D.A. Wallach

David-Andrew Wallach is an American singer and businessman. He was the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Chester French from 2003 until its 2013 disbandment, and signed with Harvest Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records as a solo act in the latter year. During his time at Harvard, he studied African-American studies under Henry Louis Gates Jr. and graduated in 2007, He received Harvard's first certificate in the Bantu language Gikuyu. While at Harvard, he auditioned against future Academy Award-winning director Damien Chazelle for the role of drummer in future Academy Award-winning composer Justin Hurwitz's band; Chazelle won and Wallach became the lead singer.

Career Early career and Chester French

He was initially discovered by Kanye West, Jermaine Dupri and Pharrell Williams while he was attending Harvard and leading the band Chester French. Wallach's music style of classic pop has been compared to musicians such as the Beatles

Wallach co-founded the group Chester French in 2003 with Harvard schoolmate Maxwell Drummey. Wallach worked as a recording engineer in Harvard's student recording studio, engineering and producing for Boston-area jazz musicians and working on Chester French's debut album at night. In 2007, Wallach sent out hundreds of demo CDs which led to a bidding war between West, Dupri, and Williams. Just prior to Wallach's graduating from Harvard, Williams signed the group to his Star Trak Entertainment label, a partnership with Interscope Records. being freshmen at Harvard the same year that the site was launched by Mark Zuckerberg. He was also an early adopter of Twitter with over one million followers. The group's first album included the single "She Loves Everybody" which reached #1 on U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales and #2 on U.S. Billboard Hot Singles Sales.

Chester French released two albums under the Star Trak record label, leaving in 2010 to release its third album independently. The third album featured collaborations with Williams, Pusha T, and Travis Barker.

Solo career, collaborations, and film D.A. Wallach performing with Chester French at The Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Outside of Chester French, Wallach has worked with Supa Dups, forming the group D.A. & the Supa Dups. They collaborated in 2011 and released two singles, "Who Do You Know" and "Too Cool" (feat. Vybz Kartel). Wallach originally met Supa Dups while he was doing studio work in Los Angeles.

He appeared in the 2012 film Artifact produced by Jared Leto. The film was a documentary about Leto's band Thirty Seconds to Mars, its lawsuit against Virgin EMI Records, and the making of the album This Is War. Wallach also worked with Pharrell Williams to co-write the song "The Way It Is (Vector's Theme)", a song from the soundtrack for the 2010 film Despicable Me.

In 2013, Wallach began writing and recording music as a solo artist. He played his music for Odd Future and Frank Ocean's manager Chris Clancy, who then partnered with Harvest Records to release Wallach's solo project. He released his first single, titled "Glowing", in October 2013, which debuted in a music video directed by Tyler, the Creator.

Business career In 2011, Wallach was selected by Sean Parker, Shakil Khan, and Daniel Ek to be the official artist-in-residence for Spotify. In that capacity, he created and led the Artist Services team, which oversaw the company's relationships with musicians and managers, discussing how the service works, its payment model, and promotions. Spotify's subscribers grew from one million to 20 million prior to him leaving the company in 2015.

Wallach has invested in and advised technology companies that have included Fancy, digital currency network Ripple, and telemedicine innovator Doctor On Demand. Wallach partnered with billionaire Ron Burkle in 2016 to form Inevitable Venture, a venture fund based in Los Angeles. He initially met Burkle at a Grammy party and helped him invest in Spotify.