Education
He attended Hamilton High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where he would form his first band, the Hippos.
He attended Hamilton High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where he would form his first band, the Hippos.
His production, songwriting, and mixing credits include Brandon Flowers, HAIM, Vampire Weekend, Madonna, Tobias Jesso Junior., Usher, Adele, Cass McCombs, Solange Knowles, Murs, Sky Ferreira, We Are Scientists, Kylie Minogue, Glasser, Alex Clare, and Major Lazer. He also produced the Billboard Hot 100 Number. 1-charting single "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T"s in 2007.
Rechtshaid is the former lead singer and guitarist of the ska/popular-punk band The Hippos and the bassist and producer of indie folk-rock group Foreign Born.
Rechtshaid was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, a first-generation American born to Israeli immigrants. One of Rechtshaid"s high school classmates was rapper Murs with whom he would later record and produce.
The Hippos
Rechtshaid would help form the band in 1995, while he and other members were still in high school. They self-released a cassette demo entitled Attack of the Killer Cheese and began playing shows around southern California, establishing themselves amongst a ska scene including bands such as Reel Big Fish, Number Doubt, Dance Hall Crashers, and The Aquabats.
The band would go on to release 2 full-length albums on Fueled By Ramen and Interscope, as well as a collection of early demos.
Foreign Born
Rechtshaid joined the band as a bassist and producer in Los Angeles in late 2003. They self-released their first 12" single ("We Had Pleasure" b/w "Escape"), followed by their debut European Parliament "In the Remote Woods" via StarTime International Records. While touring the United States and United Kingdom with Saint Vincent, Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend, Rogue Wave, Jason Collett, Cold War Kids, Giant Drag, and We Are Scientists, they recorded their first full-length album, On the Wing Now, in the fall/winter of 2005, and officially released the album with Dim Mak on August 21, 2007.
They released their second album, Person to Person, on Secretly Canadian on June 23, 2009.
Production, writing, and mixing
Rechtshaid"s production, songwriting, and mixing is found on a wide range of albums and genres. He has written with and produced for Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Usher, Blood Orange, Charli XCX, Sky Ferreira, Vampire Weekend, HAIM, Plain White T"s, Cass McCombs, Theophilus London, Glasser, We Are Scientists, Major Lazer, Foreign Born, Valencia, and Murs.