Background:

“Truth is, you make albums, and some of those songs are hits, and some of the greatest hits albums have songs that weren't hits. You have a career, the reason why we're still around 10 years is that we do have successful songs.” Adam Duritz

Adam Duritz is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and film producer. He is best known as the frontman and vocalist of the rock band Counting Crows, where he is a founding member and main composer of their list of songs. The band's debut album, “August and Everything After” (1993), achieved 7x platinum certification in both the Unites States and Canada. The band has since released five additional studio albums, including the double platinum hit “Recovering the Satellites” (1996), “This Desert Life” (1999) and “Hard Candy” (2002). Their latest album, “Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation)”, was released in April 2012. In 2005, Duritz and his bandmates received an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for their song “Accidentally in Love,” which was included in the 2004 film “Shrek 2.” Duritz has collaborated with The Wallflowers, Ryan Adams and Nanci Griffith, among other artists. He was the owner of the independent record label E Pluribus Unum from 1997 until it was purchased by Interscope in 2000. Duritz has produced the films “The Locusts” (1997), “Burn” (1998) and “Freeloaders” (2011).    


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Childhood and Family:

Adam Frederic Duritz was born on August 1, 1964, in Baltimore, Maryland, to a Jewish family. He was raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and El Paso, Texas before his family moved to Berkeley, California when he was a teenager. He has lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Amsterdam and New York City. Adam enrolled at Head-Royce School, the Taft School, the University of California, Davis and the University of California, Berkeley, but quit before receiving a degree. He has a sister named Nicole, who is mentioned in his song “Children in Bloom”.    


Vocalist of Counting Crows

Career:

Adam Duritz kicked off his musical career by singing for a few San Fransisco Bay Area bands, including Mod-L Society and Sordid Humor. In 1990, he joined the rock group The Himalayans as the lead vocalist, but the group disbanded amicably in 1991 when Duritz left the band to form Counting Crows with guitarist David Bryson. The duo performed acoustic sets in and around Berkeley and San Francisco and later added bassist Matt Malley, guitarist Dan Vickrey, drummer Steve Bowman, and keyboardist Charlie Gillingham to the line up. The band signed to Geffen Records in 1993.

Counting Crows released the first studio album “August and Everything After,” on September 14, 1993. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, the album peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and went 7x platinum in the United States. The album also charted in the top 30 in several countries like the UK (#16), Australia (#12), New Zealand (#12), Sweden (#22), Austria (#24) and Ireland (#24). “August and Everything After” produced four singles: “Mr. Jones” (#2 Modern Rock Tracks &Mainstream Rock Tracks; #28 UK Top 40), “Rain King” (#4 Mainstream Rock Tracks), “Round Here” (#7 Modern Rock Tracks) and “A Murder of One” (#17 Mainstream Rock Tracks). Duritz wrote and co-wrote all of the 11 tracks on the album.

Duritz and his bandmates resurfaced with their sophomore effort, “Recovering the Satellites,”         in October 1996, for which the group collaborated with producer Gil Norton. The album reached No. 1 in the United States and was a top seller in Australia, Canada, and the UK as well. For this album, the band added fellow San Franciscan Dan Vickrey, who contributed a second guitar and also shared in songwriting credits on four of the fourteen tracks, and Ben Mize replaced Steve Bowman on drums. Thanks to hit singles like “Angels of the Silences” (#3 Billboard Modern Rock Tracks), “A Long December” (#5 Modern Rock Tracks) and “Daylight Fading” (#26 Modern Rock Tracks), the album  was eventually certified double platinum by the RIAA in June 1997. Duritz also co-wrote and wrote all the tracks in the album.

In 1997, Duritz began a side career as a record label owner when he co-founded an indie label called E Pluribus Unum. He signed bands Joe 90, Gigolo Aunts and Neilson Hubbard, all of which he took on the road to open for Counting Crows. Interscope Records took over the label in 2000. 1997 also saw Duritz made his debut as a film producer when he executive produced “The Locusts,” a drama directed and written by John Patrick Kelley and starring Kate Capshaw, Jeremy Davies and Vince Vaughn. The film was nominated for Grand Special Prize at the 1997 Deauville Film Festival and Grand Prix at the 1998 Paris Film Festival. He reprised the executive producing duty for the 1998 film “Burn,” starring David Hayter, Alfonso Freeman and Anthony Moore. The Scott Storm directed won Jury Special Award at the 1998 Slamdance Film Festival, in which it also was nominated for Grand Jury Prize.     

