Unknown Speaker 0:00
It's Chuck from above the basement Boston music and conversation How would you like to join us in creating great conversations that inspire and connect Patreon is a membership platform that provides a way for creators like us to build relationships and provide exclusive experiences to subscribers or patrons we have been self financed since we got off the ground in June of 2016. But in order to continue to fully invest all we can in each episode we need your patronage For more information please go to patreon.com forward slash above the basement
Unknown Speaker 0:57
oh there for now
Unknown Speaker 1:03
is next to you have
Unknown Speaker 1:09
to hold on
Unknown Speaker 1:12
life we found me to
Unknown Speaker 1:17
go
Unknown Speaker 1:22
your brain me there's XCU called
Unknown Speaker 1:31
hot be
Unknown Speaker 1:42
stay euro
Unknown Speaker 2:22
when we got word that Brent Shuttleworth was coming to town we saw it as an opportunity to celebrate the Nashville Boston connection new and old friends and experience a fresh unique style of songwriting and performing we wanted to do something new. So we gathered some ATB friends and fans together at rep scallions table in tap in Acton, Massachusetts, and did our first live episode that we are calling a concert cast, Brent immersed himself into the audience with his music and strong spirit, he worked his craft of combining a classic singer songwriter vibe, along with new beats and loops via a control surface called machine we talked about his journey and method his love for visual art and expression and how was terrifying assault by several men that caused a head injury and almost killed him changed his perspective on life and his music forever. This was also a sort of homecoming for Brent as he spent several years here as a kid and we were excited to invite him to the concert cast stage for music and conversation. So here is our conversation with Brent Shuttleworth recorded at reps galleons cable and tap in fact, in Massachusetts.
Unknown Speaker 3:29
Alright, so red.
Unknown Speaker 3:31
Welcome back to Boston. You came in just recently from without run out. Yeah, you're on tour not doing not doing house concerts.
Unknown Speaker 3:37
Yeah, house concerts, small venues, small festivals and stuff like that.
Unknown Speaker 3:41
So now this is a real departure from what you used to do.
Unknown Speaker 3:46
Yeah, I've been traveling around, you know, touring heavily for the past four or five years, mainly doing solo acoustic and solo electric. And I think that, you know, just a big part of my inspiration and trying to do something new is just when I go around and talk to people, they give me music to listen to, you know, I've just been really inspired by a lot of the new sounds that I've heard a lot of new artists and songwriters. So I wanted to kind of represent my music in the way that I hear it in my head, which is a really fun thing to be able to do. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 4:16
well, you know, I've told the story before where someone hired me to be a lead singer for the band. And I'm not a terrorist. So I'm used to seeing with a guitar. Yeah, right. And so I be up there and not have a guitar and have just a microphone in front of me. And it was so foreign to me. I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't know what to do with my hands. It was very awkward until I started channeling Steven Tyler and like taking the microphone stand and like lifting it up and spinning it
Unknown Speaker 4:43
around and bandanas on
Unknown Speaker 4:45
is the awkwardness a lot like this
Unknown Speaker 4:49
Yes, it is but your guitarist right this is that's Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 4:52
that's those are your roots. That's Those are my roots for sure.
Unknown Speaker 4:55
You feel like you're in a foreign land up there like working all that without a guitar
Unknown Speaker 4:58
1,000% Yeah, this is my third show running loops and working on mixing and productions and and being able to have a cool a cool way to, you know, represent the music and experiment with some different different sounds.
Unknown Speaker 5:14
Okay, Brent, what is that thing of their?
Unknown Speaker 5:17
It's called machine machine?
Unknown Speaker 5:18
How did you even like find out about it
Unknown Speaker 5:20
like? Well, basically, it's a newer MPC player. So it samples right it samples, it has a bunch of different abilities to you, basically, you can have different chord sets and stuff like that, as you'll see later on the set. You know, I play it like a piano. And so it's a cool thing that does different arpeggiated samples stuff. And basically, I went through and reproduced a lot of my old records and a lot of the new stuff that I've been writing on machine to be able to run it in like these 48 bar loops,
Unknown Speaker 5:51
it gives you such freedom. But is it daunting at all to like, where do you start? Sometimes, I mean, you just have an idea that pops in your head, just like you'd have. Yeah, for, let's say, a melody or some other something you'd write on piano or guitar?
Unknown Speaker 6:05
Yeah, I think everything the base of everything is piano or guitar, you know, I'm not a top line writer, you know, the inspiration always comes from, you know, picking up a real instrument and playing piano and playing guitar. So I think all songs, all the songs are really written that way, which is kind of has been a big part of my influence in Nashville, you know, the songwriting process down there is based in organic instruments and less of top lining and writing two tracks and stuff like that.
