Evan David Taubenfeld is an American singer-songwriter, best known for being Avril Lavigne's lead guitarist, music director and frequent collaborator. Taubenfeld's debut album, Welcome to the Blacklist Club, was released on May 18, 2010 on Warner Records.
Early life
Taubenfeld was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Mark and Ami Taubenfeld, who ran a catering business. He has two siblings, a younger brother named Drew, who is the guitarist in Selena Gomez & The Scene, and a younger sister, Annie. Taubenfeld graduated from McDonogh School in 2001. Taubenfeld had an early interest in music and took an interest at the piano at home as a toddler. He received a small drum kit as a young child, continuing on a full-size drum kit several years later. While in seventh grade, he joined the band The Suburbanites on drums. At the age of 15, he taught himself guitar by learning to play "Come As You Are" by Nirvana. After 3 years, he founded Spinfire with his friend Matt Halpern in which he sang and played guitar. They performed at festivals and shows in the Baltimore area, and wrote and produced songs such as "Feeling Beautiful", "Lettin' It Be", and "Waiting".
Taubenfeld considered studying at Berklee College of Music, but chose to market his band with major labels instead. When his band members chose to go to college instead, Taubenfeld recorded a demo of his own music, among others sending it to Arista Records A&R vice president Josh Sarubin, who he made his acquaintance with during his time in Spinfire. Taubenfeld received a phone call from Sarubin, who invited him to audition in New York City for the band of a new talent he just signed, a young Canadian named Avril Lavigne. He joined this band in 2002 when her debut album Let Go had already been recorded. For Lavigne's sophomore album Under My Skin, Taubenfeld contributed to the music and was credited for the music on "Don't Tell Me", "Take Me Away", and "Freak Out", the latter of which he shared the credits with drummer Matt Brann. In addition to being her lead guitarist, he took up music directing and became a close friend of Lavigne. He left the band in September 2004, when he was signed as a staff writer with EMI Music Publishing, after which he got his own recording contract with Sire/Warner Bros. Records in October 2004. Taubenfeld would continue to collaborate with Lavigne for several more years. He co-wrote four songs with Lavigne on her 2007 album The Best Damn Thing, including the hit single "Hot". In 2010, he performed "Complicated" and "Girlfriend" acoustically with Lavigne and her band member, Jim McGorman. On Goodbye Lullaby from 2011, he co-wrote three songs, performed vocals on the bridge of "Push", along with playing in several instruments, and doing engineering and producing work on the album. He subsequently was the opening act for Lavigne on the North American Leg her 2011 Black Star World Tour.
Solo career and other projects
In 2003, while still playing in Lavigne’s band, Taubenfeld formed the band Ditch Ruxton, with whom he performed one show. The group disbanded within the year. In 2008, Taubenfeld produced two tracks for rapper Tyga's debut album No Introduction, "Press 7" and "First Timers", the latter of which he also featured on. He also produced for The Pack and Oreskaband. For his solo material, Taubenfeld set up his own band, named The Black List Club. His first solo single, "Boy Meets Girl", was released in March 2009. It was co-written with among others indie pop artists Adam Richman and Bleu. To promote the single, Taubenfeld toured with Metro Station and Mayday Parade in July 2009. Taubenfeld's Christmas single, "Merry Swiftmas " debuted in late 2009 at #59 on the Hot Country Songs chart, in which he besung Taylor Swift and Christmas years before Swift trademarked "Swiftmas". It would take until May 2010 until his album Welcome to the Blacklist Club was released. He has since continued to record and release songs, but not in album format. Taubenfeld was the executivemusical director for the short-lived MTV show Kaya, a scripted drama about a girl who gets signed to a major label with her band. He among others co-wrote, recorded and produced the soundtrack for the series. He also had a role on the Web seriesPrivate as Blake Pearson, and produced for the MTV series Pageant Place. In 2012, Taubenfeld co-wrote the song "Shine" for The Used album Vulnerable. That same year, he produced for the Japanese band Stereopony, and collaborated with them on the song "Just Rock With Me", for which the collective was dubbed "Evanpony" in public releases of the song. Taubenfeld presently runs Crush Music Publishing, a music publishing joint venture between Songs Publishing and Crush Management.
