BrandyBrothers@gmail.com
Manifestito
We here at Brandy Brothers believe in a lot of things. Some of them make sense, and others don't make any sense at all. But sensical or not, we thought we'd take a moment of your time to tell you about a few of them.
First, we believe that art is a universal element of the human experience. More than that, artistic expression and interaction is a fundamental human right. All people are artists. That's right - everyone. Your crazy uncle? Artist. The guy selling potatoes down the street? Artist. You? Artist. Yes. You.
And we want to encourage you to be an artist. However that manifests itself, whether you're singing or painting or arranging fish into cans.
See, we think that art is best experienced actively. We like to get our hands dirty. Art is better in every way when you engage it as fully as possible, in both the creation and consumption of that art.
Our particular focus at Brandy Brothers is on aural forms of art. Music and the spoken word. The poetics of sound. With that in mind, we believe that all people have a right to experience music. And all people should participate fully in the creation and development of music. Participating in music is inherently more engaging and healthy than just listening.
This is particularly important today, for our generation and time. Music and the music industry have been co-opted by people who believe that there is a fundamental difference between performers and audiences. A distinction has been made between performer and audience, virtuoso and aficionado, rock star and groupie. But this distinction is fictional. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you. Music is meant to be shared, engaged, broken apart and rejoined. We can think of no more communal activity than music-making.
We want to break down the relationship between performer and audience. We encourage everyone to participate wholly and unabashedly in the creation of music. You have a right to make music, regardless of talent, training or experience.
To that end we have concocted a variety of community-oriented music projects. Here's a couple of them.
Besotted Carnival Choir
The first Brandy Brothers' Project is the Besotted Carnival Choir, in which we gather our friends and their friends and their friends together and sing songs together. The songs are things we all know, or else things that are easy to learn. We also did an opera song once, which fits into neither category. The songs are also organized by category. The original Besotted Carnival Choir was a collection of Christmas songs. Other holidays have followed.
Shoebox Songs
Our second project is called Shoebox Songs. Shoebox Songs is a songwriting journal where anyone can submit songs. Every two weeks we post a new topic on the site, and participants have two weeks to write and record a song on that topic. All levels of skill and expertise with music or recording are encouraged to participate. We've had songs from recording artists and engineers and also songs from people who've never sung a note in their life. Both are great.
People have frequently told us that they cannot sing. Vanity! Absurdity! Everyone can sing. Moreover, everyone should sing. Loudly. With friends.
We'll be right beside you.
Thanks,
The Brandy Brothers