Maybe Then (feat. Yani Martinelli & Anthony Allen)

At Last: The Christine Hoffman Interview! (From the Brookmania blog)

Nationally certified music instructor and friend, Christine de Santis Hoffman, conducted an email interview with me circa July 2013. Its about time it appeared on my blog I think. It's one of my most articulate.Thanks to Christine for taking the time to come up with a few questions.

Are the characters you create (such as Daisy Von Zeppelin) truly imaginary or are they exaggerated versions of traits of people you know? Alternatively, where do the imagined characters come from? I'd like to imagine that you opened a box with a slip of paper that said "Inspected by Curly" and went from there . . .

I was handed a slip of paper with the words “Inspected by Curly,” actually. It was a real clothing inspector slip (now taped in one of my song books) and I did take it from there. It’s not a really detailed portrait of a guy. The silly subject doesn’t require it. I just thought of a vague sort of person working on the assembly line checking for defective underwear. However one does that on a busy shop floor.

My own childhood is still a major source for song ideas. Real life people and things that happened end up chronicled, and that’s a good thing for me and the cosmos I think. All these happenings could just vanish otherwise. I could be wrong but I think usually I sing about them in a deadpan way. There’s no sneering or sarcasm. If there’s comedy it’s typically from the vocal delivery, the subject, or the descriptive words, but rarely is it mockery. The real life Tim E. Redmond, for instance, really did steal bikes. That’s a fact. It’s the core of the story and the song. It’s all very matter-of-fact. There’s no hate or resentment. The childhood songs are mostly reporting. Some of the childhood songs are me trying to recollect what happened. Examples of these include “Mike Ives” and “Did It Happen at the 7-11?”

Sometimes I think of a ridiculous character name (like Daisy Von Zeppelin and her predecessor, Charmion Chandler Cheese, both sort of stereotypical 20’s debs) and work from there to flesh out something, using, as you say exaggerated traits of others. In these cases, I am never aware of writing about a particular real life person when it comes to traits or emotions, however. There are songs on Smellicopter that sound as though they might be about the things I’m going through these days in real life. However, these were all written long ago. All “relationship” type lyrics in my songs are just the product of watching many, many movies and tv shows over the decades. It is not completely honest, deeply felt work. What I’ve done many times is to take warmed over emotions and scenarios and, hopefully, recreated them a bit as my own. Often I envision a scene or situation and the words come to describe what I can “see.” But, again, these are not from my own life. I don’t know where they are from.

On Smellicopter, the one honest song that is emotionally real is “I Could Use Some New Friends.” That one is about me. I do find it hard to make friends. As in the song, people have insincerely said they’d like to get together. I’ve done it, too. It’s a hard thing about living. There’s a lot of regret, loneliness and desire for change in the song. And a masterful rip-off of the creepy vocal swell in 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love.”

Like most songwriters there are observational pieces as well. Every person in “Weirdos” is absolutely real. A few I got the merest glimpse of in traffic, the others were neighbors.

To start a song I must have an “instigating phrase” of some kind.

What instrument would you like to learn how to play?

I’d like to fully grasp jazz, r&b and gospel styles of piano playing.

What is your greatest regret as a musician?

Not playing live. On the one hand, there’s only so much time available to us all. Maybe not playing live enabled me to do a better job of writing. Who can say? I have allowed that fear of mine to dictate part of what it means to be a musician.

How do you collaborate with musicians in other countries? Skype? Video files? Email? Phone calls?

I use FB or email and ask first if this talented foreign national would like to collaborate. It’s always someone I already know. If the answer is “yes,” I make several quick mixes of my own demo: one with a click track throughout, one without. I try to mix so that it would be comfortable in the person’s headphones. Usually, I have no particular prescribed thing I want the collaborator to do; that way I get something that I would never have thought of myself, which is the whole point. Typically, I send the several mixes as 24-bit Waves files via a service like WeTransfer, Dropbox or YouSendIt. The only technical issue that arises sometimes is keeping things in sync. By patient dragging of the audio file, though, we prevail. I love to do this because not only are the musical ideas increased, but the sound of another world slips in there: a room in another country, different software, mics and instruments.

What do you think would happen to you if you stopped writing songs? I know the process weighs on you, but it seems like you are driven by a need to create.

If I didn’t write songs lo the mighty rivers would flow backward. I’ve written so many, honestly, that if no more came along I could record the leftovers (many of which are at least as good as those that have been properly released) and have decades of releases left in me. The musical work would become reconstructing and rearranging older material, rather than writing. I’ve long passed the age when I could write 20+ fine songs each year, which I used to do.

These days the “visitation” of a musical idea is rare. I sit at the keyboard and hope that a useable mistake will happen, mistakenly going to an unusual chord, a slightly different progression. If I sing or whistle a melody line over it, then I know I have something to work with. Probably I have at least one line of lyrics to use, an instigating phrase. When all that does happen I play it over and over and then write it in a song notebook AND record it as MIDI if time allows at the moment. That part of the creative process feels good. Something is happening and there is the dizzying hope that in the session you’ll have enough to say “I wrote a song today.” There’s a desperate and exhausting panicky feeling, too, as I hope that the flow—wherever it is coming from—won’t stop until enough is written. And, frankly, there’s a post-writing let down, at least a slight visit from old man depression. I actually don’t think non-creative people miss out on any happiness. Quite to the contrary.

The rest of the words and the final arrangement, of course, can take years to complete. Revisiting the song fragment and trying to extend it is typically frustrating. If you look at a lot of my lyrics on paper, there’s nothing all that special there. I have to go with whatever sounds best being sung. If that includes a few trite rhymes, so be it. That said a lot of effort goes into the words.

