Career
He is a musician, songwriter, producer, video director, photographer, and web designer. He served as director of San Francisco State University"s Extended Learning Multimedia Studies and Music/Recording Industry programs, as well as running the school"s Digital Video Intensive. Abaya is a native of San Francisco"s Bernal Heights neighborhood.
Abaya became involved with music during childhood, taking up the piano at age six, the drums at age eleven, and the guitar at age twelve.
He became involved in film and photography at the age of nine. At seventeen, Abaya enrolled at San Francisco State University.
Initially a psychology major, he ultimately proposed a special major in multimedia, combining studies in film, video, computers and electronics. Abaya earned his first teaching experience at SFSU"s Graduate Film school while he was still an undergraduate, but eventually took a full-time position teaching in Silicon Valley.
Eventually, he moved to SFSU College of Extended Learning where he directed the Multimedia Studies Program, Music/Recording Industry Program, Digital Video Intensive, and Web Design Intensive.
During his teens, Abaya formed his first professional band, the grunge/metal trio "Apparition." After disbanding "Apparition," Abaya acquired his own recording equipment and founded the 4-piece group "The Basics" and later, "Abaya," in an attempt to merge his two divergent musical endeavors. In 2009, Abaya released his first solo album, The Fine Art of Politics. Abaya also directed and edited his first music video of the song "Silly Sentimental Fool" for release in 2010.
In 2014, he composed and played guitars and bass on the DJ Qbert album "Extraterrestria." In 2015 Craig began work on his 2nd solo album along with a duet album with JoAnne Lorenzana.
