Todd Brown - Calgary Songwriter

I am a songwriter, singer, and guitarist based out of Calgary, Canada. I write and produce songs for myself and other artists, and may be found playing around Calgary. I write songs mainly in the Folk/Pop genre but the arrangements of my songs run from Pop Ballads, Country and Reggae.I tend to write songs about the “Human Dynamic”. After being in sales all my working career I came up with that description many years ago. I find that almost everything in relationships (be it in the selling process, our love lives or otherwise) comes down to the Human Dynamic. People communicating and getting what they want. So at the end of the day, everything is about our interaction with each other.I usually write the music first. Then after I find a musical hook that I like, I work on the melody without words. Then I put the words into the melody. To me the phonetics are the most important thing in a song. How the music, melody and lyrics fit together in a natural way. That’s my theory on songwriting.I started my musical career in Winnipeg in the early 1980's. I had my 15 minutes of fame when I made it into BILLBOARD MAGAZINE back in March 19, 1983 with the band ONE LIFE (Members over those years: BILL HODGSON (founder and visionary of the band), RON TORPEY (the best pattern driven, reggae style drummer I’ve ever played with), GRANT JONES (or Granite as his pals call him for his rock solidness), RICK MCGHEE (another brilliant creative mind with a voice like a bird), RON MYMRYK (perfect time and the best percussionist in Winnipeg to this day), PETER WALKER (original keyboard player) and ERIC WEBSTER (keyboards). We were chosen as a "PICK OF THE WEEK" with our then new single 45 (that's right kids, vinyl, and tiny little vinyl at that) that we released in New York City that month. I have posted one song here (“GOIN CRAZY”) from that time / single.I have just finished a new batch of high quality songs produced by DARREN DUKE in his Calgary studio. “IN THE BAND”, “YELLOWHEAD HIGHWAY”, “PLAYIN DOWNTOWN” and “WINDOWS OF LIFE” were all recorded in the last year or so. Darren is a genius Producer and digital audio engineer and his attention to detail is scary. He works in the vein of BOB KATZ (STEELY DAN’s producer) and BILL SZYMCYK (EAGLES producer) where he spends a ton of time on the technical part of recording. Darren has a technique to record acoustic guitars with several mics that gave me an outstanding sound on these latest tracks. I think the songs are better because of the production values and would compare them to anything on the radio right now, I have never had such pristine recordings in my life so thanks Darren.“SHEDDING MY SKIN”, “MEET MY FRIENDS” and “HEALER” were all produced by DAMON RONDEAU in Winnipeg back in 2006 - 2007. I had just written these and asked Damon to give me a hand recording them and he did an awesome job producing these demos. Damon and I played together back in 1984 when we were young in my first band SIX MAN SEDAN so he knows my style and can effectively add his jazz influences to the songs. His co-writing (the ‘email meeee’ ending on “SHEDDING MY SKIN” was his idea – I think it makes the song) and his distinctive double bass gives the songs a Folky Jazzy Wooden Rocky sound which I love. These songs represent exactly what I have wanted to sound like since I started writing and recording.“SHEDDING MY SKIN” was picked by Acid Planet's KIMBERLY STREIBLE as the 3 best song of 2006 on "10 BEST SONGS ON ACID PLANET 2006" so that was quite an accomplishment for Damon and I. Here we were with 9 heavy rock songs and our little Folk / Pop song was number 3.So...as a creative artist, I’m always interested in your feedback so feel free to contact me and let me know what you think.
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