ANIKA PARIS

Artist/ Author/ Educator

Anika Paris is a CRIA double platinum singer/songwriter, recipient of ASCAP’s Abe Oleman Scholarship, and ASCAP Plus Award. She received an HOLA Award for outstanding music in a musical, and was nominated for the International Latin Poetry Award for her poetry book Woven Voices with Scapegoat Press. Anika is also a Hal Leonard author with two books Making Your Mark in Music, and most recently a co-authored book The Five Star Music Makeover.

Her songs can be heard in major motion pictures starring Ben Affleck, Gwenyth Paltrow, Mira Sorvino to name a few and on HBO Sex and the City, network television shows like Ellen, Oprah, The Bachelor and many more. A classically trained pianist, she composes for Warner Bros Telepictures, Multistages, and the League of Professional Theatre Women. She recorded three solo CD’s, toured the world sharing the stage with luminaries Stevie Wonder, John Legend, and John Mayer.

Anika is an adjunct professor at Musicians Institute, UCLA’s Creative Arts Studies Extension and guest lectures at the Grammy, USC and more. Currently, she and her writing partner Dean Landon have been commissioned to record a new EP scheduled for release 2017.

EVERETT COAST (DANNY BYRNE and JOSH MISKO)

Everett Coast, the acoustic guitar driven duo of woven voices and fused songwriting, was founded in early 2011 by singer-songwriters Danny Byrne and Josh Misko. They were introduced by their instructor, mentor, and now close friend, Anika Paris (Warner Chappell / Universal), while attending Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA. The two California natives bonded quickly becoming fast friends, bandmates and eventually roommates.

Raised in the small town of Springville, CA, located near the Giant Sequoias in the Southern Sierra Nevada, Misko (vocals, guitars, ukulele) credits his mother for his love of music. At the age of 14, he asked his parents for an acoustic guitar. His mother told him she would only buy him a guitar if he wrote his own music. “I absolutely give my mom 100% credit for why I write the way I do today. She forced me to think outside of the box musically right from the start.” After graduating high school, Misko attended California State University Channel Islands but quickly realized that traditional college wasn’t for him. He packed up and moved to Los Angeles to attend Musician’s Institute in the fall of 2010.

A 4-year-old Byrne (vocals, piano, guitar, bass, drums, production & engineering) always knew that music was the life for him. His parents, however, needed some convincing. “My parents were reluctant to get me started on the piano at such a young age, but even as a 4-year-old, I wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’d jump on the piano bench beside my big sister during her piano practice and turn every note, scale or song into an unwelcome duet. Finally, my parents got me lessons of my own.” In high school, the classically trained pianist from Sacramento picked up the guitar and in college began singing and writing songs. After graduating from California State University, Sacramento with a B.A. in Economics and a minor in Organizational Communications, Byrne decided to move to Los Angeles in the fall of 2009 and follow his true passion for music.

Everett Coast writes and produces all their own original material as well as co-writes across a wide variety of music genres from pop and hip-hop to folk and country. Influenced by such artists as John Mayer, Jason Mraz, The Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons, Everett Coast creates with the intention to not only stay current in today’s music industry, but to also keep the influence of the greats, such as America, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Everly Brothers, and of course, Simon and Garfunkel.

In July of 2013, Everett Coast self-produced, recorded, and released their debut 4-song EP Hey, Hey, California (available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, etc.). From this EP they independently secured Everett Coast Radio on Pandora Internet Radio, and three sync licensing deals featuring their songs “Hey, Hey, California” & “Passing Through” in the independent film Monumental, and “Hey, Hey, California” in a new reality T.V. series Barflies. Additionally, in 2014 Everett Coast wrote & produced the music for Oregon State University’s The Campaign For OSU Thanks Donors Like You commercial.