Tony Batey is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and producer based in Boston. Growing up equally enamored with the rock and soul music of the ’60s and ’70s and the thrills and challenges of being an aspiring jazz saxophonist, she soon found herself writing music of her own to, at once, reconcile and fuse these disparate interests.
Throughout high school, she was the bassist, singer, and principal songwriter for jazz-punk band Perfect Girl. Their one and only album, Spice Pictures, centers itself around a paradigm of rhythmic ferocity and melodic sweetness that would become a through-line of her output going forward. Tony attended Berklee College of Music, studying saxophone improvisation and receiving a bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Writing and Production in 2022.
A recent signee to Dollhouse Lightning Records, she currently plays saxophone and guitar in progressive dance-punk outfit Cheap City and has written, self-recorded, and self-produced a solo album, This is Yesteryear, that uses the rock and soul music of her upbringing as a foundational vehicle for exploring thoroughly modern emotional and sonic modes. In addition, she has provided the soundtrack for Dean Lent’s upcoming film, Feeling Randy.
From being a freelance saxophone instructor to a lead teaching artist for the Cantata Singers’ 2023 youth songwriting program, she has always found immense joy and gratification in working with budding musicians and finding the aspects of music, art, and the world at large that spark excitement within them.