Ian Brennan | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Born | Oakland, California, U.S. | June 15, 1966
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1987–present |
Labels | Toy Gun Murder, Glitterbeat, Six Degrees Records, Independent Records Ltd (IRL), Anti-, Sub Pop |
Spouse | Marilena Umuhoza Delli |
Website | ianbrennan |
Ian Brennan ( /aɪˈən/ ; born June 15, 1966) [1] is an American music producer. [2]
Of the albums he has produced, Tinariwen's Tassili (2011) won a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album [3] and Zomba Prison Project (2015) was nominated; [4] and Ramblin' Jack Elliott's I Stand Alone (2006) [5] and Peter Case's Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John (2007) [6] were nominated for Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. [7]
Brennan has authored seven books, two on anger, Anger Antidotes (2011) and Hate-less (2014); a novella, Sister Maple Syrup Eyes (2015); and four on music, How Music Dies [or Lives] (2016), Silenced by Sound (2019), Muse-Sick (2021), and Missing Music: voices from where the dirt roads end (2024). Brennan travels in search of countries and languages whose music is under-represented internationally, making field recordings of musicians and producing albums of their work. He started out making nine albums of his own music, and hosting benefits, making live recordings and releasing compilation albums of local bands in San Francisco. [8]
Brennan was born in Oakland, California [9] to James Brennan, a railroad engineer, and Marilyn Brennan, a nurse from a tiny town in eastern Kansas. He grew up on the Pleasant Hill border in the same suburban home his entire life. He and his older brother and sister have a mere two-and-one-half-year span between the three of them. This is due in part to his sister, who is the middle child, being born more than two months premature with Down syndrome. [10]
At age five, he began playing drums and switched to guitar at age 6, which he taught himself to play. [11]
At age 20, he self-released his first solo album and went on to produce eight more. [12] He reflects now that he was his "own worst enemy" and made some of the "most horrible albums possible" due to his obsessive-compulsive, autocratic approach. [13]
Beginning in 1996, for five years he hosted a free, mostly acoustic music show in a San Francisco laundromat. [14] [15] [16] He would perform solo and feature a different local band each week. He documented the shows as field recordings and these resulted in three Unscrubbed compilation albums in 1997–1999. [17]
Brennan also regularly organized benefit shows for social and/or political causes during this period with artists such as Merle Haggard [18] and Kris Kristofferson. [19] Most notably he presented Fugazi, Vic Chesnutt, and Sleater-Kinney for free in Mission Dolores Park to honor the 20th anniversary of Food Not Bombs in 2000, [20] [21] as well as staging Green Day and The Blind Boys of Alabama for free in front of the steps of San Francisco's City Hall on the Sunday before George W. Bush's election as President, also in 2000. [22]
He received two Grammy Award nominations for producing albums in the traditional folk category (Ramblin' Jack Elliott's I Stand Alone in 2006, [5] and Peter Case's Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John in 2007 [6] ). The Ramblin' Jack record features Lucinda Williams [23] and members of Wilco, [24] X, Los Lobos, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. [25]
In 2009, he and his wife, the Italian-Rwandan filmmaker, [26] photographer, [27] and author, [28] Marilena Umuhoza Delli, began traveling the world in search of countries and languages that were underrepresented internationally. Amongst others, this has resulted in releases from Rwanda, [29] Malawi, [30] South Sudan, [31] Cambodia, [32] Djibouti, [33] Tanzania, [34] Romania, [35] Comoros, [36] Pakistan, [37] [38] Vietnam, [39] from within Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya [40] and most notably from inside Zomba Central Prison in Malawi. [41] [42]
In 2011, he won a Grammy Award [3] [43] for the Tuareg band, Tinariwen's Tassili album, which was recorded live in the southeast Algerian desert just months before the Arab Spring erupted and war swept through the area. The album also includes members of TV on the Radio, [44] the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and guitarist Nels Cline. [45]
In 2015, he gained a nomination for Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for Zomba Prison Project, [4] [46] [47] [48] the story of which was covered around the world [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] including on the front-page of The New York Times [54] and by the television program 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper reporting. [55] The segment won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Feature Story and was nominated for two other Emmys. [56]
Brennan has also produced many of filmmaker, John Waters' live comedy shows since 2001 [57] at venues such as The Fillmore in San Francisco [58] and the Royal Festival Hall in London, [59] as well as at festivals including Coachella, [60] Bumbershoot, [61] and Bonnaroo. [62] Brennan has created pairings for Waters such as with Jonathan Richman, [63] evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, [64] Peaches, [65] and Wanda Jackson. [66]
