brandonparr.org

Songs from the Wild

Songs from the Wild was originally two EP's I merged into one full-length album.  It's an ambitious project because I performed almost everything on the album.  A few friends helped along the way: Pat Prendergast helped with engineering and tutorials; Tommy Elms performed bells on "Mama Said".  John Crawley took the photo of Billie Jean, our beloved pup.

Desiderata Volume I

Desiderata Volume I was recorded at The MixLab in College Station, just before I left Texas in 2009. In some way the record began my foray into the exploration of doubt.  The record begins with a declaration of my state of mind regarding spirituality, and then takes on the tone of a relationship gone sour.  It was intended to reflect my feelings and my relationship to the organized religion I had always known. 

Desiderata Volume II

I was, for the first time, away from everything familiar.  It was wonderful, because life seemed to overflow with vitality and regeneration.  It was also dark, because I had a lot to personally work through.  I borrowed some recording equipment from a friend and recorded the album in a few weeks, off and on.  During those weeks, I was asked to play a show on the radio.  After that gig, another radio opportunity opened up.  My songwriting then endured a period of evolution.  As a matter of principle, I embraced odd noises here and there.  My dog can be heard sighing with boredom during Chamber Door, and a dump truck can be heard driving by at the end of another song.  In contrast to the previous two recordings, this one was done the old-fashioned way.  That is, I sat in front of a microphone and pushed the "record" button. 

Breaking Down: Acoustic Instrumentals

This album was released in the winter of 2011, and is the result of pure musical inspiration.  The songwriting process fortunately produces bits and pieces of material that may or may not become songs one day.  Ultimately those bits and pieces were forged into complete instrumentals. I had only a handful of songs, then tragedy struck.  My dog (some would say best friend) was bit by a rattlesnake and nearly died.  While she was recovering in a hospital, I experienced the tumultuous feeling of isolation and loneliness.  I named the resulting album Breaking Down because it was so traumatizing to watch my dog experience the pain and suffering brought on by venom.  Darwin's words rang true.  He said that the world surrounding humanity is constantly at war with itself, and we are largely blind to it.  This is my favorite album to listen to because it is dear to my heart and it never gets old.

This album is admittedly angry and dark.  Little more than demos, the tracks were difficult to master. It is by far the most haunting music I have recorded to date, but there is artistic beauty in that.  Recently, this collection of songs was cut from twenty-three tracks down to just seven. The album cover art was a piece I painted.

American Drone was written and recorded very quickly.  The entire thing was done, from beginning to end, in less than one month.  The short spurt of songwriting passion came from a two-month period of writer's block.  The album features some of my favorite songs, including Something for Free, Counterfeit Love, Broken Heart, Water in a Lonesome Cove, and Lamentations.  The recording is just vocal and guitar, and is a commentary on the American Dream.  Kudos to James Gibson, an incredible artist who came up with what he called a "zombot" for the cover art.

The Doldrums

The Doldrums is an album of instrumentals taken from the full previous version of Starving Time.