Behind the perchance misleading name Coconut records hides american actor and musician Jason Schwartzman. With a musical background as the drummer in the excellent Californian band Phantom Planet, wellknown for the title track to TV series O.C., California, he should be well known to pop aficionados all around the world.
In late 2008 Phantom Planet decided to quit the live scene but then Schwartzman was already well into his next musical project, namely Coconut Records.
As an actor he has participated in the movies Spun (by popvideo wiz Jonas Åkerlund), I ♥ Huckabees (with music by Jon Brion) och Marie Antoinette. It seems logical that he has both been inspired by Brion´s playfulness and been able to engage Kirsten Dunst in his new musical project. More trivia – his mother was born Talia Coppola – then you know about his cousins, etc. Besides his acting career he participated as script writer in Wes Andersson´s film The Darjeeling Limited from 2007.
In July 2008 he was a guest DJ at the radio station KCRW and his playlist from that guest gig includes Harry Nilsson´s “Me and My Arrow”, Jonathan Richman´s “That Summer Feeling” och Wreckless Eric´s, “Whole Wide World”, which should give you a fair idea where his musical preferences lie.
Coconut Records first CD, Nighttiming was released in 2006 at his own label Young Baby Records. However, the real gem – so far! – is the diffucult second CD Davy from 2009, which contains heaps of pop candy. The best track is Drummer which relates his story as the drummer in Phantom Planet: ”I was a drummer in a band that you’ve heard of / I was a drummer in a band that just broke up / Isn’t that the way it goes?
The Tor Guides
The Tor Guides - three minutes in Popland 