Tom Brislin » Blog

Upcoming live webcasts

Tom — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:06:38 +0000

It’s been non-stop recording, writing, and more recording for the past few months. Since it’s been a while since my last update, I’ve decided to go live on my USTREAM channel to play some of my new songs for you, and do a little Q&A in the live chat. As I tend to do these things spontaneously, the first one will be tonight (as of this writing), Thursday, Dec. 15, at 9:30PM Eastern Time. Knowing that some of you might not see this update until that time is passed, I’ll be broadcasting again on Sunday afternoon at 2PM Eastern. Find my broadcast at http://bit.ly/theWoodshed and I hope to see you there.

Notes from the studio(s)

Tom — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:51:40 +0000

Over the past month, I’ve been getting into the full swing of recording my album. I set up a project studio (“Mission Control”), with the help of my good friend (and songwriter/producer/guitarist extraordinaire) Clint Lagerberg:

Mission Control, with Shuttlepod One riding shotgun

It is indeed a standing desk.

I’m recording keyboards, doing some mixing, and grabbing vocals, percussion, and more from the adjacent isolation booth (the “Cone of Truth”):

Hello from the Cone of Truth

At the heart of my album is the piano. The hunt was on for something special, and through an amazing stroke of fortune, the good folks at Seale Keyworks have allowed me to bring my mobile recording rig (“Shuttlepod One”) to play and record on a Boesendorfer grand piano. It’s quite an instrument, and besides, it’s got 92 keys. Four extra bass strings. Naturally, this means that the piano is four better than other pianos. Just ask any scientician.

Too many keys to fit in the photo.

While photos are nice, I know that you’re probably more interested in hearing the results. Since my time in these spaces is limited, I’m recording as much of the “raw” material as I can, which will be mixed at a later time. I’m bending that rule a little bit, in the case of “Your Favorite Day”, a song that I’ll be releasing here in the days to come. Until then, I’m back to the studios…

Final days – be a part of my solo album

Tom — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:00:55 +0000

We did it! Thanks to you, my Kickstarter campaign will be funded, and I’ll be recording what’s turning out to be quite a lot of music. Why’s that? Well, in addition to my first solo album (that the project was started for), I’ll also be recording an exclusive album of piano music, and over 20 cover songs chosen by the top backers of my project.

It’s not over yet! My campaign is still running through the weekend, so please visit the project and have a look around. This is the last chance to pre-order the album with lots of bonus material, house concerts, a custom cover song of your choice (or have me write a song especially for you), lessons, an autographed keyboard, and much more!

The campaign ends Monday, July 25, at just before 2pm Eastern Time.

Upcoming shows: Nashville, and your living room?

Tom — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:27:37 +0000

Greetings from the road! My first solo tour is almost complete, and I don’t want it to end! The final concert on this leg will take place on July 15 at the Hotel Preston in Nashville, Tennessee (DETAILS), after which I’ll be putting the songwriting/recording/producing hats back on and diving back into recording my album. I see that as much as I’d like to keep them separate, the two worlds of recording and touring tend to collide. I don’t mind, really.

The venues I’ve played on this tour have been outstanding. At the very first concert, I was practically spoiled by the amazing piano at Steamers in Fullerton, CA (and for the synth geeks, check out the photo below of Brain Salad’s amazing Moog Modular synth I got to play that night). I’ve been performing several house concerts on this tour, and I absolutely love playing in this setting.

Would you like to host a Tom Brislin house concert? I’m offering a deluxe house concert package as part of my Kickstarter campaign. To raise the funds necessary to produce my first solo album, I’m offering many exclusive rewards packages, including autographed CDs, bonus exclusive downloads, and more.

For example: The house concert package includes:

A concert in your home,
A 1-hour music lesson (via Video chat or in-person if possible). This can be a piano, vocal, songwriting, theory, audio engineering, production, music technology lesson, or interview,
A recording of my own version of any song ever written by anyone in the history of the universe (provided I can obtain the original source),
2 guest list tickets to any one future concert that I am performing (solo or with ???),
Limited edition autographed poster,
Your name in the album credits,
Limited edition T-Shirt,
Entire Spiraling CD catalog (4 CDs),
Autographed Hurry Up and Smell The Roses CD (my first solo album), plus download album in format of your choice
A bonus digital album of piano instrumentals available only through Kickstarter,
Access to an exclusive interactive web concert,
The “Steppin’ Out” MP3 and video download.

Pretty cool, right? You can see the full list of rewards and a video introduction here.

I really should have an infomercial with the Sham-wow/Slap Chop guy promoting this.

More news to come!

I'm on piano for this tour, but I couldn't resist the mighty old Moog.