5/20/2023 0 Comments Parade restNot to mention that I don’t have a strong, piercing singing voice, so the music itself needs to compensate for that. To make it interesting to present songs in such a minimalist way at open mics, I found myself compelled to generate strong melodies and rhythmic interest to overcome that spareness, also for my own entertainment. It was turning to bass/voice that ratcheted up my engagement level with composition.Įxploring songs in such a spare way with bass and voice presented limitations that were somehow liberating. It did help quite a bit with the dexterity, melodic attack, phrasing, exposure to great musical works, ensemble playing, and the whole nine yards, but my old cello doesn’t keep in tune well and since my teen orchestral days I’ve only ever dusted it off from time to time for a session or performance here and there. How did that knowledge and experience help you compose this album, or didn’t it really? Is that something you still do regularly? I see you’re a classically-trained cellist as well. ![]() What’s funny is that I just Googled the word “oblivion” to make sure I was saying what I meant, and the first result was a Tom Cruise movie I’d never heard of called Oblivion. “Tom Cruise Leaves Self” felt like the obvious closer, to end the record in a kind of happy oblivion. Not gonna say I nailed it with Parade Rest, but I think it flows decently, and at least with my own albums, I like for it to feel like there is some kind of story arc happening, which I tried for. I found it fun having headphones on one ear sweating bullets about what song to put on next to keep a (hopefully) quality vibe going. □ Seriously though, I don’t find it too tough, which I think may be because I DJ’ed at a neighborhood bar and at parties. Ordering songs for my last full length album (with Recent Photo) was not a challenge at all since my bandmate Joe Mason did it. The idea is that it’s all a wacky parade that may be getting a bit out of hand, so let’s rest it.ĭo you find determining the order of songs on an album like this to be a challenge, and how important is that to you? Is there a connecting theme or motif behind this collection of songs?ĭovetailing on above, I’d say the relatively-grounded title track seemed like a good centerpoint for the overall collection, which covers personal ground ranging from bachelor tribulations to heavy breakups to falling for that someone etc., all of which can be so much disarray. That seems fitting, in that my old flagship band Recent Photo had a similarly-timed heyday, if we can call playing small clubs in Chicago a “heyday.”ĭid you do anything fun for New Year’s? Any 2023 resolutions? I found out later about a real-life thoroughbred racehorse named Brother Derek whose racing heyday was in the mid-aughts. How’s that for some gobbledy-gook?Īs far as the name, a coworker or two called me Brother Derek about 20 years ago, so I guess that stuck as the name of this act, which fortunately seems to have gotten to be more than a just solo namesake project in that it’s now presenting live as a trio with guest(s). ![]() More broadly, there seems to be some overrepresentation in the arts, and interesting works, by folks who are fringe in whatever way, but then can somehow spin that out-crowd energy into empowerment and engagement with the world on one’s own terms, not beholden to tribe. So to the extent folks find my material quirky or off-kilter, that may be where it stems from. Without attachment to a me-oriented identity, I often feel like I have some built-in license, at least artistically, to operate outside of dictates. Socially, I’ve always felt like more of an observer than a holder of court, which I think may relate to being a twin accustomed to divided attention, mixed race (Taiwanese/white), and the son of a member of an immigrant cohort (Asian) known for being “perpetual foreigners.” ![]() It’s basically just the wild nightlife side of a regular middle-aged suburban dad who happens to have a longstanding obsession with listening to, performing, and trying to write songs. So who is Brother Derek and what is he all about? We got the chance to chat with Brother Derek to learn more about him as an artist, Parade Rest, his classical background, future plans, and more.
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