Tannen was born in New York City, but grew up in Australia and Canada in addition to New York. He started performing at an early age and learned music at home. He is the grandson of magician
Louis Tannen and the brother of songwriter
Greg Tannen and screenwriter
Robert Tannen. Steve graduated from
Mamaroneck High School. He received a degree in English from
Stanford University. Tannen worked as a production assistant in Hollywood, becoming a script reader and assistant to film director
Norman Jewison. He interned at radio station
KCRW, and then moved to Colorado to work for the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). He left NCAR after a year and worked odd jobs around the US, developing a personal mix of
folk and rock. He returned to New York and, with the help from former
Suzanne Vega guitarist Jon Gordon, started a rock and roll project. This turned into his debut album
"Big Señorita" which was chosen as one of Performing Songwriter Magazine's Top 12 Independent Releases of 2001. In 2001, while touring behind
Big Senorita, Tannen met his future wife and musical partner
Deb Talan at a show at
Club Passim in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. His second solo CD
"Stopped at a Green Light" was released in September 2003; this was quickly followed by the first Weepies album
Happiness in December of that same year. In addition to The Weepies' albums, Talan and Tannen collaborated with singer/actress
Mandy Moore on her 2007 album
Wild Hope. Together, they wrote and recorded five songs with Mandy – the single "
Extraordinary," the title track "Wild Hope," "All Good Things," "Few Days Down" and "Looking Forward to Looking Back." Steve is also a member of The Tannen Brothers, in which he plays with his brother
Greg Tannen. == Discography ==