Tally Hall

Andrew Horowitz, one of the only members not originally from Michigan, began writing songs when he was eight years old, and attended the University of Michigan, studying composition. There he met Rob Cantor, who had both attended high school with Zubin Sedghi and joined Joe Hawley's film production group, AnonyMous. Tally Hall's original drummer, Steve Gallagher, left the band in May of 2004. Ross Federman, who Joe knew from high school, took his place shortly thereafter.

Tally Hall performing in Philadelphia, October 2006.

On October 24, 2005, the band released their debut studio album, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, with violinist Jeremy Kittel contributing strings.[2] They re-released the album on September 12, 2006,[1] on the local label Quack! Media.[3] Tally Hall went on to receive national media attention, performing their song "Good Day" on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on August 2, 2006, as well as appearing in MTV's segment You Hear It First in September 2006.[1] The band appeared at the 2007 South by Southwest Music Festival.[4] Also in March 2007, they were signed to Atlantic Records and rerecorded their first album. They didn't release the updated version until April 1, 2008.[5] In August 2008, Tally Hall was a performer on the BMI stage at Lollapalooza.[6]

Tally Hall was invited back by The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on September 16, 2008, to help promote the launch of Tally Hall's Internet Show. They performed "Welcome to Tally Hall" in newly donned black vests over top of their traditional colored ties, white shirts, and black pants.[7]

The band worked on several projects after the completion of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, including covering the song "Smile Like You Mean It" by The Killers for the sixth The O.C. soundtrack: Music from the OC: Mix 6.

On September 9, 2009, Hidden in the Sand (HITS), a prominent Tally Hall fansite, broke the news that Tally Hall was going to release a collaborative song, featuring Nellie McKay, which would be released as a free download from mp3.walmart.com when customers of Walmart purchased The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo.[8] The book had been made available for purchase earlier that day. The same day, HITS reported the title of the song, "Light & Night", along with a short audio clip of it in another update.[9]

In their 2010 March tour with Jukebox the Ghost and Skybox, it was reported that Joe Hawley had unexpectedly backed out of the tour. Hawley was replaced with Casey Shea, who wore a black tie, and would subsequently fill in for him for the rest of their live shows that year. On March 25, 2011, the band announced that all five original band members were still together.[10]

The band was managed by The Hornblow Group, who also manages They Might Be Giants, OK Go, and Oppenheimer, until 2010, when Tally Hall changed management to Stiletto Entertainment, who manages Barry Manilow, in addition to several other solo performance acts.[11][12]

Their second album, Good & Evil, was released in 2011. With this release Tally Hall returned to their original label, Quack!Media.[13]

In order to promote the album, the band held a contest where the winner would be awarded their own theme song. The winner was a high school student named Nathan Naimark, whose self titled theme song would be released soon after.[14] Around the same time, the band released a cover of the Flo Rida song "Club Can't Handle Me", with Casey Shea on guest vocals.[15]

After the release of Good & Evil and its subsequent tour, the band became inactive, and all of its members went on to independent endeavors, though some of the projects had multiple members of the band collaborate once again.

In 2012, Andrew Horowitz, under the moniker "edu", released a solo album called sketches 3D. He was also involved in production and piano on John Legend's Love in the Future.[16]

Joe Hawley returned to school, but released a concept album alongside Federman and Karaca, Hawaii: Part II, as part of his musical side project ミラクルミュージカル (Miracle Musical), who also created the song “Variations on a Cloud”, about the September 11 attacks. Tally Hall members Sedghi and Cantor appeared on the album on the tracks "White Ball" and "Time Machine", respectively.

Ross Federman has made occasional appearances as a producer, percussionist, and DJ under the pseudonym "Mr. F", although his main focus has been school. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology,[17] and graduated from Yale University with a Ph.D. in Immunology in May 2019.[18] Federman is married, and he and his wife had their first child in 2022.

Sedghi, aside from appearing in Hawaii: Part II, shifted his focus towards his personal life.[19] He graduated from the University of Michigan with an undergraduate Honors degree in Neuroscience, then attended Touro University California for medical school.[20]

He now works as a family medicine doctor at Kaiser Permanente in Orange County, California.[21] Sedghi is married with two kids. As of 2020, Horowitz stated during his Instagram Livestream Keep Up the Good Work:

"So Zubin, correct me if I'm wrong, but he's on the frontline right now, working at a hospital. Well, last we heard, he was like, he was quarantined for, he couldn't... they thought he might be sick, so he was in quarantine for two weeks, then he went back to work in the hospital, and, as far as I know, he's working.[22]

In 2014, Hawley, again under ミラクルミュージカル, released Hawaii: Part II: Part ii, an album containing demos and samples from Hawaii: Part II. Hawley also released Candle on the Water under ミラクルミュージカル, a cover of the song of the same name from the 1977 Disney film Pete's Dragon.

Cantor released his solo album, Not a Trampoline, on April 14, 2014.[23] In addition, he has made several viral videos on YouTube, including "SHIA LABEOUF" and "29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song - Rob Cantor". He also records songs for Disney Junior Musical Nursery Rhymes.

