Career Ian Brennan (music producer)

1 career

1.1 san francisco bay area
1.2 international work
1.3 production style
1.4 mental health background
1.5 writing

career
san francisco bay area

at age 20, self-released first solo album , went on produce 8 more. reflects own worst enemy , made of horrible albums possible due obsessive-compulsive, autocratic approach.

beginning in 1996, 5 years hosted free, acoustic music show in san francisco laundromat. perform solo , feature different local band each week. documented shows field recordings , these resulted in 3 unscrubbed compilation albums in 1997–1999.

brennan regularly organized benefit shows social and/or political causes during period—most notably presenting fugazi, vic chesnutt, , sleater-kinney free in mission dolores park honor 20th anniversary of food not bombs in 2000, staging green day free on front of steps of san francisco s city hall on sunday before george w. bush s election president in 2000.

he received 2 grammy award nominations producing albums in traditional folk category (ramblin jack elliott s stand alone in 2006, , peter case s let praise sleepy john in 2007). ramblin jack record features lucinda williams , members of wilco, x, los lobos, , red hot chili peppers.

international work

in 2009, , wife, italian-rwandan filmmaker, photographer, , author, marilena delli, began traveling world in search of countries , languages underrepresented internationally. amongst others, has resulted in releases rwanda, malawi, south sudan, cambodia, tanzania, romania, pakistan, vietnam, within kibera in nairobi, kenya , notably inside zomba central prison in malawi.

in 2011, won grammy award tuareg band, tinariwen s tassili album, recorded live in southeast algerian desert months before arab spring erupted , war swept through area. album includes members of tv on radio, dirty dozen brass band, , guitarist nels cline.

in 2015, gained nomination grammy award best world music album zomba prison project, story of covered around world including on front-page of new york times , television program 60 minutes anderson cooper reporting. segment won emmy award outstanding feature story , nominated 2 other emmys.

brennan has produced many of filmmaker, john waters live stand-up comedy shows since 2001 @ venues such fillmore in san francisco , royal festival hall in london, @ festivals including coachella, bumbershoot, , bonnaroo. brennan has created pairings waters such jonathan richman, peaches, , wanda jackson.

brennan has spoken music @ smithsonian museum, university of london, new school (new york), berklee college of music, , womadelaide in australia.

production style

brennan known fly on wall style of production , compared alan lomax. states relationships , emotion interests him, not technology. advocates embracing imperfection partner , prefers record outdoors , 100% live, without overdubs.

mental health background

at age 20, in need of way support himself, began working in locked psychiatric hospitals counselor. continued fifteen years in psychiatric emergency rooms in oakland , richmond, california.

in 1993 asked develop curriculum , teach co-workers in verbal de-escalation @ east bay hospital in richmond. request based on having regularly demonstrated skill @ de-fusing emotionally charged , violent situations. through word of mouth, began teaching full-time @ hospitals, clinics, jails , schools in san francisco bay area , greater california. teaching led him around country , world, having taught in africa, southeast asia, europe, australia, , middle east, @ such places university of california, berkeley, betty ford center, , national accademia of science (rome).

writing

at age 19, brennan s poetry published first time in anthology (fineline thunder) curated adult-school creative writing workshop instructor, betty solomon. published again same year in berkeley poetry journal, agape.

he has written music guitar player, talkhouse, huck, songlines (magazine), flood magazine, zero, , tape op.

in 2011, published book on anger, anger antidotes. follow-up, hate-less, issued in 2014.

in 2015, semi-autobiographical novella, sister maple syrup eyes, published, after working on drafts of on 25 years. deals aftermath of sexual assault of partner, trauma experienced @ age 21. readers+writers journal praised it, beautiful book. achingly beautiful. , louder war states is, ….alive energy of eye-witness. small press picks noted, in vividly re-creating kristian s personal journey, brennan offers layered , moving exploration of truth…

his fourth book was, how music dies (or lives): field-recording , battle democracy in arts. in explores concerns related continuing domination of english language media across planet, , details how recording technology can lead more lifeless results centralization of content. largehearted boy calls …one of thought-provoking books on modern music have ever read.