Rock Mafia Biography

Rock Mafia is a record production/songwriting team, consisting of Tim James, Antonina Armato and A&R/mixing Paul Palmer who are credited for writing and producing for number of pop and rock artists beginning in the early 2000s namely Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, The Beach Girl5, Sick Puppies and others.

In late 2010, they recently released a song featuring James’s vocals entitled “The Big Bang.” Recently the song “The Big Bang” has become popular as the theme song for the VH1 reality show “Mob Wives”. Members of the mysterious group refers to itself as a family and a lifestyle, blending the boundary between traditional “bands” and production teams.

Rock Mafia has helped launch the music careers of some of the most successful recording artists of the early 2000s, including Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Aly and AJ, Sick Puppies, The Beach Girl5, etc.

Between the three partners of Rock Mafia, they have sold over 100 million albums worldwide, and over 10 million albums alone in 2007.

Rock Mafia’s debut song, “The Big Bang,” saw James provide vocals himself. The music video, featured Miley Cyrus and Kevin Zegers. In addition to “The Big Bang,” the group currently has two additional demos hosted on their official Myspace page: “Fly or Die” and “Pimps and Hos.” ^[1]

A clip showing Miley Cyrus recording vocals over the “Pimps and Hos” track, which has now been renamed to “Morning Sun,” has been posted online.^[2]

A tweet from Rock Mafia in mid-April stating that Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber were singing the Rock Mafia track “The Last Thing” to each other over Skype stirred up quite a buzz, raising speculations and rumors that a duet between the two is in the works.

Tim James performed a solo acoustic set for WIXX101 in February 2011, including a cover of Selena Gomez’s “Naturally,” “The Big Bang,” “The Last Thing,” and “W.T.F.” He further stated in the interview that the performance was a solo performance, and that if the Rock Mafia crew were to come out, they’d “tear the roof down.”

The Big Bang film

Rock Mafia is currently in talks with potential writers and producers to bring the music video for “The Big Bang” to the big screens as a featured film. Armato revealed on her Twitter that she has been meeting with Tish Cyrus (Miley Cyrus’ mother) and Jennifer Todd (producer of Alice in Wonderland and Memento) ^[3]

In addition, James has stated in an online interview with ultimate radio that “without Miley, I don’t know if there is a film,” further hinting Miley’s involvement in the new project.

American Idol Season 10

Rock Mafia was one of the handful of production teams handpicked by Jimmy Iovine to help coach and record with contestants from American Idol Season 10. Rock Mafia worked with Pia Toscano on her cover of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” Stefano Langone on his cover of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now,” Haley Reinhart on her cover of “Blue,” James Durbin on his cover of “Heavy Metal,”and Muse’s “Uprising” Lauren Alaina on her cover of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,”Jacob Lusk on his cover of “Man in the Mirror,” and Thia Megia on her cover of “Colors of the Wind”.