Almost June

The 34 year-old grandson of a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman, Brendan Davies grew up in Baltimore, MD. At age seven, he recorded his first composition on cassette -- a mock radio show about second grade and his dad. At age 12, he wrote and recorded, also on dictation cassette, his first song. Brendan never studied music as a child but, through the efforts of parents who were avid appreciators of the arts, was exposed to theater and national tour productions of various Broadway classics as they came to town. Blessed from an early age with a voice that was not quite good enough to secure a singing role in any production, Brendan landed two speaking roles in high school theater, including the only non-singing role in a staging of the musical Gypsy.

In 1990, Brendan entered Duke University as a civil and environmental engineering major. His whole life he had actually wanted to be an archaeologist, but was told that this was an impractical career choice, and if he must dig in the ground, perhaps it might be best to do it in such a way as to make some money. Needless to say, his heart was not in his studies and halfway through his college career, Brendan switched his major to cultural anthropology. He did very well in this new course of study, even winning a major writing award for his controversial 210 page undergraduate honors thesis entitled, Alien Seductions: Mythological and Folkloric Symbolism in Western UFO Abduction Stories.

It was during the latter part of his college career that Brendan truly discovered music. As a freshman, he’d had his tonsils removed. As a sophomore, he had begun to study classical voice. As a junior, Brendan fronted the campus band Red Skye at various keg parties, including one which was filmed for a 60 Minutes segment on underage drinking on college campuses. Fan(s) could be heard feverishly chanting, “Shut up!” and, “Stop that shit – immediately!” Perhaps the crowning achievement of Red Skye’s limited year and a half-long career was their famous live recording, which captured four members of the band playing the song “For Love” in one key while a fifth played the entire song in a different key. It was from this and other such strong examples of early musicianship that Brendan’s compositional abilities were nurtured and shaped. As testament to this fact, not believing himself to be a glutton for punishment, Brendan once again auditioned for a role on the stage and this time was called back for the lead in Duke University’s production of the Broadway musical Big River. Not only did he not get the role; the young man who beat him out was actually his recent ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.

Ah, yes -- life was good for our young star-to-be. Following graduation with a useless but well-intentioned degree from a very prestigious basketball college, Brendan moved back to his hometown of Baltimore, whereupon he promptly got engaged to the wrong girl and immediately moved back down to North Carolina. It was in North Carolina for the second time that music really began to come together for this aspiring so-and-so. Fronting the alternative gothic heavy metal progressive rock band Sades Realm [pronounced to rhyme with Hades, not the smooth-voiced jazz-pop diva of the same spelling], Brendan played a major role in the conception and production of the band’s only album, Not Enough Swings, which sold well at area music stores and at numerous local performances at somewhat impressive venues.

There was even some college radio airplay and a trip to Nashville where, following a performance at the famous Ryman Auditorium, the band was presented with the prestigious TLATHEPOTOSOTGOO Award (given to The Loudest Act to Have Ever Performed on the Original Stage of The Grand Olde Opry). It is quite possible that Sades Realm was also the only heavy metal band stupid enough to have ever tried to enter a country music songwriting battle of the bands -- in which they received failing scores from every one of the country music judges and one single perfect score from the remaining genre-crossover judge, who apparently liked rock and roll. Immediately after performing, the band was whisked offstage and offered a development deal by an irreputable songshark outfit, which they sadly turned down. Shortly after this event, due to internal band differences and several Spinal-Tappian conflicts, the band parted ways, eventually as good friends.

Following the completion of a ground-up restoration of a 1966 Volkswagen Beetle, Brendan sold this car as well as the 1951 GMC pickup he had intended to overhaul and used the money to relocate to scenic Hoboken, NJ, home of Frank Sinatra, baseball and Blimpie’s deli-style sandwiches. After floundering for several years in a haze of purposelessness, Brendan underwent nasal/sinus surgery and suddenly found that he actually had a rather large vocal range. He recorded demos and studio versions of over 100 of his own copywritten songs. He began to collaborate with award-winning area songwriters and studied audio engineering and production privately for two years on the North Jersey Shore. Brendan interned at the former Quad Recording Studios in Times Square and assistant-engineered at HarrariVille Studios in Weehawken, New Jersey. He built his own project recording studio, Almost June (now in its second incarnation), out of which he has freelanced for the past few years.

Brendan also began to network heavily within the music industry. Recent involvements have included NARAS; ASCAP; Songwriters Guild of America, where he was the weekly New York City ProShop engineer for three years; the New York Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society, where he was an Executive Committee member for two years; Songwriters’ Hall of Fame; and The Learning Annex, for which Brendan was the New York City on-location recordist for over two years. He has also attended many conferences and events as a member of the press, and volunteered for such music-related charity organizations as World Hunger Year and The Jazz Foundation.

He is a musician, a singer, a songwriter. He has performed live on Japanese digital satellite television in front of 40 million people. He is currently in pre-production for a video documentary by a young filmmaker, chronicling Brendan’s journey in music. He is also beginning to conceive a one man show based on a collection of his songs and life experiences.

He is a writer, having penned various published and in-press feature articles on famous producers, engineers and music celebrities for the trendy industry magazine, Tape Op. Notable interviews have included studio owners Walter Sear, Jim Czak and Marty Feldman; artist/label owner Mike Patton, formerly of the band Faith No More; producer/artist Richard Barone; and most recently, producer Phil Ramone.

He is an engineer with a developing ear and a keen eye for dumpster diving. Brendan has assembled a very functional project studio consisting mainly of vintage gear and instruments, many of which he has found and restored.

He is a student -- of music theory and composition with industry maven Ann Ruckert (and poised to return to CUNY next fall, aspiring eventually to study orchestration); of voice, having studied with artist/producer Marlon Saunders, among others; of piano; and of martial arts, which doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with music, but sounds cool. And always, he is a student of life.

In order to fund his pursuit of a career in music, Brendan has done landscaping, worked in an ESP research facility, assisted a mortician with carpentry and light embalming, worked at Radio Shack, served coffee, bartended, waited tables, catered, been fired from a toy store for playing with the children, sold upscale culinary supplies, temped at over 30 companies, been fired from an accounting firm for doing vocal exercises in the bathroom, written for major magazines, assistant engineered and engineered countless demos and professional studio recordings, performed as a session singer, done voice-over work, and sold most of his belongings on either Ebay or Craigs List.

He hopes that you enjoy his music.