Brennan has spoken about music at the Smithsonian Museum, [67] [68] the Grammy Museum, [69] the University of London, [70] The New School (New York), [71] the Berklee College of Music, [72] Ca' Foscari University of Venice, [73] the WOMEX conference, [74] the Le Guess Who? festival in The Netherlands, [75] Peter Gabriel's WOMAD Festival (UK), [76] the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity, [77] the Audio Engineering Society (AES), [78] and WOMADelaide in Australia. [79]
Brennan is known for his fly on the wall style of production and is often compared to Alan Lomax. [80] [81] [82] [83] He states that relationships and emotion are what interests him, not technology. [84] [85] He often prefers to work with those who have no previous musical experience and hearing from historically persecuted populations. [86] He advocates for embracing imperfection as a partner [87] and prefers to record outdoors [88] [89] and 100% live, without any overdubs. [90] [91]
At age 20, in need of a way to support himself, he began working in locked psychiatric hospitals as a counselor. [92] He continued to do so for another fifteen years in psychiatric emergency rooms in Oakland and Richmond, California. [93]
In 1993 he was asked to develop a curriculum and teach his co-workers in verbal de-escalation at East Bay Hospital in Richmond. This request was based on his having regularly demonstrated skill at de-fusing emotionally charged and violent situations. [94] Through word of mouth, he began teaching full-time at hospitals, clinics, jails and schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and greater California. This teaching eventually led him around the country and then the world, having now taught in Africa, [95] Southeast Asia, Europe, [96] Australia, [97] and the Middle East, at such places as University of California, Berkeley, [98] the Betty Ford Center, [99] and the National Accademia of Science (Rome). [100]
Brennan has worked to establish a memorial for those who have died from homelessness in San Francisco. The installations were unanimously approved by the Board Of Supervisors, but later stalled due to opposition from the Mayors Office and the Chamber of Commerce. [101] In the fall of 2019, Brennan produced a "sonic memorial" album featuring voices and songs from the homeless community of West Oakland. [102]
Brennan wrote a piece in May 2019 for the Chicago Tribune criticizing the racist and misogynistic lyrics of The Rolling Stones', "Brown Sugar", and calling for the band to cease playing it live. In October 2021, the band announced that they were retiring the song from their performance repertoire. [103] Brennan's piece was widely cited as a reference in this decision. [104] [105]
At age 19, Brennan's poetry was published for the first time in an anthology (Fineline Thunder) [106] curated by his adult-school creative writing workshop instructor, Betty Solomon. He was published again that same year in the Berkeley poetry journal, Agape.[ citation needed ]
He has written about music for The Guardian , [107] NPR, [108] Guitar Player, [109] Sound on Sound, [110] Chicago Tribune, [111] CounterPunch. [112] BOMB, [113] Pollstar, [114] Modern Drummer, [115] American Songwriter, [116] Talkhouse, [117] Huck, [118] Songlines, [119] The Quietus , [120] No Depression (magazine), [121] The Vinyl District, [122] Afropop Worldwide, [123] Quincy Jones' Qwest TV , [124] Fretboard Journal,SonicScoop, [125] Perceptive Travel, [126] Flood Magazine, [127] Zero, [128] and Tape Op. [129]
In 2011, he published a book on anger, Anger Antidotes. [130] A follow-up, Hate-less, was issued in 2014. [131]
In 2015, his semi-autobiographical novella, Sister Maple Syrup Eyes, was published, after working on drafts of it for over 25 years. [132] It deals with the aftermath of the sexual assault of a partner, a trauma he experienced at age 21. [133] Readers+Writers journal praised it, "A beautiful book. Achingly beautiful." [134] And Louder Than War states it is, "….alive with the energy of an eye-witness." [135] Small Press Picks noted, "In vividly re-creating Kristian's personal journey, Brennan offers a layered and moving exploration of the truth…" [136]
His fourth book was How Music Dies (or Lives): Field-recording and the Battle For Democracy in the Arts. [137] [138] In it he explores concerns related to the continuing domination of English language media across the planet, [139] [140] and details how recording technology can lead to more lifeless results as well as centralization of content. [141] LargeHearted Boy calls it "…one of the most thought-provoking books on modern music that I have ever read." [142]
His fifth book, Silenced by Sound: the Music Meritocracy Myth, was published in the fall of 2019. [143]
In 2020, Brennan co-authored Negretta: Baci Razzisti with his wife, Marilena Umuhoza Delli. [144] The book is based on Delli's life growing-up in Italy's most conservative region with an immigrant mother from Rwanda.
