Varanger Music profile picture

Varanger Music

About Me

"Varanger Music" manages the songwriting and publishing aspects of songwriter / musician SCOTT BRODIE .

SCOTT was born in Dundee, Scotland and grew up through the glam rock era, leaned towards punk, veered back into metal and ended up playing and listening to anything. He was taught piano from the age of 6 up until he was 14. He sat exams from the Royal School of Music every year and eventually attained grade 8 in Music Theory. From age 8 - 12 Scott also played the cornet/trumpet to School and to County Orchestra level.
"My instructor wouldn't believe my Mum when she told him I never practised. I couldn't - the dog went nuts every time I took the damned thing out of the case!" At secondary school Scott got 100% for every exam he sat then he promptly dropped it after two years to study art instead.
"I'd had enough of other people 'teaching' me music by that point so I 'rebelled'." A few months with no music input soon took its toll so he 'borrowed' an old acoustic guitar and a Bert Weedon's "Play In A Day" book from his Dad and taught himself how to play Tommy Steele and Elvis songs. Having mastered the basic chords Scott was able to listen to songs on the radio and play along.
"Being able to 'play by ear', as I've since discovered, is one of the very few natural 'talents' I have. I guess I'm lucky that I can pick up most instruments and learn the basics fairly quickly just by watching and listening to someone who can already play it."

Scott is currently writing and working in collaboration with ASTRELLA CELESTE prior to the recording of her debut release.

The project allows SCOTT to join a group of highly successful musicians, songwriters and producers who include KEVIN HUNTER (Sheryl Crow, Janet Jackson, Shania Twain), YOAD NEVO (Sugababes, Daniel Beddingfield, Goldfrapp, Duran Duran, Brian Adams, Bob Dylan), RAT SCABIES (The Damned, Jimmy Page, Joe Strummer, Donovan), FAYYAZ VIRJI (Tina Turner, Annie Lennox, Chaka Khan, Joe Cocker, Ray Charles, Paul Young, George Michael, Lauryn Hill), ANDY HOBSON (The Pretenders), JOE ATKINSON (Donovan, Flipron), JOHN CAMERON (string arrangements for 'Les Miserables' and Jose Carreras) as well as ASTRELLA herself. A number of demo songs have been submitted and Astrella is in the process of adding vocals at CALMA ESTUDIS and AVP recording studios in Mallorca, Spain.

The demos were all produced in the U.K. using "RiffWorks", a revolutionary piece of recording software created by California-based SONOMA WIRE WORKS . Scott has been working with Sonoma since 2005 and throughout the product development and beta testing phases of "RiffWorks". To date, Scott has been working with other musicians from Europe, North America and New Zealand and he has written and performed with THE RIFFLINK JUNKIES . The group have had some success in gaining airplay on Canadian radio. The 'Junkies' got together for the "No Sleep 'til Winter Haven" tour in Florida in July '08 and will be working together in Munich, Germany in April '09.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 28/04/2007
Band Website: www.varangermusic.com
Band Members: Scott Brodie
SCOTT utilises the products and expertise of:

GUITARS
Kramer
Fender
Gibson
Yamaha
Schecter
Charvel
KEYBOARDS
Roland
AMPLIFICATION
Marshall
MICROPHONES
SE Electronics
Shure
HEADPHONES
BeyerDynamics
MONITORING
Mackie
Tapco
HARDWARE
TASCAM
Line 6
SOFTWARE
Sonoma Wire Works
Line 6

All tracks were recorded at "The Giraffe House" except "Head Trip", "Dadadoodada" & "What Do You Do ...?".
All tracks engineered, recorded and mixed by Scott.
All guitars, keyboards, vocals and drum programming by Scott except:
"Head Trip" was recorded in Sweden, UK and United States.
Jason - guitars / keyboards
Scott - bass
Marti - keyboards
Lenny - vocals / guitars
Rick - guitar
"What Do You Do ...?" was recorded in the UK, Sweden and New Zealand.
Scott - guitars / bass / drums
Lenny - vocals
Dave - guitar
"Dadadoodada" was recorded in the UK and United States.
Scott - keyboards / bass / voices / drums
Ron - guitars
Bill - guitars
Rick - guitars
George - guitars / bvox
Influences: Scott's biggest musical influences were the guitarists and vocalists of some of the biggest 'classic rock' acts:

Paul Stanley ; no-one, but no-one, struts his stuff and works an audience like Paul.
Ace Frehley ; a good guitar solo is just as much about melody as the song - one you can sing. You can hum along to all of Space Ace's lead work. None of this 'shredding' nonsense.
Jon Bon Jovi ; as a younger man, JBJ worked his butt off to get audiences on-side. Nowadays, he's lost that passion and tends to go through the motions a bit. However, in his day, he certainly stirred things up.
Steve Clarke ; crazy, crazy man with an unparalleled ability to devise the most individual riffs and hooks ever.
Davey Johnstone ; nothing flash, nothing extrovert (well, how could you be behind Elton John!!) but a consumate professional and great player.
Gary Moore ; such a wonderful all-rounder. From heavy metal to soulful blues.
Ian Hunter ; the original bat-winged mop-head who was/is his own person on all levels. An astute lyricist, social commentator and songwriter. What a star!
Mick Ronson ; a complete icon who lead from behind (if that makes sense!) and whose feelings came through in the playing.
Steven Tyler ; another nutter who just lives the life! Charisma in bucketfuls and a habit that was measured in the same quantities!!
Type of Label: Unsigned

My Blog

12th July - UPDATE

The "Dream Baby" track is now going to re-recorded and overdubbed at AVP Studios, just outside Palma, with Willi Meyer in the role of producer. Astrella is also listening to a new track called, "Caugh...
Posted by on Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:39:00 GMT

17th MAY - UPDATE

Astrella will be going in to the studio to record vocal overdubs for "Dream Baby" on 15th June, just after her appearance at the I.O.W. Festival.
Posted by on Thu, 17 May 2007 12:01:00 GMT

13th MAY - UPDATE

Astrella's debut single, "Dream", is released online on June 4th - available for download from iTunes. Currently working on a new song called, "Because I Love You".
Posted by on Sun, 13 May 2007 14:03:00 GMT

5th MAY - UPDATE

Currently working on a new song, tentatively titled, "Deep". Initial rhythm track and melody are down, need to write the middle-eight and think about enhancing the over all form of the song.
Posted by on Sat, 05 May 2007 13:08:00 GMT

4th MAY 2007 - UPDATE

Final remix of "Dream Baby" completed and uploaded to the studio server in Mallorca.Josep, our studio engineer has been really helpful, with some final hints and tips. He says it's a "cool song"! Astr...
Posted by on Fri, 04 May 2007 11:10:00 GMT

1st MAY - UPDATE

I've been given access to the Calma Estudis server in Mallorca so I can upload the track for studio use. I need to remix the track minus the vocals so that Astrella can overdub them.
Posted by on Tue, 01 May 2007 10:26:00 GMT