Posts Tagged ‘Brandon Schott’

  
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

The Popdose Interview: Brandon Schott

by Jeff Giles

If Brian Wilson and David Mead adopted a baby, he’d grow up to be Brandon Schott, the L.A.-based singer/songwriter whose lush harmonies, heartfelt lyrics, and gentle, sun-baked melodies have earned him a steadily growing fanbase since he made his solo debut with Release in 2003. Now he’s back with a new album, Dandelion, which forms a sort of song cycle around the year Schott spent learning he had cancer, struggling with the disease, and finally learning he was in remission. For fans of his last album, 2007’s Golden State, the new songs won’t disappoint, but they’re also a progression — they feel deeper, rawer, and less meticulously assembled, while still glowing with the melodic beauty of Schott’s best work.

Brandon was kind enough to take some time to talk with Popdose about what went into the making of Dandelion, which arrives in all the finer digital outlets today.

51CZmut-9jL._SCLZZZZZZZ_[1]Okay, let’s start at the beginning: “Seasons Turn,” Dandelion’s opening track. It’s beautiful — more of an invocation than a first song. Can you talk about how it came together?

Thanks! I definitely wanted it to feel like an opening prayer, set that kind of tone for the record. It was written a cappella in the car one afternoon — very shortly after finishing treatment and finding out I was officially in remission. The lyrics and melody all came in that one sitting — just kind of poured through me (I had to pull over a few times to keep up). The track was one of the only ones on the project that wasn’t initiated from scratch for the record during our sessions in the church — a good bit of the song was initially completed at home. When we started tracking the rest of Dandelion in the church the intention was to go in and just record the lead vocal on this one and call it. However, being that we had a pipe organ at our disposal that was aching to be part of the tune, and the harmonium and piano sounded so glorious in this space, the textures kept getting deeper and deeper — and naturally evolved into where it rests now. (more…)

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Friday, February 20th, 2009

The Friday Linkfest: 2/20/09

by Popdose Staff

WFMU’s Beware of the Blog strips out the best parts of the Dreams of My Father audiobook;

Will Harris runs down and wraps up the New York Comic-Con;

Pet Shop Boys debut a new track, “Love Etc.”;

JJ Fad prepared to get Supersonic all over again;

Culture Bully offers an early appraisal of Morrissey’s Years of Refusal;

Green Day announces plans to release a new album in May;

Jeff Vrabel is at a 5-year-old’s birthday party, and it is on fire…and he also knows it’s still a Small World after all;

Something Else! profiles the great Jon Hassell;

Ken at Gaper’s Blog loves the Damnwells, and tells us their new album is available for free download, then focuses volume LXIX of his Unheard Music series on the very MBV-ish band Medicine;

Cahl’s Juke Joint spins the new one from George Kontrafouris, and posts a mixtape of the best songs about coffee;

Nah Right posts J.Period’s Q-Tip remix/best-of project, The [Abstract] Best;

Brandon Schott kicks off his series of Homegrown Recordings with a lovely lullaby, “All Is Full of Love”;

The Wall Street Journal makes the case for Miley Cyrus as a good role model, and praises the work of jazz archivist Anthony Barnett;

Tommy Keene makes a mixtape for Magnet Magazine;

Ickmusic has spotted some Lions in the Street, and wants to alert you to their rockin’ presence;

Slacktivist celebrates Darwin’s birthday by mourning how far we haven’t come;

Some hellbound son of a bitch robs Daptone Records;

Darren Robbins’ favorite rock star announces plans for a tour with Jane’s Addiction;

…and, of course, some poor hysterical woman missed her flight out of Hong Kong International Airport:

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Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

It’s a Golden State

by Brandon Schott

Hello. My name is Brandon Schott, and I’m an LA-based singer-songwriter-producer-father-husband. Jeff asked me to write a little something for Popdose in anticipation of our joint charity event at Safari Sam’s on Sunday September 14, 2008. Here’s a bit of my story…

“Maybe life is curious to see what you would do
With the gift of being left alive”
-Marc Cohn, “Live Out the String”

These days I find myself returning over and over again to the idea of Spirit. Prior to the winter of 2007, whatever elusive experience I had with Spirit was mostly found in music — in albums or songs so beautiful that an intangible divinity seemed to roll along in their rhythm, as if they couldn’t possibly have been written or constructed by human beings (see Radiohead’s “The Tourist”). I recognized it in lyrics that speak so clearly to our shared human journey that they seem to be born from beyond this world, created for us in order to affirm the greater picture (see Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today”) — reminders that stand to say as long as we can all sing along, we are not alone.

On November 28, 2007, I was diagnosed with a rare, but very treatable stage three germ-cell cancer. The following six months proved to me without a doubt that such a clarity of Spirit could indeed be a very tangible and active presence in my life.

I’ve been blessed with an amazing family and a tremendous group of friends, and for that I’ve always been thankful. However, the most unexpected gift appeared when people who were complete strangers prior to my diagnosis suddenly became set into the deep groove of my life — confidently fighting, loving, praying, and comforting me right along with my family and friends. There were the doctors that diagnosed and guided me, the nurses that administered my chemo and supported me through the sometimes exhausting daily routines, and the gracious friends from our church who brought home-cooked meals twice a week. Then there were the friends of family, or friends of friends (or friends of friends of family) that had their churches saying prayers for us in their prayer circles. And while I still haven’t had the honor of meeting many of these people, for their gifts of love and unity and peace I am eternally grateful. (more…)

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Monday, July 21st, 2008

Listening Booth: Brandon Schott, “Golden State”

by Jeff Giles

Brandon Schott – Golden State (2007)
purchase this album (Amazon)

Brandon Schott is a patient man. As those of you who read Jefitoblog might recall, I assembled a “staff” of writers at one point, in an effort to expand the site’s coverage of independent artists. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a very good job of cracking down on those writers if they dragged their asses getting their posts in — something Schott discovered when he sent his second CD, Golden State, in for review. The writer who requested it never submitted his review, and then the site disappeared, and here we are, a year later, and poor Golden State still hasn’t been given the coverage it deserves.

That all ends today, because I’ve been spending the weekend listening to nothing but this album, and I’m ready to tell you that fans of wistful, laid-back California pop need look no further for their next fix. Schott describes the record as “Neil Finn meets Neil Young meets Michael Penn meets Gram Parsons, with a shade of Brian Wilson,” and that pretty much hits the nail right on the head — the entire album is shot through with gossamer guitars, gentle vocals, stacks of harmonies, and the occasional tasteful extra production touch. Those prone to napping should probably avoid listening to Golden State while operating heavy machinery, but anyone with a deep appreciation for ’70s West Coast pop will instantly fall into deep and abiding love for these songs the first time they hear them.

Records this beautifully ethereal tend to work better as a whole than parsed out into single tracks, but start yourself off with the title track (download) and Schott’s slowed-down cover of David Mead’s “Everyone Knows It But You” (download) to get an idea of what Golden State has to offer.

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