Tally Hall

Early years and Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum

Andrew Horowitz, born in Warren, New Jersey,^[3] began writing songs when he was eight years old and studied composition at the University of Michigan. There he met Rob Cantor, who had attended high school with Zubin Sedghi. ^[4] Cantor and Sedghi had previously played in a band named listedBlack when both were in highschool.^[5][6] The three soon decided to play music together, going under the name 540 and playing small shows at the university. At the same time, fellow Michigan student Joe Hawley was studying film, and had formed the sketch comedy group AnonyMous. Cantor eventually joined this group, and through this connection soon invited Hawley to join 540 upon learning he could play guitar and had some musical experience writing songs for his film projects. The lineup was rounded out by drummer Steve Gallagher, and they soon went under various other names, such as Gallagher and PartyBoobyTrap. They eventually settled on Tally Hall, named after a local mall’s food court. This lineup recorded various demo EPs, which were later collected and released as Complete Demos in November 2004. Before the release however, Gallagher suddenly left the group in May of that year, being replaced by Ross Federman, whom Hawley knew from high school.

On October 24, 2005, the band released their debut studio album, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, with violinist Jeremy Kittel contributing strings.^[7] They re-released the album on September 12, 2006,^[2] on the local label Quack! Media.^[8] Tally Hall went on to receive national media attention, performing their song "Good Day" on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on August 2, 2006, as well as appearing in MTV's segment "You Hear It First" in September 2006.^[2] The band appeared at the 2007 South by Southwest Music Festival.^[9] They signed to Atlantic Records in March 2007 and re-recorded their first album, releasing it on April 1, 2008. In August 2008, Tally Hall was a performer on the BMI stage at Lollapalooza.^[10]

Tally Hall was invited back by The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on September 16, 2008, to help promote the launch of Tally Hall's Internet Show. They performed "Welcome to Tally Hall" in newly donned black vests on top of their traditional colored ties, white shirts, and black pants.^[11] The band worked on several projects after the completion of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, including covering the song "Smile Like You Mean It" by The Killers for the sixth The O.C. soundtrack: Music from the OC: Mix 6.

Tours and Good & Evil

Tally Hall performing in Massachusetts in 2008

On September 9, 2009, Tally Hall released the song "Light & Night", featuring Nellie McKay, as a free download when customers of Walmart purchased The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo, published the same day.^[12]

In the band's 2010 March tour with Jukebox the Ghost and Skybox, Joe Hawley backed out of the tour and was subsequently replaced with Casey Shea, who wore a black tie, and filled in for him for the rest of their live shows that year. On March 25, 2011, the band announced that all five original band members were still together.^[13] Later in the year, the band changed their management from The Hornblow Group, who also manages They Might Be Giants, OK Go, and Oppenheimer, to Stiletto Entertainment, who manages solo performance acts such as Barry Manilow.^[14][15]

Their second album, Good & Evil, was released in 2011 under their original label, Quack! Media.^[16] The album had been recorded in late 2009, but due to repeated delays caused by their deal with Atlantic Records falling apart, it was released two years after it had originally been recorded. To promote the album, the band held a contest where the winner would be awarded a song written about them. The winner was a high school student named Nathan Naimark, whose self-titled theme song would be released soon after.^[17] Around the same time, the band released a cover of the Flo Rida song "Club Can't Handle Me", with Casey Shea on guest vocals.^[18] According to Horowitz, the origin of the cover came from a suggestion the band had made to Atlantic records, where they would record and release covers of other artists signed to the label weekly, with the song presented as an example. The label rejected the idea, leading the band to release the song after they had parted ways with them.^[19]

After the release of Good & Evil and its tour, Tally Hall became inactive with all band members going on to independent endeavors, though some of the projects had multiple members collaborate once again.

Solo work after Good & Evil

Andrew Horowitz, under the moniker "edu", released the solo album sketches (later re-released as sketches 3d) in 2012.^[20] He additionally provided production and piano on John Legend's Love in the Future.^[21] In 2018, Horowitz released etudes, a studio album of piano compositions written in 2003. A sequel titled etudes II was released in April 2019, featuring compositions written in 2005 while he attended the University of Michigan. In May 2020, he started a weekly Instagram livestream series titled Keep Up The Good Work, featuring interchanging guests such as Federman and Sedghi.^[22][23] On April 29th, 2024, Andrew Horowitz was announced to be performing at the Michigan concert series Sonic Lunch.^[24]

Ross Federman has made occasional appearances as a producer, percussionist, and DJ under the pseudonym "Mr. F", although has primarily focused on his education. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology,^[25] later receiving a Ph.D. in Immunology from Yale University in May 2019.^[26]

