Music:
Member Since: 1/13/2005
Band Website: bradbyrdmusic.com
Band Members: Brad Byrd vox/Gibson 65' J50, Steve Scully vox/drums, Joe Klompus vox/bass, Matt Pynn vox/guitars
Influences: the universe
Sounds Like: ...Pete Yorn, David Gray, Ryan Adams, Cary Brothers, Josh Ritter, Matthew Sweet, Tom Cochran, Chris Isaak, Dylan, Cash, Petty, Springsteen, Young, REM, ColdPlay, U2, Afghan Whigs, Keane, The Verve, Wilco, Pearl Jam, The Church, Guster, Nada Surf, Death Cab For Cutie, The Damnwells, Travis, Augustana, Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club, Lemonheads, The Cure, The Pixies, Cheap Trick, The Flaming Lips, Goo Goo Dolls, Foo Fighters, Live, Train, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Pink Floyd,....trying to remember some others that YOU have told me i sound like:) THX for the comparisons............
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..."Weird Enough"/BB charts on popular Rochester NY radio station WBER "The Only Station That Matters" Top 150 Countdown for 2006!
......."A singer/songwriter with a big buzz in town."--Steve Morse (Boston Globe/WBOS 92.9)
...."Brad Byrd is one of the most intriguing NEW artist's i've had the pleasure to hear in ages. 'The Ever Changing Picture' is an undiscovered gem. Given the current popularity of Ryan Adam's and Pete Yorn, there's no reason why Byrd couldn't soon match their success."--Andrew Ellis -Popmatters/Ink 19
...."Finally did a righteous listening to 'The Ever Changing Picture." The whole album runs deep. What ear candy. 'Never Came Back' has got a hook a country mile long. Any guy that can rhyme 'Los Angeles', with 'Handle This' gets my vote."-- Dave Chaney, Triple A Radio
..."Hotel Cafe Show of The Year", One of the single most captivating performances i've ever seen. It was like watching Eddie Vedder meets Chris Martin meets Wilco in my living room. LA, the country, the world, get ready to hear the name Brad Byrd." This album will leave you changed." -- CD Baby.
..."One of the best independently produced albums i've heard this year." --Melodic.net
..."Byrd's gruff, becalmed voice, which is equal parts Michael Stipe and Eddie Vedder, resulting in a sound that often recalls early REM ("I Swear You're Out There", for example, could be an outake from "Murmer"). -- William Rhulman, All Music Guide (4 out of 5 Stars)
....."It all started when i bought my first drum kit freshman year in High School. I set it up in the basement (West Newbury, MA), and me and my younger brother Jamie (guitar) would jam constantly. My mom would flick the cellar lights on and off to let us know when it was dinnertime. Shortly there after my dad gave me his 1965 Gibson J50 acoustic guitar stating, 'son, this guitar has brought me a lot of joy in my life, may it do the same for you.' I began writing songs around then i think, and still play that guitar to this very day. It wasn't truly, until later in college (Syracuse University), before i started to reconnect again with the guitar and drums, and ultimately started writing songs and began my real life's work."
* --In the fall of 2001 Brad headed west to Los Angeles, CA to pursue a music career fulltime. A prolific songwriter, Brad had already amassed (written/demo'd) over 50 songs during his "post college years" while living in Manhattan and Brooklyn respectively. "I moved to Brooklyn in 98/99 and started recording myself in my apartment studio like an obsessed mad-scientist. I would produce myself singing, playing drums and acoustic/electric guitars to the songs i had written, along with help from friend and now LA based engineer/producer Matt Harris, with some gear i had purchased, consisting of one of the original Yamaha electric midi drum kits, acoustic/electric guitars, one keyboard, one vocal mic, and a Roland 1880 digital 18 track recorder. After a while, I began to realize i had something to say. So, one morning i woke up and decided i was moving to LA and making a record. It was time to start anew somewhere else at that time in my life anyway. I think everyone goes through that at one point or another. Besides, LA had been calling my name for years. I had friends in the biz out there, and i wanted them to listen to what i had been working on. Mainly though, i needed a change from the east coast/NYC environment, and i wanted to check out California at least once in my lifetime. I guess, it was just time to check it all out." So Brad decided to trade his life as a successful IT recruiter/small business owner/wannabe rockstar in Manhattan, for a rock-n-roll-101-hollywood hills-extravaganza-crash course-soon to be a-typical "starving artist" life in LA. lol, such is life right:) "I was literaly in the process of moving cross country when the attacks happenned. It was some crazy scary shit.....leaving NYC just before 9/11. I was in Arizona listening to my car radio as it all went down yelling, "what the fffff!!" about 600 times. I hadn't even reached Cali yet. I was at a cross roads in my life. I still had my IT business going in NYC, which made things that much more difficult for me. It was a very confusing time. I felt a great sense of guilt, as if i was making a big mistake, equally, however, i felt more driven than ever to leave it behind and see it all through, further validating that i was making the right decision." It was through those "ever changing" life experiences that Brad wrote the core songs off his debut "The Ever Changing Picture" (2005). It was yet another round of "better sounding" protools demo's cut in LA again with Harris in 01/02, along with the Roland 1880 Brooklyn demo's, that finally started catching some ears in Hollywood, and led Brad to start recording with engineer/producer's R. Walt Vincent (Pete Yorn, Liz Phair) and Evan Frankfort (Wallflowers, Jayhawks, Pete Yorn). Brad and Evan eventually decided on making a record together (tracked and mixed @ Swinghouse Studios in Hollywood, CA) and thus began recording the songs that would comprise Brad's first professionally completed album.
