Brendemere is bringing something bold in a theatrical musical return with his new self-titled album
After a decade-long hiatus, the Tucson-born, Seattle based artist Brendemere has revived the songs that were sitting collecting dust on his hard drive, debuting a modern twist with a fusion of indie-pop and alt-rock.
While influenced by the likes of heavy metal bands like Slipknot, Linkin Park, and Korn, his sound ventures into grand, dramatic territories inspired by seeing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra as a kid.
Brendemere’s new album blends his youthful energy with decades of experience from songs he first created in his late teens and early twenties.
With his new album out, Brendemere’s journey is just revving up as he explores ambitious sounds and genre-bending, crafting an auditory spectacle that mirrors a spectacular rock opera.
With his dramatic sound and unrelenting ambition, Brendemere is taking back the stage for a new era in music, one where anything is possible.
His self-titled album is out now. Give it a listen below.
Check out our interview with Brendemere.
HAPPY: What are you up to today?
BRENDEMERE: Who? Me? Oh – nothing of particular import, I suppose.
Malingering around the general grounds, contemplating beauty, sadness and art, and wondering whether or not I am still handsome. That’s sort of the routine around here.
How are you? Good? Excellent. Glad to hear it.
HAPPY: Tell us a little bit about where you live, what do you love about it?
BRENDEMERE: Currently in Seattle, WA – where I have been for the last 15 years, almost.
Not much to say about it, really. Not to sound cold, but I wouldn’t say the city or anything in particular about it holds any special place in my heart.
But, there is a lot of natural beauty to the area – I’ll give it that.
HAPPY: What did you listen to growing up?
BRENDEMERE: Once I began to really process what I was listening to, it mainly revolved around the heavy metal acts around the turn of the millennium; System Of A Down, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Korn, and yes – even Limp Bizkit. AND I REGRET NOTHING!
But honestly – the music was (to the ears of an 11-year old) larger than life.
Then I simply started working my way back in time and listening to the 80s and 70s classic metal groups.
HAPPY: After a decade-long hiatus, what finally pushed you to resurrect these songs and make this album happen?
BRENDEMERE: It seemed like the only interesting thing to do in my life, really.
And I felt I owed it to myself.
There weren’t even demos of the songs or anything recorded.
Just music notation files sitting on a hard drive.
I had just turned 30 and felt that after a decade of them collecting dust, might as well brush ‘em off and give it a go.
HAPPY: The album feels like a time capsule of your younger self, but with the polish of experience. Did you tweak the original material much, or is this as raw as it was back then?
BRENDEMERE: Way back at the very beginning, it was just me bashing out chords on a dusty, old Yamaha.
I always knew it was gonna be a full rock band, mixed with some other things, I just didn’t know exactly what instruments at the time nor exactly what they would play.
I suppose I figured it would be a real band with real people instead of an imaginary band with hired hands.
Then as the process got going, and I decided to add an absolutely absurd number of instruments, most things took shape through my direction, but some players added a bit of their own spark.
For instance – the saxophone solo on Annabel Lee.
I’m not gonna tell a saxophone player how to play a saxophone solo, I’m just gonna find a really good one and let ‘em rip a few and we’ll pick the one I like the most.
And the string player, who was the last instrumentalist we added, sort of did his own thing, but by that point. . .there was already so much going on everywhere all of the time that he sort of just filled out the few remaining bricks in the wall of sound.
Did I go a bit overboard with the sheer number of instruments and tracks? Hell yeah.
But when you spend your formative years listening to the first 2 Slipknot albums a thousand times over, you start to embrace and even yearn for going over the top. Damn you, Slipknot. DAMN YOU!\
HAPPY: There’s a real theatrical streak in some of these tracks—‘Jezebel of the Rhone’ could almost be a rock opera moment. Were you listening to a lot of grand, dramatic music when writing this?
BRENDEMERE: I always envisioned these songs as needing to sound larger than life.
I wanted to put on an audio spectacle for the listener.
Several times, my family and I went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra when I was a young lad.
That level of production and scope always stuck with me.
Obviously, I don’t have millions of dollars to put on a show like that. . .but I thought I could try and translate some of that magnitude auditorily.
The old fake it till you make it philosophy.
I just kept building and building and building with the instruments and dynamics over the years, in the hopes of putting on the little dream rock show I had in my mind.
HAPPY: You worked with dozens of musicians over three years to bring this album to life. Was it a painstaking process or did you thrive in that level of detail?
BRENDEMERE: I pretty much got along with everyone.
At least, from my perspective.
I’m sure maybe a few of them walked out at the end of the session and rolled their eyes a bit about some of my dumb ideas or dumb things I said.
But I can’t win over ALL the hearts and minds of the people.
Nothing about it was painstaking and I enjoyed the process overall.
The only thing that gave me any real anxiety or concern was figuring out the lead singer.
I had put some demo tracks together with some singers from freelance websites.
But I operated for the first year or so recording the songs instrumentally, not having even a clue who was gonna sing on it.
So that kept me up at night a couple of times.
Then I came into contact with the person you hear on the record.
Unfortunately she has since moved out of state, so if I were to start putting new Brendemere songs together. . .I’d have to go through the WHOOOOLE process all over again.
Who knows? Maybe some of your readers are someone or know someone with some pipes.
Get in touch. Reach out. I’m right here waiting, baby.
HAPPY: If you could time-travel back to when you first wrote these songs, what would you say to your younger self?
BRENDEMERE: Probably, “Go get a degree first. Find a decent job that isn’t pizza delivery, so if the music thing doesn’t work out (which it didn’t) you aren’t stuck delivering pizza for the rest of your life (which you are)”.
A different town may also have been a bit more conducive to this particular brand of music.
Maybe Austin, TX would have made more sense.
Oh – and “record the freakin’ album right away, so even if it takes 3 years to record (which it did) you’ll still be 23 when it’s finished (which you are no longer)”.
Then maybe “get your teeth fixed, don’t balloon up in weight and take it a bit easier on the booze”. Other than that? “Knock ‘em dead, kid.
Now – if you’ll excuse me – I have this time traveling machine on rent for a few more hours, so I’m gonna go invest in some stocks and win a few lotteries. See ya, NERD!”
HAPPY: This album is out in the world now—are you itching to make something new, or do you need a minute to breathe first?
BRENDEMERE: Other than needing to write some vocals and lyrics for a few songs, I pretty much have an entire second Brendemere LP written.
I’m about 4 or 5 songs into a third LP.
There’s also a full-length LP I have written for a progressive metal type band.
Several pieces for classical guitar, and some pieces which still need some rewriting and finishing touches for two other projects I’d like to do.
One involving a pop group consisting of a guitar ensemble and string quartet.
And one that’s sort of a rockabilly retro thing. So I’ve got boxes and boxes of songs.
I just gotta figure out what the hell to do with any of it. If anyone there reading this thinks any of that sounds cool – I ain’t hard to find.
HAPPY: Lastly – what makes you happy?
BRENDEMERE: Cats being walked by their owners on leashes while the cat is trying to interpret the world around it. Randy’s guitar solos on “Mr. Crowley”, Dimebag’s guitar solo on “Cemetery Gates.”
Kirk’s guitar solo on “Blackened”, Tim Heidecker’s comedy special on YouTube. Jim Cornette’s profanity-laced tirades, Siskel & Eberts worst of the year review specials where they just dog the ever-loving s**t out of a movie.
The part in the “Knocked Out” sketch by Kids In The Hall when Kevin reclines in his seat and knocks himself out against the wall mid-sentence.
