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Carah Faye Charnow (born August 3, 1984, in Santa Barbara, California) is an American singer and songwriter. She was formerly the female vocalist of the band Shiny Toy Guns (2004-2008), with whom she scored a Grammy nomination, and is currently the frontwoman/vocalist of the band Versant.

Bands

Shiny Toy Guns (2004-2008)

In 2004, Carah joined the indie/rock/electronica band Shiny Toy Guns. Shiny Toy Guns gained popularity in California as well as through their MySpace page.^[1] On October 17, 2006, they released their first album, We Are Pilots (UNI-MOTOWN), after previously recording and independently releasing it two times with varying tracklists. The album’s best-known tracks are "Le Disko", "You Are the One", and "Don't Cry Out". On December 6, 2007, We Are Pilots received a Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best Electronic/Dance Album. Carah remained the female vocalist of Shiny Toy Guns until she was released in the summer of 2008.

Versant (2008-present)

After her release from STG, Carah started a new band, Versant, with Richard Ankers (drums), Johan Grettve (guitar/keyboards), Daniel Johansson (guitar/keyboards) and Nicholas Oja (bass). The band's name is pronounced as ver-SONT, and is a French word defined as either a mountain slope or having knowledge of something.^[2] They have posted demo versions of the songs "Push Away" and "Out Of Touch", to be included on their self-released EP planned to appear around June 2010.^[3]

Personal life

Carah Faye was born in Santa Barbara and moved to Newbury Park at age 5. She started taking voice lessons at an early age and sang in a professional show choir called Fresh Chances for America for about four or five years (with performances at events and venues like the Reagan Library and Amway Diamond Convention).

She has said that her main musical influences were Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James and Nancy Sinatra, and also Whitney Houston and Björk, among the contemporary singers. Carah's earliest muse was her grandfather, Arnold Moselle, a World War II fighting captain who sang in a "big band-ish" group called "The Nightingales". He used to sing lullabies to her like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, and he encouraged her to pursue a musical career.

After high school, Carah's dream was to go to New York and attend The Juilliard School. Instead, she went to Moorpark College and "did some garage band stuff that didn't go anywhere". Through a friend she met Jeremy Dawson, who needed a vocalist to record dummy versions of pop songs he was writing for other artists.^[4]

In 2004, Jeremy Dawson invited her to sing with Shiny Toy Guns, which he'd formed with Chad Petree in 2002. She remained the female vocalist of this band until the summer of 2008, when she was released. In a February 2009 interview, Carah said that she lives most of the time in Sweden (Vänersborg) working on music for Versant with her bandmates, with occasional trips back to California.

References