Unknown Speaker 6:33
Right. Right. And so, you know, that was my next question is, you're living in a place with this one of the homes of country music, but if you listen your albums, you do have some pretty classic bare bones, guitar stuff that's beautiful. in Nashville, do you find that you're a little fish in a big pond type of thing? Or do you find that there's other people you're connecting with this type of more machine music? Or?
Unknown Speaker 6:56
That's a great question, I haven't really thought about that. I don't do care, we're not really, at all. Like, I don't really see myself as a part of the music industry, per se, in any sort of structural sort of way, you know, I'm not relying on any sort of, you know, publishers or record labels to approve anything that I'm doing. So everything that I do is is directly, you know, related to me following my own Muse and doing what inspires me the most. So a lot of the industry in Nashville is centered around country music. I obviously, you know, I don't play country music, but I have respect for great, great songs.
Unknown Speaker 7:34
But this is such a departure from what you have done before. How much of that horrible thing that happened to you changed the direction now? Or was it that specifically or was it a, you know, what, this is the music I want to make? I'm going to take this new chance I have and do the music I really want to do or what? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 7:55
I think I think it's actually a combination of things. When I was having incident, right, it was, you know, I don't think this is this is specific to me in any way. I think that a lot of people go through different periods of trauma in their life. And this was just one thing that happened to me. But it definitely was an experience that woke woke me up to the reality of the finite nature of life, and that it can be over at any moment. And for me, I love music more than anything in the world. And I love creating music more than anything in the world. So for me to be able to be free and follow my muse and write the songs that I want to write, write the songs that speak to me, as an artist, I have a responsibility to really cut through all the the you can say, okay, we're cutting through the bullshit. I think that yeah, it was initially inspired by that event, just in terms of the freedom and not wanting to necessarily like fit myself or my taste into a specific box that's identifiable for people that people can just check out and say, oh, Brian Shuttleworth, does this sort of music? And for me, it's more than that. Do you
Unknown Speaker 9:06
find that the music that you wrote, as you recovered from your head injury had any type of development and of itself? Did you think of things differently than you did before? 2010? It may be hard question, because your music changes. But what are your thoughts on that?
Unknown Speaker 9:26
I think I stopped thinking about what other people were going to think of my music. And I think that I just thought less, it's not that I changed, my approach didn't change significantly. It was just, I think that I just stopped thinking, I think that I stopped caring what other people, you know, I care what people think of my music in the sense that I want to connect to people. But in terms of, you know, any sort of like commercial sense, I just wanted to be happy. I wanted to have simplicity to my life, where I could go be the person that I am, and be able to travel and connect to people in any sort of environment. That to me is my purpose. So I was enabled. To do that a little bit more by thinking less you know, and just having a sense of freedom from that incident. I gotta say that I've been, you know, incredibly fortunate to to have people around me that have been been really supportive of me Mike shim shack been the
Unknown Speaker 10:29
every time you say Shim Chuck, you have to take a drink of your beer.
Unknown Speaker 10:33
Shake Shack.
Unknown Speaker 10:34
Good. Go ahead.
Unknown Speaker 10:36
So you know, as a friend, and as a as a creative person, as a producer, as a songwriter. As I was explaining to him, check him, check him check him check. The reason I'm doing what I'm doing is a lot of that is because of Mike, I think he's the most talented songwriter and producer I've ever heard in my life. And I'm just a big fan. I'm a fan more than anything. And I I just feel fortunate to be able to work with him
Unknown Speaker 11:02
when you lose it all.
Unknown Speaker 11:06
with no one to care to when you fall
Unknown Speaker 11:13
will be way to
Unknown Speaker 11:18
be
Unknown Speaker 11:20
fall you
Unknown Speaker 11:26
when you found your way.
Unknown Speaker 11:30
Where everything you thought would stay.
Unknown Speaker 11:36
We will be live in for the day. Now
Unknown Speaker 11:45
for you
Unknown Speaker 11:56
hit the ground when there's no we
Unknown Speaker 12:02
will be right here for you.
Unknown Speaker 12:06
To face the PJU to stay will be right here for you.
