Exposed Vocals Interviews Brandon Adamson

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

Brandon: I was born in Milwaukee but mostly grew up in Phoenix. I lived in Los Angeles for a while in the late 90s-early 2000s. When Back to the Future came out in 1985, I was just going into 2nd grade. Some kids from my class and I were inspired by the movie to start a band called “The Dragons.” We had mostly toy instruments, like a Fraggle Rock drum set. In the movie, Michael J Fox does the song “Johnny Be Good” and we had a kid in the band named Carey and so we did a version of it called “Carey Be Good.” We actually performed in front of our class, and there is a photo in the 1985 yearbook with the joking caption “stars of the future.” I didn’t actually get back into music until like 1995. I had friends who were in ska bands in high school, and I read a lot of zines and became really interested in a lot of lo-fi indie pop that was coming out at that time. I bought a 4 track and a keyboard and began recording songs about stuff that was on TV like songs based on plotlines of “Melrose Place” and other odd stuff, but musically I didn’t really know what I was doing. I met a kid from the Tempe music scene while taking music business classes at community college and gave him one of my tapes. Even though it was bizarre, he liked it and started to help me with production. This was in 1998, and he’s a producer in Portland now and still does a lot of mixing and production work for me.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

Brandon: I don’t really have a strong opinion about it either way. I think artists should be compensated for the work they put into something, but I personally don’t care about money. Most of my stuff is available on free streaming services. You have to give some away for free in one form or another otherwise no one will ever hear it at first.

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Brandon: Just play out as much as possible. I never did this because it didn’t seem practical for me, and I regret it. It’s what people should do. The best way to get gigs when you start out is not to approach clubs but to reach out to other local bands and try to open up for them.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

Brandon: I have mistakes on some recordings. I usually just cringe when that part of the song comes or I just never listen to it again. Sometimes it’s not that big of a deal.

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

Brandon: Usually from watching old movies and television shows from the 60’s and 70s or listening to records. A lot of song ideas I get just pop into my head while I’m out walking around like at the mall or something. I try to write them down before I forget. If I’m lucky I’ll actually be able to figure out how to play the melody that was in my head.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

Brandon: http://www.brandonadamson.com I use as many sharing services as possible: iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, bandcamp, and 100s more

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?

Brandon: Probably a couple of Taylor Swift jams and ABBA’s “The Name of the Game”

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

Brandon: I’d probably move to Las Vegas and live on the top floor on one of the mid-tier hotels on the strip for a few months. I’d just hang out there and walk around. I don’t really care about the club scene or partying or anything. I just like the ambiance.

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

Brandon: I have an early Fostex 16 track digital recorder that I record most everything on along with some ribbon mics. I use a lot of vintage instruments, guitars and synthesizers. I’ve got a Cordovox CDX combo organ and just picked up a couple of Bontempi chord organs. Recently added a theremin as well.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

Brandon: Nothing works all that well anymore, because it’s so easy for everyone to promote music that no one pays attention to it. People just get bombarded with it. I remember the old days with stuff like Myspace in 2004, people would actually check out your music if you friended them on there. They’d be like “Wow, this band wants to be my friend.” Now I think having an original or catchy video is probably the most important thing, I had a video a few years ago that was shot all on expired polaroid film. It got almost 20k views, and Polaroid actually shared it on their social media sites.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

Brandon: I wish I could play with some of the bands in the mod scene either on the Sunset Strip in LA or in London or Italy in the 60s.

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

Brandon: I’m working on a new EP that will be mostly mod/psychedelic. Hopefully at least one person will like it.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?

Brandon: The earliest albums I had were those read along records that were popular in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Usually they were based on movies like The Black Hole, The Hobbit, Gremlins etc. I owned like 50 of them, and I’d spend hours in front of this little white record player following along with the stories. I still have all of them. The first musical album I bought was Alvin and the Chipmunks I think.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

Brandon: I live cheaply and avoid complicated responsibilities as much as possible.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2015?

Brandon: more of the same