My Dad's Bio

Hi, my name is Charlie and I am a songwriter.

I started writing songs when I was twelve because I needed an outlet for my anger. You see, my parents split up when I was ten years old and I was sent to a boarding school. I met this girl there and she broke my heart. So I wrote my first song and sang it to her.

She cried and ran away.

That was so cool.

It was then I knew I would be a singer/songwriter for life.
It's been 30 years since my first song and quite a ride indeed.

I spent many years developing my craft and lived in many different places including Boston, where I studied at The Berklee School Of Music, New York City where I worked on jingles (ad music), Canada where I had my first major tour, Costa Rica where I went to write and recover from the craziness and my favorite country in the world, Denmark, where I wrote and performed for most of my musical career.

By 1999, I returned to California and took a turn down a different road reviving the only silent cinema in the world, The Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles. It was weird being a businessman but I learned a lot and I gave a new generation the chance to see silent movies with live music on the big screen. Have you ever seen Charlie Chaplin on the big screen with live music? It's cool.

Well, I sold the theatre in July 2006 because I was diagnosed with cancer. Whoa! Scary! Not completely. It's just some funky cells in my jaw that threatened my good cells, but I'm recovering from it.

For the last year, I've been writing songs about my son, Shaya. I met my wife in Costa Rica back in 2001 right after 9/11. I was one of the lucky passengers whose plane landed safely that infamous morning. Man, it was strange to be out of the country during that crisis but I met my soulmate, Ri. She is the coolest chick ever. We fell in love quickly.

Problem was, I couldn't get her into the U.S.A. I fought the immigration man for a year and finally won. I got her in on a special visa that gave us 90 days to get married. We did, on the 89th day. Then we got pregnant. Whoa! Kind of fast, huh? It took Shaya 32 hours of labor to break free from the womb. He was kind of upset but happy to see us.

Now it's been over three years and having this mini man has inspired me to make this record. It's very 60's and kind of 70's. If you love The Beatles, Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, and Billy Joel, well, you'll dig the album.

You can buy it at cdbaby.com and if you can complete this sentence, Any unauthorized reproduction will_____________, which is written at the bottom of the physical disc, and e-mail the answer to charlie@hearshaya.com  ~ I will send you an autographed 11 by 17 poster of the album cover. (Please include your address).

Thanks for visiting hearshaya.com.

Maybe I'll see you on tour one day?

Life is short, lets make the best of it now!

Charlie Lustman

p.s. Our daughter, Gita, was born on August 27, 2006. So stay tuned for volume 2 in 2008!

p.p.s Learn more about Charlie's new album, Made Me Nuclear, click here