Unknown Speaker 12:19
So I want to talk about the little pieces there. You have pre recorded. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 12:24
yep. So sample samples,
Unknown Speaker 12:25
tell me how you you put those together. Now, some of them samples that you purchase, and that are already done by other people, right? They all created by yourself or the beats done by you or the
Unknown Speaker 12:37
everything is done by me with the exception of there are some things that I've I've created. And then there's also some things that I've sampled from other, you know, file sharing programs, there's a program, you know, called splice, where it's a royalty free way of sharing different snippets of music for producers. And it's a really inspiring place to go. And here what other people do are doing, it's a very cutting edge sort of thing. So I'll take like a small little piece and then create a melody over it or make chords out of it or just make my own make my own sounds in order to support the overall idea of a particular song that I'm working on. But all the beats and stuff are all mine.
Unknown Speaker 13:19
You're playing up there and I can see you You know, you've certainly have sequences that are planned. Yeah, how much of this up there is improvised,
Unknown Speaker 13:27
a lot of it is improvised. I have a general idea of what I'm going to do. I've experimented a lot with different sounds. So I know that there's certain things that that I think work, I don't know when I'm going to do them. It's not scripted out, like every show will be different. You know, I'll never play the same show twice. It's not like going up and hitting spacebar and just playing along to a track that's totally stagnant. It's basically every four bars is triggering something else. So you get an inherently different experience every night. It makes it more fun for me, and hopefully for four people that like it.
Unknown Speaker 14:07
Yeah, you wouldn't think that. I mean, because you make it sound so natural. And a lot of times people are listening. I don't know about everybody else. But yeah, you're hitting different knobs and buttons on machine. I love that there's improvisation within something that seems so machine like it's it's a kind of a cool dichotomy. And I want to switch gears a little bit, and then we're going to hear a little bit we're going to hear from you guys, we want to have think of some questions you might have. I want to ask about the recording process, because you worked with some greats like zero who played drums with john mayer and Genesis as well. I think you played with some pretty iconic people in the studio. Now Nashville really has that gravitas. You get people that come to Nashville to do studio work. What was that experience like to come in with these songs and
Unknown Speaker 14:58
near z is he's my favorite drummer in the whole world. He's played on on some really incredible, incredibly influential records, and is also a great studio player. He's a machine he's a true, a true master at his craft. So he played drums on feels like line, which is my last record. It's so cool, because he knows the the field that I like. But he also makes it very unique. No two bars are exactly alike. There's there's constant movement, he's coming in and out and makes it a living breathing thing. I also got to record with Dan Doug Moore, who you know, played with James Taylor for 13 years, he played with Linda Ronstadt for 14 years. He's a pedal steel player, and just hit his energy as a person. These guys are like absolute gangsters, but they're so humble. And they're so kind and they're so cool. They have such good energy and they come in, and they just the fluidly process the music through them. And it's it's so fun to watch. It's my favorite part of making a record is to see it come together, but also to see the different people's personality come out in things that I've written.
Unknown Speaker 16:09
This is only you said, Your Own your third concert doing this. Yeah, right. Yeah, this is brand new, it's gonna be pretty terrifying. Especially, look, we obviously have some technical difficulties of our own.
Unknown Speaker 16:21
Right?
Unknown Speaker 16:23
We don't have nearly as many buttons as he does up there. I mean, you even playing live for for a long, long time. But this is a such a new direction for you. Yeah. And this is being only the third time you played in front of an audience. what's the what's the one thing you've discovered? That's different from when you were just, you know, doing the singer songwriter guitar,
Unknown Speaker 16:42
I think the thing that I need to be the most aware of, of anything, it's just, it's just dynamics, right? It's, it's, it's everything, because with artists that go out there, and they run track, and it's a stagnant sort of thing, where there's not, there's not a living breathing this to it, I want people to feel something, I want to be able to, like have the control to bring the track down if I want to and have there let there be a moment or have there be something where I'm playing live, it's not just like a thing that I'm just locked into pre recorded bars there can be left to it. So there's parts will have more energy and more momentum, and I can be able to bring it
Unknown Speaker 17:23
bring making stuff in organic out of something that's not organic,
Unknown Speaker 17:27
right? It's making something organic, organic moments out of something that is totally inorganic, and sounds that, you know, I've listened to growing up that have really inspired me and I'm like, how would How would I make that music? You know,
Unknown Speaker 17:40
the challenge, though, is now you're at the mercy of that machine. If you want to bring it down, you're just playing the guitar. That's easy to do.
