Zed Brookes profile picture

Zed Brookes

About Me


I've rediscovered my roots in electronic music lately after flirting with rock-pop for quite a while.
My background has been in various bands going back to the 80's. I have previously been a founding member of such bands as Step Chant Unit, Schrodinger's Cat, Wonderbug and DMZ.
I'm originally a bass-player but nowadays mostly play synth, drums on a midi keyboard, wild and weird guitar, and percussion.
I particularly enjoy sequencers - there's something cool about being able to hold a drink in one hand and play keys with the other ;o)

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 07/06/2006
Band Website: http://htown.elwiki.com/Zed_Brookes
Influences: Iggy Pop, Shriekback, David Bowie, Dandy Warhols, New Order, Tom Petty, Lou Reed, Salmonella Dub, Air, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Michael Hutchence, The The, Gang of Four, Massive Attack, Badly Drawn Boy, Simon and Garfunkel, Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra, The Killers, The Sound, Yello, B52s (esp early stuff), Devo (early punk stuff), The Residents, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, The Associates, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Blondie, Elvis Costello, Split Enz, Simple Minds, U2, The Jam, The Church, Soul II Soul, The Smiths, Fun Boy Three, Killing Joke, The Clash, Wire, The Stranglers, Talking Heads, Brian Eno, Byrne/Eno "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", The Damned, The Buzzcocks, Japan, Van Halen, Gary Numan/Tubeway Army, Alan Parson's Project, Basement Jaxx, The Skids, Bloc Party, Klaatu, LCD Soundsystem, Love and Rockets, Nirvana, Pixies, The Pretenders, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Boomtown Rats (pre-Don't Like Mondays!), Nick Cave, Psychedelic Furs, Ultravox (in the John Foxx days before Midge Ure), Weezer, Crowded House, The Police, Bob Marley, Mekons, Depeche Mode, The Cars, The Fall, Joy Division, Kissing the Pink, Undertones, Green Day, Violent Femmes, The Cult, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Bauhaus, Radiohead, Pete Shelley, The Human League, Visage, Tears for Fears, The Knack, Cheap Trick, XTC, T-Rex, The Carpenters, Beach Boys, NIN, Neil Young.
Sounds Like: All of the above put in a blender.
Record Label: Panic Button Productions

My Blog

This songwriting sure is hard

But it's fun. Especially when good things happen once in a while. Last weekend, at the Jason Blume songwriting workshop (you should attend one of these by the way, unless you can just create number on...
Posted by on Thu, 21 May 2009 00:08:00 GMT

Just uploaded a new song "Dreams Aren't Free"

Pretty poppy I think, albeit in my usual slightly angsty way.Anyhoo - moving along the other half-dozen in the pipeline.I've re-uploaded a couple of songs with slightly better mixes. Wow I really noti...
Posted by on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:02:00 GMT

And they just keep on comin'!

Although from the enormous response to the last few, I don't know why I bother ;o)Anyhoo - in case anybody from the internets in the future finds this in the years to come, here's another song - it'...
Posted by on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:28:00 GMT

And another one! 4 Little Letters.

Spent another weekend finishing songs - well one of 'em anyway. Here you go - it's a party song, so get drunk and enjoy! ;o)
Posted by on Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:43:00 GMT

Wahoo - couple of new songs again!

I finally got a weekend without kids, so I spent a bit of time working on my backlog of unfinished songs, and here's a couple that I managed to whip into some kind of presentable shape.The first is "G...
Posted by on Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:01:00 GMT

Sigh - my songs are backing up

Like a plugged toilet. Hmmm - that's not a good analogy really, is it?I'm so frustrated though - been sick with dreaded lurgy for almost a month, and lost my voice for a bit, so got four or five songs...
Posted by on Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:57:00 GMT

Welcome to your senses, you!

hehe - well I got another wee demo tune finished - this one is actually an old riff of mine that I never got around to really doing anything with, so I got stuck in and finished it. It's short and swe...
Posted by on Wed, 06 Feb 2008 01:16:00 GMT

Just when you thought it was safe - a new song!

In between work, family, Xmas, New Year, broken letterboxes, hitting taxis with motorbikes, drinking too much single-malt, (only slightly related) cars exploding and parents moving in for extended per...
Posted by on Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:03:00 GMT

Still writing - even though it may not seem like it ;o)

I figure the music tracks for the short film and my other music projects count as a song a week eh? ;o)It may seem like I've been a bit quiet out there, but in fact it's been one of my busiest years e...
Posted by on Sat, 22 Dec 2007 04:00:00 GMT

Finally a new song!

"Back at you" turned out nothing like I imagined it when I first jammed it on the guitar. The earliest version sounded more like Radiohead with all the falsetto vocal bits in it, but somehow it ended ...
Posted by on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:18:00 GMT