Known primarily as a recording artist, Allan's songwriting career began when a song he'd written for his band SR-71 called "1985" was recorded and released by pop-punk band Bowling for Soup in 2004. The track was a top 5 hit, becoming certified Platinum and holding the record for the most iTunes downloads in a single week at the time. In 2007 Allan was nominated for a Latin Grammy when the Belinda song he co-penned with Kara DioGuardi, "Bella Traición," received a Song of the Year nomination. That same year, another song written with DioGuardi, entitled "Lost," was recorded by Faith Hill and released as the first single from her greatest hits project. The track would find success at AC radio, ultimately spending 21 weeks on the radio charts. In 2015 Allan had his first World Wide #1 Pop hit co-writing Jason Derulo's "Want To Want Me." That same year he cowrote "Heartbeat Song" for Kelly Clarkson, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. When Allan partnered with writer-producer wunderkind Jason Evigan under the moniker "The Suspex", the duo found career-making success. Together they cowrote and produced Demi Lovato’s "Heart Attack," which reached #4 on the Mainstream Top 40 and became certified double platinum. The Suspex are currently working on tracks for artists such as Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Kelly Clarkson, Kat Graham, Victoria Justice, Fifth Harmony, Kylie Minogue, and Sia, and on his own, Allan is collaborating with Boys Like Girls' Martin Johnson, Scott Stapp, Demi Lovato, Kelly Clarkson, Delta Goodrem, Satellite, Melissa Etheridge, Andy Grammer, Simple Plan, and Hollywood Records artists Beatrice Miller, Hilary Duff and Bridgit Mendler.
Early life and career
Mitch Allan was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the younger of two children. He graduated from Randallstown High School in Baltimore, attending the University of Maryland at College Park and graduating with a BA in mass communication and a minor in political science. Allan began playing music in a band called SR-71, originally known as Honor Among Thieves, which generated buzz in the Baltimore rock scene in the mid-1990s and was subsequently signed to RCA Records. The band's debut album, Now You See Inside, earned them a number two modern rock single, a number four music video on MTV, and a gold certification in the U.S. within five months of its release, which would grow to more than 750,000 copies sold worldwide. The single "Right Now," written by Allan, appeared in over a dozen films including Loser, Dude, Where's My Car?, and American Pie. Less than two years later, SR-71's second album, Tomorrow, written and co-produced by Allan, was released, producing another top 15 single and pushing their total worldwide sales to over 1 million.