Unknown Speaker 17:48
Yeah, your your dynamics in the guitar, how hard you hit the strings, your voice helps as well. You have a lot of eggs in the air when you're when you're up there. Yeah. So did you find taking control of that dynamic attract a hit? Is that much more of a challenge for you? I have no
Unknown Speaker 18:02
idea. I don't
Unknown Speaker 18:05
know work in the for I
Unknown Speaker 18:06
don't I don't really know the the answer to that. I don't think that I'm any sort of master at it. It's something that is fun for me and inspires me, but bringing, you know, trying to bring the dynamics down and playing, you know, like, So tonight, I want to play songs that are totally acoustic. Right. They're not affected vocals, they're not be driven. They're just real stories and real connection. You know, and I think that that's something that I learned a lot from doing solo acoustic touring, was that I want it to be an exchange, I don't want it to just be like you sit in you watch. And that's it. There can be a conversation had between an audience and a certain moment in the show,
Unknown Speaker 18:44
we would like to open up for like a few minutes to ask. Ask any question. You guys. We got one over there.
Unknown Speaker 18:50
So hi, hey, so I was watching your set from over here on the side. And I noticed that the machine change colors? Yep, a lot. And then sometimes there was just one color, right? What does that mean? Like? How do you know when it changes colors? Is that something you're doing? Or is it the machine telling you what's happening like the rest of our lives.
Unknown Speaker 19:17
Basically, when you're working with machine, you have your basic group of 16 sounds right, and you're running these four bar loops, you can go into any one of those sounds, and turn it into keyboard mode, or turn it into chord mode. So you can actually be playing the chords live, or you can put into keyboard mode. So it's individual notes, you can choose your scales. And what I was doing on this last song is I was turning one of the sounds into an arc, which basically is you know, it's a circular amount of notes, you can change it to go up or change it to go down or up and down. So there's an incredible amount of variation in it. Those main colors are all my 16 sounds for one song. And then you can go into any one of those songs and kind of mess with the sounds you can put stutter at it, or Trello or some reverb and stuff like that. But the arts are are my favorite. They're pretty fun. And you can assign, you can assign any color you want to whatever pad that you want. So visually, it makes it easier when you're up in front of people really nervous. And you're like, this is where I'm going right here.
Unknown Speaker 20:29
there any other questions? What's your name, sir?
Unknown Speaker 20:32
My name is Eric generally Who are your music influencers? My influences? I mean, the span, but I'm a huge Peter Gabriel fan. I'm a really big fan of YouTube. And there's so many newer artists I've been listening to and listen to a lot of Chet Baker, I don't know if you've heard of Jeff Baker before. My first concert that I ever went to was at the Orpheum Theater in Boston, I went to see the Allman Brothers. It was the one singular moment where I knew what I wanted to do for the rest my life. You know, I watched Dickey Betts and Warren Haynes play together, it blew my mind. It's funny. It's like I don't I don't know how that connects to my music. But I knew that you know, music as a as a medium is so incredibly powerful to be able to connect to people but my favorite artists, you know, I listened to a lot of like really classic stuff. I've been listening to a lot of Fleetwood Mac. I've been listening to a lot of Abba, I love Abba. I love how epic Abba is. And the stacked vocals in the choruses. It's just absolute perfection.
Unknown Speaker 21:34
Yeah. You said you've done singer songwriter like solo guitar stuff. And you've also done this machine thing. Have you thought about ever combining the two styles? Like maybe looping some guitar and then like playing the machine over your guitars? I like that. Is that to come?
Unknown Speaker 21:47
to come? Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Unknown Speaker 21:49
What's your name? Stephanie. Stephanie, that looks like Salvador Dali on your arm. And I'm wondering what the influences there.
Unknown Speaker 21:57
Hey, Stephanie. We're going to become best friends real quick. The Salvador Dali influence one of my favorite painters of all time, my parents lived down in Bradenton, Florida right next to St. Pete. And every time I go to visit them, I go to the Dali museum. My original love of Dolly came from my father. And my father had a reproduction of the Lincoln Dolly growing up in our house. For me, it represents my connection with my father. And the thing that I love about Dolly is that it's visually incredible to look at. But the symbolism behind it is so incredibly specific. Every little thing is intentional. It's really beautiful and captivating, and some of the paintings are 20 some odd feet tall, and some are, you know the size of this menu right here. So it's beautiful.
Unknown Speaker 22:49
One more question from Mr. Bill Newsome.
Unknown Speaker 22:52
So we have this beautiful rendition of Salvador Dali on your left arm and then on your right arm. I noticed this tattoo throughout your performance. My two guests is is that it's either Frankenstein or Dolph Lundgren. Could you elaborate on the tattoo when you're right?
Unknown Speaker 23:06
The answer is both. So the funny there's a funny story about this tattoo. I got this tattoo in Nashville. I went into a gas station The day after I got it. And the woman behind the counter says you pay
Unknown Speaker 23:20
money for that time.