In 2015, Tally Hall's Bandcamp page was updated with a demo LP entitled Admittedly Incomplete Demos, in reference to their earlier collection Complete Demos. The LP included demos of songs from Good & Evil as well as unreleased songs and live performances. It also included studio versions of covers for the songs Just A Friend and The Minstrel Boy. The former, Just A Friend, was included in the track-lists for versions of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum that included bonus tracks.[24][25]

Later in 2015, Hawley (ミラクルミュージカル) released Hawaii Partii, an album containing 8-bit renditions of select Hawaii: Part II songs.

In mid-2016, Hawley announced a comedy hip-hop album Joe Hawley Joe Hawley, which was released in October of that year. In 2019, Hawley released γɘlwɒH ɘoႱ γɘlwɒH ɘoႱ, a reversed version of the album. This was due to the large amounts of sampling he used, and to avoid copyright. Eventually, the album was released in its original state in 2020. It is assumed Joe Hawley gained clearance for the samples used on the album, as all songs but one are available on the official release.

In 2018, Horowitz released studio versions of piano compositions written in 2003 for the album etudes.

In April 2019, Horowitz released studio versions of piano compositions written in 2005 while he was a student at the University of Michigan for the album etudes II.

In August 2019, the band re-released their archived cover of Biz Markie's "Just a Friend", which was originally only found on their album Admittedly Incomplete Demos.

In May 2020, Horowitz started a weekly Instagram Livestream series titled Keep Up The Good Work, where he has one or two guests on each stream. A few of these guests have included Tally Hall alumni, such as members Ross[26] and Zubin.[27]

In January 2021, it was announced that Needlejuice Records would be reissuing the band's two studio albums on vinyl, CD, and cassette. The attempted midnight release of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum on March 13 led to a lag spike on the website, due to the high volume of fans attempting to purchase the album at release. Later, in June, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum was released on MiniDisc to coincide with International MiniDisc Day. They announced their intentions to reissue Good & Evil in January 2022. In August 2022, the reissue pre-order date was announced to be the 26th of that month.[28] It was also announced that a 7' vinyl would accompany the Good & Evil reissue called Turn the Lights Off which contains the aforementioned track on the A side and Light & Night (a single which hadn't been released since 2009) on the B side.[29]

In April 2022, 2 new tracks were added to "Admittedly Incomplete Demos": "Welcome to Tally Hall (Reprise) (Demo)" and "Hymn For a Scarecrow (Demo)".

Since the band's hiatus, members such as Joe Hawley, Andrew Horowitz, and Ross Federman have suggested the band would eventually come back for a third album, with Joe Hawley promising it on Twitter and other platforms. However, in 2020 and August 2023, allegations were levied against Hawley, with a document displaying Instagram DMs of him interacting inappropriately with underage fans, as well as allegations of harassment, racism, and transphobia. Horowitz, on behalf of the rest of the band, on Twitter stated that Hawley for years had been going through mental health issues, and that this was the primary reason why there has been no third album or plans to tour. Horowitz urged fans to not engage with Hawley and stated that the band did not condone his actions. [30]

Taking on an even larger role within the band's video portfolio was the ten-part bi-weekly variety-show series Tally Hall's Internet Show (T.H.I.S.), which debuted on September 15, 2008. Each episode ran 10 minutes long and was posted on their website. The content primarily included comedy sketches and music videos.

With the release of Tally Hall's Internet Show in September 2008, it became clear that many music videos would be released within the Internet Show. "Good Day" was the first music video to be seen in episode one. Other music videos include "Dream", "Greener", "Hidden in the Sand", "Ruler of Everything", "Taken for a Ride", "The Whole World and You", "Two Wuv", and "Welcome to Tally Hall". A song from their second album, "Turn the Lights Off", also has a music video. The music video for their song "&" was abandoned before its release.[33]

1. Good Day (September 15, 2008) – 9:24
2. Death Request (September 29, 2008) – 11:36
3. Taken for a Ride (October 13, 2008) – 9:17
4. Welcome to Tally Hall (October 27, 2008) – 11:37
5. Who Cares (November 10, 2008) – 9:25
6. Two Wuv (November 24, 2008) – 10:32
7. Fifteen Seconds of Bora (December 8, 2008) – 9:08
8. The Whole World and You (December 22, 2008) – 11:06
9. Potato Vs. Spoon (January 5, 2009) – 8:30
10. Good Night (January 19, 2009) – 10:52

1. South by Southwest 2007 (December 23, 2013) – 12:06

• Rob Cantor (Yellow tie) – guitar, vocals, percussion (2002–present)
• Joe Hawley (Red tie) – guitar, vocals, percussion (2002–present)
• Zubin Sedghi (Blue tie) – bass, vocals (2002–present)
• Andrew Horowitz (Green tie) – keyboards, percussion, vocals (2002–present)
• Ross Federman (Grey tie) – drums, percussion (2004–present)

• Steve Gallagher (Grey tie) – drums, percussion (2002–2004)

• Casey Shea (Black tie) – guitar, vocals, percussion (Replacement for Joe Hawley, 2010)
• Bora Karaca (Orange tie) – roadie and producer (2005–present)
  • keyboards, percussion, acoustic guitar, accordion, whistling, backing vocals, announcer (Good & Evil Tour, Summer 2011)