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Brendan Phillip Beauchamp
Music
I started recording my friends and I playing music around the start of Covid, but I have been playing for my entire life. I started on piano as a little kid, but have learned guitar, bass, analog synthesis, and some others along the way. I am now in the process of releasing my third studio album and I believe that it is my best work yet.
NEW PROJECT - 2023
My new project comes from some of the happiest moments in my life, and the first time that I am tracking all instrumentation on my own. I wanted to make a pop rock album that was not only true to myself but could change what rock music sounds like.
Burning-2022
The writing for Burning actually started with The Kangaroo Court, two of the songs are jams that I would bring to the group. We used to play Gloria and Souls at parties until Covid caused people to move back to their hometowns. These songs meant a lot to me, but I had grown out of the person that wrote them. I wanted to write a concept album taking the themes of these songs in a different direction than my own.
During the recording process, life was moving quickly. I was in the midst of grad school publishing feverishly for three years, began collaborating with The Mothership Studio, and learning analog synthesis. I would record most of an idea on my laptop, and drive from Grand Rapids to Macomb to record drum parts with Josh all night. One trip my schedule became too crowded, and I didn't make it to the nursing home where my great grand mother lived. She passed away before I could get home again, and it broke my heart. I felt myself burning myself at both ends as I pushed in every direction.
The album, like my life during this time, is a pendulum that is swinging at its full range. I hyperbolize heartbreak, loss, and burnout as I narrate a rocker pushing themselves into isolation. It was hard to write because the character confronts themself and runs away. Working hard on so many projects kept me busy, and I had to remind myself of the difference between personal development and avoidance.
The Kangaroo Court-2021
The Kangaroo Court is my debut album. The name of the album comes from the band name which Josh Garsteck and I were going by for the years leading up to Covid. We recorded some of the album everywhere; bedrooms, dorms, basements, garages, living rooms, parking structures, and arms distance from a moving train! I knew nothing about producing, but had played music with Josh for almost five years and we wanted to make an album.
Josh and I were freshman roommates in college, it was a perfect storm. We had been listening to the same bands, practicing together for years, and playing live around campus. This album not only signified believing in myself to produce my own album, but also demonstrated that I could do so completely independently. I look back on these songs as fond memories from a time when dreams were as big as the friendships around me.
This was the first music video that I recorded, and I couldn't have done it without the friends around me at the time. My buddy brought over a drone and several friends that I did not expect to be available.
The Kangaroo Court was my way of saying "the juries out, I am a recording artist". Ever since I started playing piano as a little kid, I have wanted to make my own music. The album is kind of like a time capsule in the sense that I can feel those aspirations when I look back on the project. Whether it was painting the album cover, burying an amp in blankets to experiment with filtering, playing tracks at house parties, or photoshoots riding the bass like a witch's broom, I was always trying to come up with ideas to make this project feel more like an extension of myself.
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