The only new piece from this year I would call a proper “song fragment” is called “Snow Day.” It has a verse and chorus, meaning chords, melody and probably two lines of lyrics. A few days later it snowed.

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Scott Brookman: Smellicopter (download album)
July 29, 2013 in Power Pop Review
by Aaron Kupferberg

"Brookman has expanded his sound from the charming debut and funded his efforts with Kickstarter. A more sophisticated arranger and songwriter emerges, as we start with “Tim E. Redmond” with equal doses of Brian Wilson and Paul Simon influencing the structure.

Fans of the bedroom DIY pop symphonies will appreciate “Summer’s Two Weeks Notice” with its layered Beach Boys harmonies, and then “To Find Your Happiness” has a healthy dose of Burt Bacharach worship. Some of these tunes are very lite sketches, like “Inspected by Curly,” but others cross into greatness like “Iceberglar” and the McCartneyesque “I Could Use Some New Friends.” Brookman’s production has also improved, so even a fun character study “Weirdos” makes for enjoyable summer listening. Highly Recommended." ---AK Highly Recommended Score: 8

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Marie-Agnes Halle Piggledy Pop blog 27 July 2013 (review of Smellicopter download album)

"Je voue une réelle admiration pour Scott Brookman que je connais depuis des années et dont je peux dire que l’artiste constant et émouvant dans ses productions, l’est aussi sur le plan humain. Adepte de la pop sixties, surement un des ambassadeurs les plus actifs de la sunshine pop, professionnel et passionné il compose tel un prodige et écrit, arrange avec du style. Les Beach Boys et Burt Bacharach coulent dans ses veines et leur aura resplendit au bout ses doigts. Il nous comble depuis des années avec son inspiration. Généreux et curieux, il fleurit ses compositions de nombreuses collaborations avec d’autres artistes et explore, invente, en variant les instrumentations. La pop de Scott est joyeuse, chaleureuse et élégante à l’image de son auteur.

Lycéen dans les années 80, Scott gagne une expérience scènique avec son premier groupe Poisonous Sewer Fish qui joue essentiellement des reprises et se distingue très vite en écrivant et composant des mélopées dans une veine mélodique hautement pop sixties chez lui, en Virginie. De manière artisanale, dans sa salle de bain ou son garage, sur un quatre piste, avec un kit de batterie, le multi-instrumentiste expérimente les sons de sa guitare acoustique, de sa fender, de son clavier yamaha sur différents micros et en sort une série de cassettes magistrale : Bonaparte, Hot Enough to Fry Your Dog's Brain, frozenrawheadless, In My Own Backyard, Tool for the Man, It's More Than a Hobby et A National Treasure. Dans les années 90, Scott Brookman signe un premier Ep vinyle, The Busy World of Scott Brookman, sur le label Twee Kitten Records qui précède The Man From Operations, quatre titres extraordinaires, sorti en 1998, puis le 13 titres de 1999, For Those Who Like POP.et dix ans plus tard, l’album sophomore A Song for Me, A Song for You.

En 2009, Scott évoquait déjà son interet pour le cyclisme dans le titre A sinister Cyclist et réitère sur son dernier album sorti en juin 2013 avec la première plage de Smellicopter qui rend hommage à Tim E. Redmond, un type qui volait des vélos dans le voisinage quand Scott était enfant. Le superbe album que nous propose Scott Brookman contient son humour dans les textes et toujours cette dextérité pour arranger ses chansons de manière alternative, lumineuse et intelligente. Pour couronner le tout, il s’entoure d’excellence avec la présence du multi-instrumentiste Roland Wolff de Riviera, du français Mathieu Bournazel de Purple Submarine Orchestra qui taquine la basse avec brio, chante et arrange Very Anne, du guitariste Jack Shannon, ses amies Yani qui chante sur Weirdos et Violetta, qui signent le titre Delmarva Way, Nathan Goodwyn et Anthony Allen qui jouent du cor, Jimmy Ghaphery du saxophone sur I Could Use Some New Friends. L’ensemble des titres montrent le talent infini de Scott Brookman.

Après le succulent opening Tim E. Redmond et les claviers, le sonnette de vélo et bruit de roue libre, piano et basse admirables, glockenspiel, ses choeurs lumineux, on retrouve la voix pop, délicate et eurythmique qui ensoleille Summer's Two Weeks Notice, beachboysienne et diablement allègre. Dans une fine logique sonore suit To Find Your Happiness, qui swingue, où le banjo fait danser les cordes du piano, de la guitare, de la basse dans un accord parfait. Puis la touche frenchy sur Very Anne grâce au savoir faire du maestro Mathieu Bournazel à la basse et au chant embrase le tempo, en enchainant sur cette irrépressible envie de danser avec Inspected by Curly et sa guitare electro-acoustique espiègle. Puis la balade Iceberglar apporte de la douceur, des notes suaves en milieu d’écoute pour laisser place au galopant et psychédélique Delmarva Way. L’album jusqu’ici reussi et fort abouti continue avec des titres incroyablement bons, I Could Use Some New Friends avec ses cuivres rutilants, Maybe Then et la voix de Scott savoureuse dans la veine de Scott Walker voltige légère et harmonieuse, voix qui nous cueille sans résistance sur Daisy Von Zeppelin où la basse, le piano, banjo et claviers sont euphoriques. Enfin, Weirdos boucle l’écoute toute en émotion, prestance et subtilité, ce qui définit et représente bien l’artiste. Evidemment Piggledy Pop conseille le sublime Smellicopter à déguster et le génie de Scott Brookman à découvrir ." ---

released 19 June 2013