Ren Stewart

When singer/songwriter Ren Stewart started out in the music business it was without any knowledge of music as being a viable career. “I was asked to score a video for a major corporation with government contracts when I was 18, and after I got done they kept calling me back for more work. I remembered asking very innocently if people actually did ‘this’ for a living.” While Ren was deciding between a degree in genetics or studio art at the University of California Irvine, a college friend convinced her to apply for an apprentice composer position for Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO (“Rushmore”, “The Life Aquatic”) who was heading up a studio in LA for film and TV composition. She was soon hired, moving out of the sleepy OC town of Lake Forest to LA. While her role continued to be behind the scenes, having landed her own songs in both film and television projects, she never found the time to perform live. After taking a 3-year breather to teach high school digital arts, she decided to bring her compositions to the stage and to the small screen. Although her work can be heard in television and film over the last decade her recent songs found homes on the critically acclaimed NBC show "Life" and Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles". Ren draws influence from artists like Fiona Apple, Morcheeba, Zero 7, John Mayer, Bjork, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Burt Bacharach. Many of the world music influences center around South America, particularly Brazilian popular music. Despite being raised by a Mexican-American mother, Ren had an early interest in Bossa Nova, thanks to a family friend and crooner Chris Montez (“Call Me”, “Let’s Dance”). Ren continues her work as an artist, musician and music editor for television. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.