Brad's entrepreneurial instincts propelled him to set up his own publishing company/label registered through Ascap, "*Rockport Publishing*"in 2003 around the "independent completion" of TECP, and thus adopting all of the promotional, marketing, and touring expenses associated with it. A DIY effort that would ultimately cost him his savings and bury him in debt. All for owning the masters, publishing, and control of his music for future licensing opportunities. Brad's instincts proved wise, as his music has since attracted many licensing opportunities such as a national distribution deal to both major & indie retail/record stores and online via I-tunes/amazon,etc. through the newly formed indie label "Free Agency Recordings" (2005). Also that year, the title track "The Ever Changing Picture" was featured in Eddie Aikau's surfing documentary "All Aboard the Crazy Train" (2005) starring surfing legend Laird Hamilton, and featuring Eddie Vedder and small cameo appearances from Ben Harper and Ben Stiller respectively. The instrumental version of the song made the score alongside mega artists U2, Beck, Pearl Jam, and Ben Harper to name a few. "Gold" landed a slot on the (2004) Teva Sports Wear compilation sampler cd "The Nomadic Anthology Vol. II" alongside artist's (Josh Ritter, Ben Harper, Beth Orton, Josh Rouse, Mike Doughty, and Glen Phillips, to name a few), which shortly after (June, 04') coincided with an opening performance for the band "Jurassic 5" to a sold out crowd at Vail, Colorado's Ford Ampitheater at the 04' Teva Mountain Games. Also that year, Brad's single "Never Came Back", amazingly achieved the "#1 most downloaded singer/songwriter title" on the ArtistDirect.com charts on April 30, 2004. During Brad's relocation back east, summer 05', his music quickly began to make waves as the single "Weird Enough" charted (145) on the popular Rochester, NY radio station WBER's "TOP 150 for 2006" countdown, and again the cut "Gold" was selected for the background track as Rolling Stone magazine "Coolest kid in America" snowboarder "Shaun White" accepted his gold medal at the 06' ESPN Winter X Games. Not to shabby for an independent artist!!! Networks such as MTV (Ashley Parker Angel, Road Rules, Maui Fever), E! (Nip and Tuck), UPN (Jake 2.0), ESPN (06' Winter X Games), and various other indie production houses throughout Hollywood have, and continue to, seek out BB's tunes for potential licensing/placement opportunities. "*At that early time in my career I had no idea what i was doing really. It just felt like the right thing to do, owning my masters and making an album on my own. Perhaps I should have shopped more demo'sthroughout the process and played the game more, saved my money, etc. But i have no regrets. Looking back i see that i did the right thing. Besides, this isn't a 401k plan, it's rock-n-fucking roll."
*Brad was able to accurately capture his real world struggles and huge life altering transitions and decisions through his autobiograhical debut. Brad's grossly overlooked and relatively unknown, yet critically acclaimed 11-track freshman effort, continues to gain traction everyday in an already over-saturated music market. "At that time, having a record nationally distributed in stores was a pretty big deal, it really drove me to 'get out there an play' more. I had been playing the local LA club scene roughly once a month or so with the occasional Santa Barbara run up until that point. It was an amazing experience, however felt a bit limiting. I was itching for something more, and I was getting it from all ends, ..."play, play, play!!" So, in the summer of 05' i relocated back to my roots of Cape Ann, Massachusetts with a new plan to "grass roots tour" the northeast in response to my nationally distributed album. I went from a packed cd release show w/Goldspot and Frou Frou/Imogen Heap at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, CA on May 4th, 2005, directly to the airport to fly to New Jersey to perform at a friend's wedding, directly to a train ride north up to Boston/North Shore, MA to visit my parents, to my dad saying, 'hey, why don't you just take the summer off and tour around here.' With an expired apartment lease back in LA, staying at mom and dad's for the summer started to sound like a pretty good deal. Next thing i know i'm playing in seafood restaurants in Gloucester, MA. lol, Quite the change." The summer turned into the fall turned into a new plan. Besides, i couldn't afford to get back to LA even if i wanted to. It was a tough tough call for me. Still is to some degree. However, I realized i could tour more steadily and hit more cities/colleges in the northeast. Hell, with myspace, the internet, and all that's changed in this friggin biz, i guess it doesn't really matter where you are anymore." Brad has had little choice but to jump on the DIY train, slowly and steadily building a "real" fan base, one by one, face by face, town by town with his consistent touring schedule. It hasn't been easy, ultimately fueling him to write what Brad believes to be his greatest material to date. In other words, what you're hearing now is just the tip of the iceberg.
Brad's voice and sound to date is often compared to the likes of fellow college buddy/jam-mate Pete Yorn and the band Coldplay, however, it has been said by many, writing more classic timeless pieces that resemble the works of legends such as Dylan, Petty, Springsteen, and Young. Brad writes amazing alt.country/left of center/indie-rock-pop songs about his own real life experiences and adventures, that have that rare ability to relate to everyone. His talents and vision have attracted some of the nation's top touring/recording professionals to his project that have also shared the stage/studio with other more well known artists such as Aimee Mann, Ryan Adams, Nina Gordon, Tracy Bonham, Pete Yorn, David Bowie, Duncan Sheik, The Wallflowers and Howie Day to name a few. BB has shared bills with Jurassic 5, Frou Frou/Imogen Heap, Alexi Murdoch, Zox, Goldspot, Adam Cohen (Low Millions), The Penfifteen Club, AM, Steve Reynolds, Kelly Dalton, Emile Millar, Julian Velard, Mary Lou Lord, Danielle Miraglia and many more "up and comers".
Brad is currently touring the Northeastern U.S., and working on his 2nd full length studio record......... release date tba.
Record Label: my own, always looking for a good licensing opp!!
Type of Label: Indie
