One of My Most Interesting Friends—Ray Colcord

My friend Ray Colcord is definitely one of the most interesting people I have ever met, or heard about. He is another example of our local talent making their mark on the rest of the world.

I have known him for many years  and while I am impressed with his talent and brains it is his philosophy toward life that we can all learn from.

Ray is always active, moving forward, creating, doing and going. He is very positive and has a funny, dry, sometimes sarcastic since of humor. It is this attitude that allows him, and his friends, to deal with the negatives that life sometimes offer.

We cannot control all the things around us, or the places we end up. But it seems obvious that successful people are always doing, learning, trying and growing. People who do not do anything seem to go nowhere. Ray is an example of people who do stuff.

He is well know as a television and film composer, having written the music for more than 700 television episodes and 15 feature films, but it's his energy, humor, wit and diversity that is most impressive. 

Ray and his wife Maddy (short for Madeline) along with son Alex, are long time Studio City residents and activists. He has been producing, writing, mixing and performing award wining music from his recording studio, Superscore Studios, for many years.

This world class studio is just one of the many such studios located all over Studio City, North Hollywood, Toluca Lake and Valley Village in spaces that used to be bedrooms or garages.

Ray is very active in the community and especially as an advocate of the arts and artists.

He loves living in the Studio City area, saying: "This is a great place to live. It is the best of both worlds. We have all the advantages of a big city and the quiet grassy back yard feel of the suburbs."

Ray has been a member and governor of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, past president of the Society of Composers & Lyricists and founder and president of the Composers and Lyricists Legal Aid Society.

Ray was the A & R man at Columbia Records who convinced Clive Davis to sign the band Aerosmith. He then went on to produced the band's second album.

Ray toured, as a keyboard player with Lou Reed and played on the Don Maclean album, American Pie.

Ray was a guest speaker for me when I hosted the First Friday Club of the Studio City Chamber. He spoke about the relationship between quantum physics and the blues.

Ray is a race car, motorcycle and go-cart driver. He also likes to restore, admirer and collect them.

Some of the shows that Ray did the music for are Family Affair, Boy Meets World, Big Brother, Facts of Life, My Two Dads, Silver Spoons, The Simpsons...

Rays great-grandfather, Charles Francis Colcord, was a pioneer of the old West and "an old-fashioned American hero."

Ray has taught a class in music production for UCLA Extension.

Ray's bio is fun to read. It is a study in diversity, but it doesn't mention that he just ran the Los Angeles Marathon a few weeks ago and finished in his "personal best" time.

This was his sixth marathon. He hopes to qualify for the Boston Marathon. It has not happened yet, but I think it will.

Ray is not to concerned with beating everyone else in the marathon. He is running his life and any other race in which he competes with the same philosophy:

Be the best you can, and while your at it, try to have some fun.

Check out www.raycolcord.com for a fun read and a study in diversity.