Who is Brett Thorngren? That is a very good question. Brett is a man. A very talented man. A man who is already well established in more than one field of the music industry. Brett is a drummer, a producer, an engineer. Brett is also a guitar player, a lead singer, and a fantastic songwriter. And how does Mr. Thorngren get so lucky with all of this talent? Maybe it all comes passed down from his father and grandfather.
You see, Brett isnt the only one in his family to have a career in the world of music. His grandfather, Sam Cosmo, along with his two great uncles, made up the Cosmo Brothers Trio (MCA) in the 1930s. The Cosmo Brothers were legends in their heyday. Bretts grandfather can tell you some stories. Ask him about Billie Holliday next time you run into him. Or better yet, ask him what it was like to play backup for Ella Fitzgerald. And Bretts father? Well, hes not only a rock star (Bulldog), but also a bigwig recording engineer (Cindy Lauper, Blondie, Talking Heads, Robert Palmer). The next time you talk to Brett, ask him about the time he spent in the Bahamas with his dad and Robert Palmer.
Bretts been destined to be a musician since the second grade, when he started taking drum lessons. His passion for the drums was already present when his family moved from Central New York to Miami a few years later. Brett was already good enough to give lessons before he was even a teenager, and, at the ripe age of 14, Brett was touring with his first band, a death metal band called Mortician.
Already, Brett learned that playing drums wasnt all he was good at. When not touring with Mortician, Brett got work running lights in South Beach at nightclubs such as The Kitchen Club, Club Nu, Stringfellows, and Red Room, where he eventually became a DJ at the age of 15. He took to DJing like a fish takes to water, and shortly thereafter, he became a resident DJ at Marsbar. This was all happening in the early 1990s, which, as we all know, was an integral time for both alternative and techno music. And Bretts drum career was moving forward as well, as he had just left Mortician and started playing with Young Turk (Geffen, Virgin records).
Cut to Brett, 1995, age 19, when he was asked to become the final member of the rock band Muse (Lava/Atlantic records). Brett put a hold on working as a DJ for the time being, and moved to LA to record Muses first album. Arcana was produced in part by Bretts father, ET Thorngren, which, to this day, Brett holds as one of the greatest experiences of his life. After the completion of the recording, Muse moved to Atlanta, and toured the US and Canada three times over with such artists as Collective Soul, Luscious Jackson, Lemonheads, Dinosaur Jr, Live, Silverchair, Beck, and 311. Brett wasnt even 21 yet, and already he was doing extremely well.
In 1999, Brett left Atlanta, and Muse, to join Astralwerks recording artists, Metrodub, in Miami, Florida. He was getting back to his Miami DJ roots. He became successful immediately, and toured with such artists as Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, and Fat Boy Slim, just to name a few.
Brett soon took on a DJ name, DJ Cosmo, in homage to his grandfather, and easily took back up as a Miami DJ. He worked at such clubs as Liquid, Bar Room, Chili Pepper, and Level, where he was a resident DJ for the first year from its opening. But being a DJ wasnt the only skill Brett was working on at this time. It was during this period of his career that Brett was able to work on his skills as a music producer and engineer. Under the name DJ Cosmo, Brett produced over two-dozen dance records on multiple labels (Universal, Filtered, Neo Records). With this new fame as a superstar producer and DJ, he was able to play at venues in France, Holland, Great Britain and the US. This was a very busy and exciting time for DJ Cosmo. Nonetheless, he still took time to produce several local Miami rock bands such as Endo, Lisbon, Rhett and the Pawnshop Drunks, 10Sheen, and several others. He started his love affair with rock music anew, and left the club/DJ world to focus on this.
Not only was Brett now a working music producer, he was also playing drums with the band Maria (2003). After producing and engineering their demo, Maria received a management deal with Union Entertainment (Nickelback, Default).
Nearly two years later, Barry Gibb (Bee Gees) called Brett and offered him a job as his in-house engineer. Not wanting to miss such an obvious opportunity, Brett parted ways with Maria and went to work with Barry. In 2005, Brett was honored to be assistant engineer on the 25th anniversary album of Barry Gibb and Barbara Streisand.
During his time with Barry, Brett formed a hip-hop/electro group called The Junkies. The group is a collaboration of some of the Miami artists that Brett had worked with in the past (Gil Bitton of Endo and Bleu of 10Sheen). A mix of nearly every type of music he had worked on to date; rock, hip-hop, electro, avant-garde, the Junkies first record, Stars and Stripes, was completed in March 2006. Less than a month later, The Junkies landed a gig at the 2006 Ultra Music Festival at Bicentennial Park.
Back at the Gibb studio, Middle Ear, the co-producer had arrived to finish the Streisand record in Los Angeles, and Brett took that as his cue to move on with his career. He said goodbye to Barry (who he respects immensely), and moved to New York, where he resides today.
Still working on the Junkies, Brett has recently put together another rock band, Further Than Fiction, becoming lead singer and front man for the first time in his ever changing career. Brett is presently working as a music producer and engineer with bands and is scoring music for television. Stay tuned to find out what comes next...
