BIO

Donnie Barren cut his teeth playing lead guitar for various LA-based rock bands, headlining venues like the Troubadour and Whisky a Go Go with bands like RATT and incarnations of Quiet Riot opening for him.  Donnie ventured out on his own and released the single "I Love My Cat's Meow" in 1983, and watched it quickly climb to number one for nine weeks on KROQ's "Rodney on the Roq".  

Donnie recorded several more tracks in 1983-85, planning to create an album to accompany the Cat's Meow single.  While shopping this album package to record companies, he became intrigued with the business side of the music industry and took a break to finish school (earning an MBA from Harvard).  He then dove into the biz world (albeit not the music biz), working at Procter and Gamble and Microsoft.  

After a long stint in the corporate world, Donnie returned to his passion, releasing some of his 1980's tracks, creating an original collection of rock instrumentals on his "Freedom" CD (using his full name -- Donnie Barren Holtzinger), and writing and producing one-stop tunes for sync.  His songs are represented by well-known libraries (Crucial, Black Toast Music, etc.) and are finding placements on TV and film, in sports arenas and video games, and with advertisers (most recently Amazon and Toyota). 

When not playing music, you can find Donnie with a tennis/pickleball racket in hand or surfing/snow skiing in the Pacific Northwest. 

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BIO (long)

Donnie Barren played lead guitar for the Los Angeles rock band "City Lights" in the late 70's and early 80's, writing and singing songs for the group's single ("Action/Back Off Babe") and EP ("Blackout"). Some of the more fun gigs were at the Whiskey a Go-Go, Starwood, Gazzarri's, and the Troubadour, where City Lights headlined or shared the stage with bands like Dokken, Ratt, Snow, X, Oingo Boingo (Danny Elfman's band), Joshua, and Dubrow (formerly Quiet Riot). 

Donnie ventured out on his own in 1982, releasing the single "I Love My Cat's Meow/Falling In Love" in March 1983 (acting as musician, singer/songwriter, producer and promo-man). The tune was well received, being played on over 15 Southern California radio stations during its 1st month and garnering college radio coverage across the USA and in Germany. 

"Cat's Meow" hit # 1 on LA's KXLU, entered KROQ's "Rodney on the Roq's" Top 10 in April (at # 7), and moved to # 1 for all of May and June. At the time, KROQ (FM 106.7 in Pasadena, CA) was the # 1 Album Oriented Rock (AOR) station in LA and was regarded as the new music trend-setter across the US. For perspective, Nena's "99 Balloons" (CBS Records) held the #1 position on "Rodney on the Roq's" Top 10 the following month, July of 1983. This was long before other AOR stations added the German song to their play lists, ultimately making "99 Balloons" a national Top 40 Hit. 

Unfortunately, just as Cat's Meow was climbing the charts, Donnie's distribution partner (Faulty Products, a division of IRS/A&M Records) ran out of money and stopped promoting its stable of artists (groups like the Bangles, Dead Kennedys & DOA). Looking back, it's ironic that Donnie signed up with a label called "Faulty Products", but they were considered one of the best "new music" distributors at the time. If they had put some promotion support behind the single, the song could have had a strong national showing. 

Donnie went back into the studio and recorded several more tracks in 1983-85, planning to create an album to accompany the Cat's Meow single. While he was shopping this package to record companies, he became even more intrigued with the business side of the music industry and opted to take a break to finish school. Donnie ended up earning an MBA from Harvard and then diving into the business world (albeit not the music biz), working for Procter & Gamble and Microsoft. 

As a result, these songs sat on a shelf for more than two decades. Realizing that his kids were old enough to understand a bit about music, he re-released "Cat's Meow" in 2005/06 with the hope that the tracks would spur a musical interest his two children. If nothing else, he figured maybe he'd have two new fans. 

Shortly thereafter, Donnie hooked up with the Seattle-based "Indigo Soul", where he handled the lead guitar work for their "More Punch Than Punch Line" CD. Those sessions led to a renewed interest in recording, and Donnie started writing and laying down tracks for a rock-oriented instrumental CD titled "Freedom" that he released in 2013. 

Donnie finally left the corporate world in 2015 and is back to playing music with various Seattle bands as well as collaborating with songwriters and producers from around the world. His songs are represented by well known libraries (Crucial, Black Toast, InStyle, Unicorn, etc.) and are finding placements on TV and film, in sports arenas and video games, and with advertisers (most recently Amazon and Toyota). 

Some people have asked: "Donnie who?" When Donnie was younger, he thought his last name was too long for a musician, so he opted to use his middle name. Now, many years the wiser, Donnie goes by either Donnie Barren or Don Holtzinger (or Donnie Barren Holtzinger). So, for those people that knew Donnie Barren (or "dB" for short), we'd like to introduce you to Don Holtzinger. 

Drop Donnie a line on Facebook (@donholtzinger) or Instagram (@donniebarren). I know he'd like to hear from you.  

Thanks. 

"dB" Productions 

www.donniebarren.com  

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P.S. For even more on the Life & Music of Donnie Barren, check out Matthew Quinlan's blog below.