In 2012, Joe Hawley released a single titled "Variations on a Cloud" on September 11th, 2012, under the name ミラクルミュージカル (Miracle Musical),^[27] later releasing the concept album Hawaii: Part II on December 12, 2012. Tally Hall members Federman and Karaca additionally worked on the album, with Sedghi and Cantor appearing on the album's tracks "White Ball" and "Time Machine", respectively. Hawley has been vague regarding the overarching story behind the album, at one point citing the September 11 attacks as inspiration, however this has been contradicted in other interviews. Several songs from the album, such as "Murders" and "The Mind Electric", have since achieved popularity on TikTok and other social media.^[28] An album featuring demos and samples titled Hawaii: Part II: Part ii and a cover of "Candle on the Water" was released in 2014 under the same name. An album of 6 8-bit renditions titled Hawaii Partii released in 2015 as the soundtrack for the promotional game Labyrinth.^[20]

Rob Cantor released his solo album, Not a Trampoline, on April 14, 2014. In addition, he has made several viral videos on YouTube, including "Shia LaBeouf", "Christian Bale Is At Your Party",^[29] and "29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song".^[30] In recent years, Cantor has written and produced songs for several Disney Junior shows.^[31]

In mid-2016, Hawley announced the comedy hip-hop album Joe Hawley Joe Hawley, which was released in October under his name on Bandcamp. All five Tally Hall members and other artists are individually featured. The album was later taken down due to sampled copyrighted music. To avoid issues with copyright, Hawley released γɘlwɒH ɘoႱ γɘlwɒH ɘoႱ on April 16, 2019, a reversed version of the album, to Bandcamp and Spotify. On November 11, 2020, a truncated version of the original album was uploaded to Apple Music and Spotify, removing the 13th and final track (a cover of rock band Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit"). The latter was due to copyright issues he could not resolve.^[20]

Zubin Sedghi, aside from appearing in side projects, shifted his focus towards his personal life.^[32] In 2012, he graduated from the University of Michigan with an undergraduate honors degree in Neuroscience, later receiving a doctorate in osteopathic medicine at Touro University California in 2016.^[33] He now works as a family medicine doctor for Kaiser Permanente in Orange County, California.^[34] Sedghi is married with two kids.^[22]

In 2015, Tally Hall released the demo LP Admittedly Incomplete Demos on Bandcamp, referencing their earlier collection Complete Demos. It includes demos, unreleased songs, live performances, and studio covers of "The Minstrel Boy" and "Just A Friend". The latter was re-released in August 2019 as a single and included as a bonus track on the 2021 re-issue of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. In April 2022, 2 new demos were added: "Welcome to Tally Hall (Reprise) (Demo)" and "Hymn For a Scarecrow (Demo)".^[20]

In 2021, Needlejuice Records re-issued Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum on vinyl, CD, and cassette, releasing a MiniDisc in June to coincide with International MiniDisc Day.^[27][35] On August 26, 2022, pre-orders for a re-issue of Good & Evil went public alongside a 7" vinyl for "Turn the Lights Off" with the aforementioned track on the A side and "Light & Night" on the B side.^[36]

Since the band's hiatus, members have discussed if the band would return for a third album. While Hawley has promised it on social media and Sedghi has jokingly stated that they would return if they received "thirty or forty million listeners a month" via a message for Spotify Wrapped,^[37] the latter, Horowitz, Federman, and Cantor have stated otherwise on Horowitz' Twitter account, citing Hawley's mental health as a primary reason for the band not returning.^[20][38]

In December of 2023, Andrew Horowitz, accompanied by Bora Karaca on guitar, opened for performances of Jukebox the Ghost, as well as in April 2024, this time with Ross Federman on drums.^[39]

Tally Hall's Internet Show and music videos

On September 15, 2008, the band debuted the ten-part bi-weekly variety-show series Tally Hall's Internet Show (T.H.I.S.). Each episode ran 8–11 minutes long and was posted on their website. The content primarily included comedy sketches and music videos. The first episode was titled after and featured a video for their single "Good Day", which was later released onto YouTube. Other music videos created for the show include "Dream", "Welcome to Tally Hall", "Two Wuv", "The Whole World and You", "Greener", "Ruler of Everything", and "Hidden in the Sand" were featured in the show. Videos for "Taken for a Ride" and "Turn the Lights Off" were additionally released outside of the show, with a music video for "&" being planned but abandoned before its release.^[42]

Current members

• Rob Cantor (Yellow tie) – guitar, vocals, percussion, ukulele (2002–present)
• Joe Hawley (Red tie) – guitar, vocals, percussion, ukulele (2002-present)
• Zubin Sedghi (Blue tie) – bass, vocals (2002–present)
• Andrew Horowitz (Green tie) – keyboards, percussion, vocals (2002–present)
• Ross Federman (Grey tie) – drums, percussion, drum programming, occasional vocals (2004–present)

Past members

• Steve Gallagher (Grey tie) – drums, percussion (2002–2004)

Additional touring members

• Casey Shea (Black tie) – guitar, vocals, percussion (Replacement for Joe Hawley while he was unavailable for a tour, 2010)
• Bora Karaca (Orange tie) – roadie, producer, backing vocals (2005–present)
  • Keyboards, percussion, acoustic guitar, accordion, whistling, backing vocals, announcer (Good & Evil Tour, Summer 2011)

Timeline