In November 1999, Counting Crows launched the third studio album “This Desert Life,” which peaked at No. 8 and No. 19 on the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart, respectively. The lead single “Hanginaround” reached No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 17 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks. It charted at No. 46 in the UK Singles Chart. The second single “Mrs. Potter's Lullaby,”   which was written by Duritz after he saw actress Monica Potter in a film, peaked at No. 40 on the Billboard Adult Top 40.“This Desert Life” received platinum certification in the U.S. and silver in the UK.

The same year, Duritz provided music and lyrics to the Counting Crows song “Colorblind,” which was included on the soundtrack of the box office hit “Cruel Intentions,” starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillipe, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair. In 2001, he wrote the songs “Spin Around,” “You Don't See Me” and “You're a Star” for the “Josie and the Pussycats” soundtrack that were performed by the film's fictional title band. Duritz also contributed songs to the soundtracks of “Mr. Deeds” (2002), “The Rules of Attraction” (2002) and  “Searching for David's Heart” (2004).

In July 2002, Counting Crows launched the fourth album “Hard Candy.” It peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the RIAA in October 2002.  The album also reached No. 9 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 13 on the Australian Albums Chart. The album featured a cover of Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi,” which the band performed with Vanessa Carlton. The band's version     of the song peaked at No. 16 on the UK Singles Chart.  “Hard Candy” went gold in both the US and the UK.

In 2004, Counting Crows performed the pop song “Accidentally in Love” for the soundtrack of   the massively popular computer animated movie sequel “Shrek 2.” The song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song, a Golden Globe for Best Original Song - Motion Picture and a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The song also received a  Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Song, a World Soundtrack nomination for Best Original Song Written for Film and won a BMI Film & TV: for Most Performed Song from a Film.

In November 2006, Duritz started production on the Chicago pop punk band Blacktop Mourning's first record under the name “The Devil and Bunny Show” alongside Counting Crows guitarist David Immerglück's album. In January 2007, he informed that he was launching boutique record label Tyrannosaurus Records, whose debut artists include Notar and Blacktop Mourning. The label also re-released the sole album by Duritz's former band,The Himalayans. The same year, Duritz provided the voice of Sensitive Guy Penguin in the animated film “Farce of the Penguins,” which starred the voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Alexander and Christina Applegate.      

In March 2008, Counting Crows released “Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings,” the band's first studio album in six years. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest peak since 1996's “Recovering the Satellites.”  The album charted at No. 12 on the UK Albums Chart.   

In 2011, Duritz returned to film as a producer with “Freeloaders,” a comedy directed and co-written by Dan Rosen and starring Olivia Munn, Jane Seymour and Jay Chandrasekhar.

Recently, Counting Crows released the sixth studio album “Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation)” on April 12, 2012 on Cooking Vinyl. The album, which was produced by both the band and Shawn Dealy, reached No. 11 on the Billboard 200. The album is consisted of cover songs. Duritz said, “Sometimes it's great to play someone else's music and try to make it your own. Sometimes it's great just because it's fun.”

Apart from Counting Crows, Duritz has collaborated with other artists. He sang background vocals on the hit single “6th Avenue Heartache” by the band The Wallflowers. The song was released as the first single from the band's 1996 album “Bringing Down the Horse.” Duritz also lent background vocals to several tracks on his friend and former roommate Ryan Adams' second studio album, “Gold” (2001).  He worked with Peter Stuart on “Propeller and Daisy,” with Live on “V” and with Dashboard Confessional on the track “So Long, So Long” from “Dusk and Summer.” He also collaborated with Nanci Griffith on “Going Back to Georgia,” from Griffith's 1994 album “Flyer.”     


Awards:

BMI Film & TV: Most Performed Song from a Film, “Shrek 2,” 2005 Show Less