Brennan has hosted book events with the disability rights activist Judith E. Heumann [145] (featured in the Academy Award nominated documentary Crip Camp ); tech visionary Jaron Lanier; [146] David Harrington (Kronos Quartet); [147] feminist scholar Silvia Federici; [148] Ted Hughes Award winning, deaf poet, Raymond Antrobus; [149] crime novelist Gary Phillips (writer); [150] and music producer Joe Boyd (Nick Drake, Billy Bragg, Toots and the Maytals). [151]
Muse-Sick: a music manifesto in fifty-nine notes, was published by PM Press in October 2021. [152]
In 2023, Brennan co-authored another Italian language book, Pizza Mussolini, with Marilena Umuhoza Delli.
His newest book, Missing Music: stories from where the dirt roads end, was published in March 2024 with PM Press. [153]
Acoustic performances at Brainwash Laundromat in San Francisco recorded live by Brennan.
Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, popularly abbreviated as NFAK was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director. He was primarily a singer of qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music. Often called the "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", he is considered by The New York Times to be the greatest Qawwali singer of all time. He was described as the fourth greatest singer of all time by LA Weekly in 2016. He was known for his vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Khan is widely credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences. He was also a master of Hindustani classical music.
Ustad Zakir Hussain is an Indian tabla player, composer, percussionist, music producer and film actor. He is the eldest son of tabla player Alla Rakha. He is widely considered as one of the greatest tabla players of all time.
The music of Malawi has historically been influenced by its triple cultural heritage of British, African, and American music. Malawians, known for their history as travellers and migrant workers, have contributed to the spread of their music across the African continent, blending it with various musical forms. A significant factor in this musical amalgamation was World War II, during which soldiers transported music to distant lands and brought it back, leading to the popularity of guitar and banjo duos as dance bands by the war's end. Both instruments were imported. Additionally, Malawians working in mines in South Africa and Mozambique influenced the fusion of music styles, giving rise to genres such as Kwela.
Zomba is a city in southern Malawi, in the Shire Highlands. It is the former capital city of Malawi.
John Samuel Waters Jr. is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974). Waters wrote and directed the comedy film Hairspray (1988), which was later adapted into a hit Broadway musical and a 2007 musical film. Other films he has written and directed include Desperate Living (1977), Polyester (1981), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), Pecker (1998), and Cecil B. Demented (2000). His films contain elements of post-modern comedy and surrealism.
Babasónicos is an Argentine rock band, formed in the early 1990s along with others such as Peligrosos Gorriones and Los Brujos. After emerging in the wave of Argentine New Rock bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Babasonicos became one of the banner groups of the "sonic" underground rock movement in Argentina in the late 1990s.
Derek Trucks is an American guitarist, songwriter, and founder of The Derek Trucks Band. He became an official member of The Allman Brothers Band in 1999. In 2010, he formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band with his wife, blues singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi. His musical style encompasses several genres and he has twice appeared on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He is the nephew of the late Butch Trucks, drummer for the Allman Brothers.
Shiny Toy Guns is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 2002. The band is composed of guitarist/vocalist Chad Petree, vocalist/bassist/keboardist Carah Faye Charnow, keyboardist/bassist Jeremy Dawson, and drummer Mikey Martin.
Carah Faye Charnow is an American singer and songwriter. She is the co-lead vocalist, bassist, and occasional keyboardist of the band Shiny Toy Guns, with whom she received a Grammy nomination. She also fronted the band Versant and has released multiple songs under her own name as a solo artist.
