Soul Folk / Will Hammond Jr.

Singer/songwriter Will Hammond Jr.'s musical career began in elementary school at Cathedral School for Boys and Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys. After Hammond Jr. graduated from Urban High School in 1987, he performed with up-and-coming black alternative /hip-hop bands Bass House Funk and Midnight Voices. In 1990, Hammond Jr.’s major accomplishment occurred while he was a student at San Francisco State University. He is credited as the writer of Tara Kemp's international hit, "Hold You Tight," (Warner Bros.), which went to #3 on the Billboard Pop and R&B charts and became a certified gold record with 800,000 units sold. Hammond Jr. has produced tracks with other Bay Area talents like: The Coup, Midnight Voices and performed with: Ledisi, Martin Luther and B’Nai Rebelfront.
The cd “To Be Continued” is a culmination of different images from his lifetranslated into a musical mix of soul grooves and progressive/electronica layers. “I wanted this album to be a representation of me; a variety of feelings and perspectives and musically diverse but still staying true to my soul background.” From the groovy funk of "When It Rains" to the drum & bass layered "Beautiful" this cd will give you an emotional tapestry of life itself.
Will Hammond’s professional music career started out as a songwriter and he made beats at his home studio in San Francisco while in college but commuted to Los Angeles to work with some producers down there. After finishing some songs, Will found some amazing musicians like Uriah Duffy, B’Nai Rebelfront and Mike Blankenship to tell the story live, so we started playing around town and I started writing more and expanding the concepts. The first cd was full of live music with hip-hop/jazz beats and helped shape the direction of the next project �To Be Continued…�
“I grew up listening to Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson. Big time Prince fan and of course his disciples which include D'Angelo, Bilal and Cody Chesnutt. I would love to work with those producers and writers who made that magic happen. My old drummer used to play me tapes of The Young Disciples with Carleen Anderson, Omar and Mica Paris. I loved the energy they gave to the music and it was free of the boy band sound we get now. It gave me hope to keep writing the songs I want to write and maybe someone would understand my story too.”