His day has come

[Bellamy]

His day has come

He gave us one of Céline Dion's signature tunes. Now he's releasing his debut album

Mar 03, 2007 04:30 AM

John Terauds

CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC

 

There is a cast of hundreds behind every pop star. Usually the producers, songwriters, musicians, recording engineers, marketers, packagers and handlers are happy to toil in the shadow of the marquee name.

 

Occasionally, someone comes along who would like to leave the darkened backroom for the heat of the spotlights. Someone like songwriter and arranger Stephan Moccio.

 

The handsome, 34-year-old Niagara Falls native and his frequent working partner, Aldo Nova, wrote Céline Dion's "A New Day Has Come" – a song that spent months at No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart in 2002.

 

Moccio has worked with many other big names in the business, from Prozzak and 'N Sync to Sarah Brightman and Josh Groban.

 

Now he has released his own debut album, Exposure. Unlike what you might expect from someone with classical training (at the University of Western Ontario in London) and a decade in the pop world, Exposure is 22 tracks of gently rolling piano tunes that defy the usual categories. It's a bit of pop, cool jazz and Eric Satie-style classical.

 

Sitting in his downtown studio – outfitted with everything from a shiny-black Yamaha grand piano to the latest in sound recording and editing equipment – Moccio has the confidence of someone who knows what he wants.

 

"I don't need to chase the charts any more. I'm not rich, but I'm not poor," he says, all intense brown eyes and cascading dark curls. "It's a cliché, but I realized I need to be honest with myself."

 

After graduating from Western, Moccio went to work for Sony as a freelance composer and arranger. To help make ends meet, he played the lounge circuit in Toronto.

 

One of his regular gigs was at the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville. It's an experience Moccio immortalized in Exposure as "La Serre."

 

"That's when I learned the Great American songbook," recalls Moccio of working the Four Seasons.

 

"(`La Serre') reminded me of that dream space I would escape to when someone asked me to play `Misty' or `My Funny Valentine.'"

 

Most of the album has that dream-like quality.

 

"The idea was for me to make a record that people would listen to in the nighttime that wasn't too contrasting," says Moccio. "I wanted it to be something sensual."

 

Exposure seems tailor-made to help anyone slough off a day's stresses. The CD booklet even comes with little poems that help set the mood.

 

Just don't think Moccio himself is a laid-back guy. After moving to Toronto in 1997, he took advantage of every opportunity to learn more about his craft. That included sitting in on Toronto Symphony Orchestra rehearsals.

 

"I would go in there with my scores. I wanted to keep up my harmonic training," he says.

 

"To this day I have this inner turmoil. I love pop music, but if I get too much of it, I feel like I'm betraying my classical roots. I don't know if I'll ever come to peace with myself, but both worlds live in me."

 

By 2000, Moccio was making enough money in the pop world to support himself. Then came Céline Dion.

 

"I was working in Los Angeles, and got a call from my publisher at the time in Montreal," Moccio recounts.

 

His publisher suggested he team up with Aldo Nova to write a track for Dion's comeback album. Moccio didn't think he stood a chance, but went to Montreal anyway.

 

Nova loved Moccio's piano "riff" and wrote a melody over top. Moccio prepared a full demo song in his loft and sent it to Dion.

 

"Céline hears it, she falls in love with it," recalls Moccio. "She called up and she says, `I love da song, it's unbuhlievable,'" he says, imitating Dion.

 

Then the song became the title for Dion's Las Vegas show.

 

After this breakthrough success, other stars have come knocking on Moccio's soundproof door, including Sarah Brightman (for her recent album, Harem) and Josh Groban.

 

Moccio says he recorded all but one of Exposure's tracks in the same studio session. "It was all done in 3 1/2 weeks – 10 hours a day, six days a week."

 

Moccio was part of the finicky post-production work. "I laid all the tracks down visually on a piece of paper," he says.

 

"The sequencing of this record is a big deal. I find that, today, it's a bit of a lost art. Pop music wants one hit song to drive 5 or 6 million units, and they don't give a s--t what song follows the other in key relation or whatnot.

 

"I love design and things that are well-designed."

 

For his first live public performance in Toronto – at the Glenn Gould Studio on Wednesday – Moccio will mix the material from Exposure with new songs and piano arrangements of some of his pop-song hits.

http://www.thestar.com/artsentertainment/article/187233

 

Celine is so cute.

[celinerific]

Oooo yay! The Toronto Star

Oh wait... how on earth could I have missed that article?

Bleeehhhh. Anyway, thanks for the article Bellamy! Saves me time from going to the news stands

[tativale]

wwoowww great! A new day has come is my very favorite song!

[Teodora]

Wow, that's cool for him. I just visited his site. The song they play there is very nice. I just love piano. He's so cute too

[Love,]

Stephan is an inspiration for me.

His piano "riffs" flow like a river that feeds my soul.

[Koolan]

Love his piano riffs

[shasti]

wow.... coming from a small place.... to give someone like celine a comeback single and pave the way for a show that carries the song title on its banner..... now that is "unbuhlievable".

 

good job... and good luck....

 

shasti

[disadiva]

I Love A New Day Has Come it´s one of my all time fave Celine songs..