Monsieur Doumani is a three-piece Cypriot band formed in Nicosia in 2011, winner of the "Best Group" award in the Songlines Music Awards 2019. Monsieur Doumani have performed in major festivals and venues in Europe, including WOMEX, WOMAD Charlton Park, Konzerthaus Vienna, Rudolstadt-Festival, Havana World Music Festival etc.
Greatest Hits: Decade #1 is the first greatest hits double album by American country music singer Carrie Underwood, released on December 9, 2014, by Arista Nashville. The release contains every single from Underwood's first four studio albums: Some Hearts (2005), Carnival Ride (2007), Play On (2009), and Blown Away (2012), except "Some Hearts" from its album of the same name. Two newly recorded songs were included: "Something in the Water" and "Little Toy Guns". The album also contains four additional tracks.
Durk Devontay Banks, known professionally as Lil Durk, is an American rapper. Regarded as a preeminent artist in the Chicago-based hip hop subgenre drill music, Banks has been cited as one of its pioneers. He initially garnered local success with the release of his Signed to the Streets mixtape series (2013–2014), which led to him to sign with Def Jam Recordings. The label released his debut studio album, Remember My Name (2015), and its follow-up, Lil Durk 2X (2016), to moderate commercial reception before parting ways with the rapper in 2018.
Michael Santiago Render, better known by his stage name Killer Mike, is an American rapper and activist. He made his recording debut on Outkast's fourth album Stankonia (2000), and guest appeared on the duo's Grammy Award-winning single "The Whole World" from their greatest hits album Big Boi and Dre Present... Outkast (2001). He signed with Big Boi's Purple Ribbon Records and Columbia Records to release his debut studio album Monster (2003), which was met with critical acclaim and peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200. He parted ways with the label and released two albums—I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind (2006) and I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II (2008)—before signing with T.I.'s Grand Hustle to release his fourth album, Pledge (2011), and later Williams Street to release his fifth album, R.A.P. Music (2012). His sixth album, Michael (2023), was met with continued acclaim and won three awards at 66th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album.
Damir Imamović born in 1978, stands as a luminary figure in the realm of Bosnian music, wielding expertise as a musician, singer, composer, and preeminent authority on the traditional melodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina, specifically the evocative "sevdalinka" or "sevdah". Notably, he clinched the coveted title of "The Best Artist of Europe" at the esteemed 2021 Songlines World Music Awards, solidifying his position as a noteworthy force in the musical landscape.
Zomba Prison Project is a recording featuring music composed and performed by prisoners at the maximum-security Zomba Central Prison in Zomba, Malawi. The album I Have No Everything Here was produced by Ian Brennan, and nominated in the 2016 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album.
Naseeruddin Saami is a classical singer from Pakistan. He is called ustad for his mastery of classical music. He is best known for his Khyal style of singing. He began learning singing in 1950s from another renowned classical vocalist, Qawwal and musician of his time Munshi Raziuddin. He belongs to Delhi Gharana of music style. He sings in the style of ‘Khayal Vocalist’. He is recipient of Tamgha-e-Imtiaz Pride of Performance for service to music.
Capital punishment in Malawi is a legal punishment for certain crimes. The country abolished the death penalty following a Malawian Supreme Court ruling in 2021, but it was soon reinstated. However, the country is currently under a death penalty moratorium, which has been in place since the latest execution in 1992.
Marilena Umuhoza Delli is a Rwandan-Italian photographer, filmmaker, radio presenter, and author. She is the author of four Italian-language books about racism and growing-up with an immigrant mother in one of Italy's most politically conservative region. Her work is exhibited at the MUDEC Museum in Milan. Her photographs have been published around the world by the BBC, CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Vice, Libération, Corriere della Sera, Le Monde, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, and the New York Times, among others. In 2020, she was named one of the "Top 50 Women of the Year" by La Repubblica.
Zomba Central Prison is a referral national prison in Malawi. It is the biggest prison in Malawi. In January 2024, the prison was moved to Lilongwe.
The Malawi Prison Band, also known as the Malawi Police Band, is a music group composed of prisoners and officers from the Malawi Prison Service. In 2016 the group was nominated for the Grammy Award.