Sebastian Robertson

Sebastian Robertson (born July 18, 1974) is a Canadian-American non-fiction children's author, musician, composer, and studio engineer.

As a children's author, Robertson has written the book Rock and Roll Highway (2014), a biographical book about his father, The Band co-founder Robbie Robertson. He has also co-written Legends, Icons, and Rebels (2013), a contemporary pop and rock and roll history starter book, which he created in collaboration with Robbie Robertson, Jared Levine, and Jim Guerinot.

As a musician and composer, Robertson has composed over 4,000 pieces of music that have been used in over 100 different television shows, films, and advertisements. He has collaborated with musician Daniel Davies on several projects, including songs featured in the soundtracks of the films Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! and The Vatican Tapes, as well as the entirety of the soundtrack to the film Condemned (all 2015).

Biography

Childhood

As a child, Robertson had little knowledge of his father Robbie Robertson's prominence, as The Band had recorded their last performance when the younger Robertson was two years old. Robertson remembers his father at the time as "the guy that made me do my homework, drove me to little league games, made me breakfast and brought me to school." This led to Robertson picking albums from his father's collection to listen to, and his father telling him the stories about the artists, many of which were from the elder Robertson's personal experiences. Legends, Icons, and Rebels is a hardcover book with two CDs that introduces children ages nine to twelve to the stories of twenty-seven foundational contemporary music artists such as Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and others. The book was featured as Best of the Month in Non Fiction Books by Amazon.com, and tells the story of Robbie Robertson's life. The book is intended for children ages six to nine, and from The American Library Association's Booklist, who called it "insightful". The book received a mixed review from School Library Journal, who called the book a "well-illustrated and nicely told story," but were concerned that "the details aren't likely to resonate with the intended audience."

Robertson plans to write a third book about his Iroquois heritage. The book will highlight eight to ten influential Native American tribal chiefs. and Access Hollywood Live.

Robertson has also assisted on a number of his father's musical projects. In 1994, Robertson played drums on Robbie Robertson's soundtrack to the Barry Levinson film Jimmy Hollywood. That same year, Robertson played drums again on parts of the elder Robertson's album Music for The Native Americans. In 2011, Robertson appeared on the elder Robertson's album How to Become Clairvoyant, this time providing effects.

In 2013, Robertson was enlisted to assist in the release of The Band box set Live at the Academy of Music 1971 (2013), alongside mixing engineer Jon Castelli. It was Robertson's idea to preserve and even highlight the imperfections and personal moments that fans of bootleg recordings enjoy, instead of mixing them out. as well as another song for the soundtrack to the horror-thriller The Vatican Tapes (2015). The film soundtrack album was praised by Something Else! as "inventive – to say nothing of bone-chilling."