Nashville, Tennessee based musician Michael Curtis Brown has been making waves in the experimental music world for quite some time. His latest release titled “Damjianich” is a collection of eight mind bending pieces that are insightful, hypnotic and warm all at the same time.
I caught up with Michael to talk about his early musical experiences, how he got into the world of experimental recording and the making of the new record. Find out more about Michaels work here.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you as a kid and what artist or band did you enjoy the most?
Michael-I grew up in a music heavy house for the most part; there was always music of all genres on. First true band to grab me was Pink Floyd. I love everything Richard Wright did. Huge influence on me. Brian Eno coming in a pretty close second too. Growing up in Chicago there was so much good music coming out throughout my childhood to draw inspiration from. I feel pretty lucky being able to grow up around that scene. It helped shape all the music I’ve made thus far.
CMM-How did you start crafting your own recordings and developing your sound? What drew you to the more experimental side when it comes to making sounds and recordings?
Michael-It sort of always started from the beginning. I’ve always been into sound scapes and filling voids (too much a lot of the time..). The weirder the better. I grew up recording all my own stuff in the late 90’s/early 2000s on old Tascam 2 or 4 track tape machines and just took it from there. Making tape loops and building textures, as many pedals as I could get my hands on at times. I toured in rock bands back then and it was something I did on the side for me almost to just relax. It was always therapeutic when we were on the road a lot. I’ve been obsessed with film scores for as long as I can remember. Being able to help create so much emotion with music is super inspirational. I use to mute episodes of Lost or whatever I was watching and try to rescore it for fun. Got a lot of weird ideas doing this.
CMM-You recently released a record called “Damjanich”. What was the creating and recording process like and were there any particular pieces of gear you all used to get the sound you were looking for?
Michael-This was a pretty simple recording process. I did the majority of tracking in my small home studio outside of Nashville. Pretty good mix between organic instruments and synths; everything run thru a variety of euroracks I’ve built over the years. A couple pieces of gear that I used a lot on this were the Instruo Lubadh and Arbhar. Nigel Evan Dennis really helped me a ton with the mixing of it, and just bringing everything almost to life at times. I think It feels like you can hear it breathing at times which I like.
CMM-If you could do a score for any film director, who would it be and what would the film be about?
Michael-Oh man.. SO many but right now Danny and Michael Philippou for sure. Bring Her Back was my favorite movie of the year and I’d love to do anything those guys have ideas for. I’d fully trust them with anything (haha).
CMM-Anything coming up?
Michael-A fair amount coming up in the next 12 months. I’ll have a follow up to this personally and the band I release a lot with, Tongueless, will have a lot coming out next year. Maybe another The Skies We Built record as well, we’ll see. I plan on staying as busy as I can though. Hopefully a score or 2 too.
