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ABOUT US
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Composition
We’ve worked with animators, filmmakers, and choreographers. Our aproach is collborative and experimental to create something unique while being accessible. Taking our formal training and applying it to new sounds and instruments makes our work feel familiar, but fresh. Sound Design
Our clients are animators and creative agencies that want professional sound achieved through creative means. Processed organic sounds and synthesized tones form our foundation, with a fair amount of meditative field recording.Performance
Our practice is based in performance. Often it’s in a studio as we develop the language we’ll use, but it also manifests in galleries, venues, and other spaces, letting us share our inner world. Using objects, acoustic instruments, and electronic processing, our performance practice is gentle and immersive.
The Long of It
Squash & Biscuit is a creative sound studio, founded by Shuwen Zhao and Brian Griffith in 2020. The studio is dedicated to producing unique and experimental scores for performance, film and animation, as well as providing organic and exceptional sound design. Their work ranges from scores for dance pieces, sound/composition for film and animation, as well as live performances.
Shuwen Zhao, originally from China, started her music journey at the age of five when she began learning piano performance. Her passion for music grew over the years and eventually led her to commercial music studios, where she worked from 2015–2018 before starting a gradute program at CalArts in 2019. She graduated with an MFA in Experimental Sound Practices and Composition, which helped her develop her skills in electronic composition, experimental sounds, and film scores.
Brian Griffith, is originally from Florida and moved to Los Angeles via Chicago to focus on his unique brand of ambient, new age, and experimental music. He is known for his use of the bass guitar as the primary instrument and his exploration of samples and loops. His video art practice also incorporates abstract textures and bright colors as a way to induce a meditative state. In 2019, he started an MFA program in CalArts' Experimental Sound Practices and completed the program in 2021.
The two met during their graduate residency and discovered that they had complementary skills and shared goals and ambitions. They started working with artists from other departments, including Animation and Film, providing scores and sound design. After graduation, they continued to work with animators, filmmakers, choreographers, and creative agencies.
Squash & Biscuit is unique in its approach to sound design and composition, utilizing experimental techniques to produce scores that are both innovative and captivating. They have already completed over a dozen projects, with each one showcasing their exceptional creativity and skill.
