Shoob’s personalized songs help celebrate memories
When Alexandra Stirakis was looking for a gift for her mother’s 75th birthday, she knew she wanted something different. A friend recommended Shoob studios, which writes customized songs for special occasions.
“It was wonderful, everybody was floored. They thought it was very enjoyable,” Stirakis says. “My mother listens to it every day. It was definitely unusual and she thought the clarity and everything about the song was wonderful.”
Hicksville native Raymond Luisi is the mastermind behind Shoob studios, which creates one-of-a-kind songs for anniversaries, school reunions, weddings, sweet 16s and other special occasions. A client provides Luisi details of the event or person (like names, dates, physical features) and then pick a genre, such as rock, acoustic, full band or ballad, and the studio then creates a personalized song.
“The best way to describe it is customized,” Luisi says. “Whatever their interests are, any special activities they like to do, anything that makes them more involved so they know it’s written specifically for them. It’s custom-tailored.”
In addition to private clients, Luisi has written jingles for several businesses and non-profits, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the New York Cosmos. He recently also wrote a Muttigrees jingle for The North Shore Animal League to help promote awareness of shelter pets.
Luisi says his whole life has revolved around music. As a student in the Hicksville school district, he played various instruments, including trumpet and piano. After graduating in 1979, he moved to Florida and opened Apple Studios, a rehearsal and recording space. He moved back to Hicksville in 1998, working a lot of studio gigs for commercials and other recordings. After deciding to go solo, he launched Shoob studios a year and a half ago.
“I did it almost as an accident. I was doing jingle work for other people, [but] would write people songs for their birthdays and as gifts,” Luisi said. “I saw that need.”
Jeff Ceraso from Hicksville used Shoob to surprise his wife with a song for their 25th wedding anniversary.
“He was great,” Ceraso says. “The song was awesome. I gave him bits and pieces of information like where we met, hung out, dates, and that’s all I had to do. He came back with a song that was so cool. He put it all together and it was really good.”
Shoob’s main studio is in Garden City, and he has sub-studios in Westbury and Bellmore. Luisi is the main producer, studio musician and song writer, but also works with several other musicians and techs. He says that there is no musical
request that Shoob can’t grant.
“There’s nothing we can’t do,” Luisi says, “even if we haven’t done it before.”
To learn more, please visit www.shoobstudios.com
