Peter Salett

Peter Salett is in the middle of a very multi faceted career – having released 7 records on his own labels; film scoring, contributing his own songs to movies as well as writing songs for characters to sing; and also appearing in many films. April 15th at the Rockwood Stage 3 will be a very special evening - just the third performance of Peter's new concept album/song cycle "Suite for the Summer Rain" with a string quartet, co-producer and bass player Jeff Hill, and longtime drummer Bill Dobrow.

The album, which is finished but not yet available, is one 37 minute piece, with ocean and wind sounds and orchestral strings, harp, timpani, and Salett singing and playing acoustic guitar. The meditative piece will be performed in it's entirety.

Salett's first song in a studio film was “Heart of Mine” – the main theme and end title song in Edward Norton’s 2000 directorial debut “Keeping the Faith”, starring Norton, Ben Stiller, and Jenna Elfman. The song was mixed by legendary producer T Bone Burnett and was one of two Salett songs on the Hollywood Records soundtrack that also included Tom Waits and Elliot Smith. Around the same time Peter appeared as Guitar Dude in David Wain’s cult classic film “Wet Hot American Summer” – which was the beginning of his collection of comedic cameo film performances.

After having songs in many movies, and writing songs for movies, the natural progression was for Peter to start scoring films as well – his first notable score was the 2005 David Jacobson film “Down in the Valley”, starring Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood.

Back in the comedic world, Salett’s work had been noted by the Hollywood hit maker Judd Apatow, who hired him to work on music for “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, starring Jason Segel and Russell Brand. He wrote, arranged, and produced three songs for the Universal Pictures comedy, including the much beloved Dracula puppet musical finale “A Taste for Love”. Other film songs include the follow up film “Get Him To The Greek”, as well as David Wain's "Role Models".

As a live performer Salett has supported great artists including The Swell Season, David Gray, They Might Be Giants, Ron Sexsmith, Patty Griffin, and many more. As an actor, Peter has appeared in many films including “Wanderlust”, “Superbad”, “The Ten”, “Wet Hot American Summer”, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Role Models.”

Peter is currently composing music for the modern dance / performance art piece “Ripening”, which recently performed at the Irondale as a part of FlicFest. He is also writing music and lyrics for a comedic rock musical entitled “So You Wanna Be a Porn Star”, with book and lyrics by Shannon Burkett.