Unknown Speaker 23:23
And I said yeah, she said I wanna
Unknown Speaker 23:28
and then hurt my feelings. But this is this is a painting by Zsa Michel Basquiat, who's a New York art Haitian New York artist, and was really one of the creators of street art in the 80s in New York City, but he's also another one of my favorite painters and this piece that he did in the 80s was a series of boxers and it's called Cassius Clay So
Unknown Speaker 23:53
very cool. Thank you
Unknown Speaker 24:22
beneath the city walls, the Belkin
Unknown Speaker 24:35
Lucky Three Two is no way
Unknown Speaker 24:47
yes me.
Unknown Speaker 24:53
Yes me. Given
Unknown Speaker 24:58
Sandow Oh the sin
Unknown Speaker 25:09
the sin no
Unknown Speaker 25:15
no
Unknown Speaker 25:17
no yay
Unknown Speaker 25:31
stay to the night stop Buddha can see the lag
Unknown Speaker 25:42
not down chasing a dream cuz I believe
Unknown Speaker 25:52
Yes, me
Unknown Speaker 25:58
Yes, me funky.
Unknown Speaker 26:03
Yes, please.
Unknown Speaker 26:08
Yes, please.
Unknown Speaker 26:24
Sin No.
Unknown Speaker 26:30
No.
Unknown Speaker 26:32
No. Yay. Everything's
Unknown Speaker 27:39
everything's gonna be all right. All right. All right. Everything Sarah for you. All right. All right. All right. everything for you. All right.
Unknown Speaker 27:46
All right. All right. Love lust lust, lust. lust, lust, lust, lust, lust, lust, lust, lust lust. He lost he lost he lost he lost lost.
Unknown Speaker 29:37
Glad where's my dancers? were my dancers. We got
Unknown Speaker 29:42
Ron. We got Ron.
Unknown Speaker 29:52
Ron and need to get behind the sofa see a black shoe the gold left. Would you win right lucky she would go home to stay tonight. Mama Bona putting in the loony bin too much think about good man but Oh Mr. But that's all right. I got the script and it will change your lifestyle me that will not
Unknown Speaker 30:18
be the winner
Unknown Speaker 30:24
a two in the morning to before bed style David with
Unknown Speaker 30:33
recreates
Unknown Speaker 30:36
a two way the phone to before bed.
Unknown Speaker 30:40
Please give it up.
Unknown Speaker 31:03
I used to overthink too much I couldn't make the booty eat for lunch without shaved thought the sky was falling down the voices in my head was getting too loud and took a trip to what difference at home I found out at the only own upon could we all messed up but that's all right I got the scripts and it will change your lifestyle will not
Unknown Speaker 31:32
recreate
Unknown Speaker 31:35
but to win to before bed stop
Unknown Speaker 31:41
living with
Unknown Speaker 31:49
two before bed
Unknown Speaker 32:15
shake that shadow about tomorrow broke and what sweet we info you want the other side
Unknown Speaker 32:23
to sleep roll back back
Unknown Speaker 32:26
to still still fair no one else should be in control of how you live in your life that no life no lie
Unknown Speaker 32:41
give it up for my two friends right here started live it will be
Unknown Speaker 32:53
up to them to before bed stop will be to
Unknown Speaker 33:12
gain
Unknown Speaker 34:44
to
Unknown Speaker 34:46
the UK
Unknown Speaker 34:51
it's crazy
Unknown Speaker 34:55
down to every rebound God UK sound about BP the it's crazy
Unknown Speaker 35:08
to know that you came to sound about
Unknown Speaker 35:15
this crazy
Unknown Speaker 35:19
job Don't you know that you can do something about
Unknown Speaker 35:27
this crazy. Ready.
Unknown Speaker 36:18
It was quite the evening recording our first concert cast in front of a live audience and we loved it so much. We will be doing it again soon. We'll have more information on that in the coming weeks. Brent is a fantastic guy and he was a huge hit with the crowd. We highly recommend checking out his music at Brent Shuttleworth com We would also like to thank Peter at reps galleons table in tap and Akon FOR HIS hospitality. You can check them out at drink rapscallion calm and a special thank you to our friend Bill Newsham for emceeing the event. We will also have the complete 45 minute concert Brent performed for us after the conversation as one of our in concert series episodes on our website above the basement. com where you can also join us on Patreon. Sign up for our newsletter. Listen and subscribe to our podcasts like our Facebook page. Follow us on Twitter and look at all the nice pictures we post on Instagram. We are everywhere. On behalf of Ronnie and myself. Thanks for listening. Tell your friends and remember Boston music like its history is unique.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
