), Saul Williams, Soko, Syd matters etc... and composed songs for Jane Birkin, Micky Green, Oxmo Puccino and many others. He regularly plays the keyboards for many groups of the "new French touch" - famous "made in France" electronic music (Para One, Jackson, Justice and co.). In 2010, Tahiti Boy and the Palmtree family stood out once again by releasing an album entirely composed and interpreted with Sergio Dias, leader of the cult Brazilian band Os Mutantes. On this LP called We Are The Lilies, one can find prestigious guests : Iggy Pop and Jane Birkin. This record was out on Cooperative Music/Universal. In 2011, he wrote and recorded the soundtrack for Wrong, the 3rd movie by Quentin Dupieux (aka Mr Oizo in the music industry). The film was selected in a large number of festivals worldwide, including Sundance in January 2012 and Deauville in September of the same year. The album of this soundtrack was released in September 2012 on Ed Banger Records. They worked again together on the soundtrack for the new movie by Dupieux,Wrong Cops, out in 2014. Since 2010, David has been working non-stop, producing records, remixing, touring (with Saul Williams and Emilie Simon among others) and has released the Palmtree family's second album « Songs Of Vertigo » in France in March 2015 on Edge Of Town/Caroline (Universal), mixed by Chris Moore (Yeah Yeah Yeah's, Au Revoir Simone, Bowie etc...). An EP by Tahiti Boy and the Palmtree family, Fireman Ep, was released on November 5, 2012. He also co-produced the latest album of Micky Green with Para One, co-produced Hollysiz' 1st album « My Name Is » which went gold, and produced a bunch of tracks on Emilie Simon's latest record « Mue » which also went to become a gold record, then went on tour with her for a year. David Sztanke was chosen to be an "associated artist" at the Lille-based venue Aéronef for the year 2013 (2000 seats). He scheduled some events there, conferences and concerts. In November 2014, David wrote a 5 movements piece for the worldwide known brand Chanel as they have decided to offer a vinyl record to the 40 000 best clients. 2015 has been a busy year as David now has his own studio : after composing the soundtrack to Mikaël Hers' second film « This Summer Feeling » (which features Mac Demarco - coming out in the Fall), he produced Lewis Evan's album (British singer), and did promo for Tahiti Boy's album (TV, radio, press, web) in France. Then the band went (and still is) on tour. On top on touring, David has worked on the music of a documentary about John Casablancas, supervised by Julian Casablancas himself. The movie is coming out in US theatres in the Summer of 201 . He also worked on 2 of the most anticipated soundtracks of this year : Christophe Honoré's next film « Les Malheurs de Sophie » with Alex Beaupain and cult French movie « La Tour De Contrôle Infernale 2 ». He is now working on a project with Tunde Adebimpe, lead singer in Tv On The Radio, and focusses on his own coming album plus the soundtrack of an animation movie called "A La Dérive" by the great up and coming French film maker Cyprien Clément-Delmas.