was still in high school. After meeting his bandmates through mutual friends and building a loyal West Coast following over the next few years, the group entered a major label bidding war and eventually signed with Geffen/Interscope Records. The partnership led to a series of sales successes—for starters, their 2003 self-titled debut album reached Gold record sales status and their releases thus far classify Rooney in the highly coveted Platinum selling artists catergory. The album’s US singles proved to be radio worthy when songs like “Blueside,” “I’m Shakin,” and “When Did Your Heart Go Missing” crossed over Alternative radio to Top 40 radio, earning the band high chart positions, as well as significant television exposure. Rooney spent a majority of the album cycle for Calling The World touring and promoting the music internationally, earning the band 3 top 10 radio hits, including a #1 song with “When Did Your Heart Go Missing.” The band performed on major festival around the world, such as Coachella, Lollapalooza, Summerfest, Rock em Ring, Rock im Park, and Summersonic to name a few, and multiple TV appearances such as Letterman, Leno, Kimmel, The Today Show, Conan, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Indie Spirit Awards, and The Critic’s Choice Awards. The band’s debut was regarded as one of Rolling Stone’s ‘Band’s To Watch,’ and VH1’s “You Oughta Know” artists, where the music video for “When Did Your Heart Go Missing” reached #1 most played.
Schwartzman took a hiatus from touring in 2015 to focus on filmmaking, specifically
producing and directing feature films. He has maintained a prolific directing career,
recently completing his fifth feature film, THE GOOD HALF (2024), starring Nick Jonas,
Brittany Snow, David Arquette, Alexandra Shipp, Matt Walsh and Elisabeth Shue. The film debuted at Tribeca film festival, which is where his first feature, DREAMLAND (2017), made its debut. Other films he’s directed include THE UNICORN (2019), THE ARGUMENT (2020), and the first ever feature documentary on British Invasion legends THE ZOMBIES, coming to theaters Fall 2024. Schwartzman also composes original music for his films so he’s managed to bring his musicianship and songwriting passion to filmmaking. In 2018, Schwartzman founded the buzzy independent film distribution company Utopia, which has been releasing breakout films out of majors film festivals such as Cannes and Sundance, and championing new voices in cinema.
Even with Schwartzman’s parallel career in the film industry, he’s managed to write, produce, and release crowd pleasers, such as singles “I Can’t Get Enough,” “My Heart Beats 4 U,” “Why,” “Do You Believe” and “Second Chances.” Rooney plans to release new music this summer (2024), songs recorded and featured in The Good Half, which will be a part of the film’s soundtrack. Rooney is also gearing up for a new album release, dropping in 2025 (date tbd). May 2023 marked Rooney’s official 20th Anniversary of the debut self titled album, which originally won fans over with its instantly hooky songs and well crafted arrangements.