OUR TAKE ON BRIAN BERGERON

If you are human ( as opposed to a robot or cat or jabba ) you have feelings. Brian Bergeron knows how to connect his to yours and for that we are a big fan. His openness and vulnerability in his songwriting process creates a wildly evocative and poetic sound that really puts you in a mood. We’re confident that his synch-able sound will take off. In the meantime you can check him out in the Jingle Player or catch one of his bajillion shows this summer in the pacific north west.

JP: How did your musical journey begin? What did you realize it was your passion?

BRIAN: I started playing guitar at age 12. It is kind of a silly story but I saw the movie “That Thing You Do” (did you ever see it?) and thought, “I’d like to do that.” Up until that point I wanted to be a writer. I was accepted to college as an English major but changed my major to Music Business at orientation
I played in bands in high school but in college was when I really began to give it a go.

JP: Interesting! So it all started with a movie and a guitar…Do you remember what the first song you wrote was like?

BRIAN: Yea, it was pretty bad…as I’m sure all artists regard their early music. I was a big 90′s alt-rock fan, especially Everclear and I wrote a lot of music about being isolated and moody. It was ‘emo’ for sure but they didn’t quite have that label back then. It was called ‘Back of the Bus’ Girl and it was about courting some goth girl on the bus. You can’t see my face but I’m cringing. [Laughs].

JP: Oh don’t you cringe. That was my JAM in highschool. I actually came across your music by searching for Bon Iver -esque tunes. Do you have any conscious influences ?

BRIAN: Oh cool! I’m a little late to Bon Iver but I just started listening heavily to him last week
conscious influences — [Thinking], well I like a lot of alt-country/folk-rock songwriters. Contemporaries would be Ryan Adams, Josh Ritter, and Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco) and Matt Nathanson was pivotal to me for a number of years.

JP: Do you remember relating or being drawn to any particular music in your more formative years?

BRIAN: Yea, well it was tough to not be influenced by Dave Matthews when I picked up the acoustic guitar around ’97. He’s not too conscious of an influence anymore but his rhythmic playing early on had an effect. Again, a lot of 90′s alt-rock, and I was really into Van Morrison when I was younger…I didn’t grow up in a very musical household, however, which was weird so I had to play a lot of catch-up….and am still playing catch-up.

JP: Did your music style/influence change at all when you moved out west?

BRIAN: Yea, though I don’t know if it was because I moved out west or because of all the life changes that resulted from moving. A band like The Band I didn’t have much exposure to in New England for whatever reason but they’ve been enjoyable to finally get in to out here. I’ve also over the last year been getting into a lot more new music (The Black Keys, Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, and Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes). My style has changed as well because I used music to help understand the big life changes that resulted from moving out here. I ended a 7-year relationship with my girlfriend that I moved out here with and used songwriting to really process everything.

JP: So lyrics must be important to you…Do you find it more important to write for yourself or write to connect with others?

BRIAN: I think authenticity when writing about oneself allows music to connect with others. By writing about myself, I think I’m saying something specifically about myself and people take a variety of different meanings from it. Additionally, sometimes my songwriting is a conversation to someone that I can’t necessarily converse with so it can allow for somewhat of a dialogue between myself and the listener
Those sentences weren’t put together too well but you get the idea…[laughs].

JP: Definitely. I’ve been listening to your music all afternoon and enjoying the poetic style lyrics. Is poetry another passion of yours?

BRIAN: Not really. I was never into poetry too much though I did have a phase in high school where I was into a lot of Beat poetry and literature (Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, etc.) I will say that my lyricism now (and this is since my album that you’ve been listening to) is more intentful and playful in a way that I think is similar to poetry but the lyricism vs. poetry debate I think is one that is more a matter of taste or preference.

JP: What’s your song writing process like?

BRIAN: It usually starts with guitar. I get some guitar parts together and then a vocal melody. Once that is in line, I’ll work on some non-sensical lyrics to get the flow of how I want things paced. I might get a hook that I latch on that becomes the focal point of the song but oftentimes when I have guitar and melody I start writing lyrics. I’d say 50% of the time I know what I want the song to be about when I start, the other 50% I kind of let the muse strike me. I can’t talk about the muse without feeling pretentious (chalk that up to my own insecurity) but I do believe somewhat in allowing yourself to be a conduit to creative forces and producing things that are somewhat unexplainable sometimes BUT it works in a billion different permutations, that’s the most common. Sometimes it starts with lyrics…

JP: That makes sense. Is there a particular physical space that works best for your creativity? A room, a park, a robe, a lucky cup?

BRIAN: Not particularly. In fact, I find different spaces and working with different guitars lends itself to creating differently. Oftentimes, a glass of whiskey or (I hope this doesn’t get me in trouble, aha) marijuana helps me become comfortable enough to let my guard down. I find that creativity can be very self-conscious (for me in particular) so being comfortable allows me to take chances and not worry about failure. If you are fearless in the face of failure, I think the creativity that does work is more effective.

JP: I like that.

BRIAN: I am a self-conscious person. [Laughing]

JP: So where do you see your musical journey taking you? Who do you hope to reach? What do you hope to accomplish with your music?

BRIAN: I have pretty modest goals. I don’t want to be a rock star but I’d like to be able to make a living playing music full-time (and have done so for a few years!). I’d like to not worry about how I’m going to fund my next record. I’d like to be able to tour once and a while and play modest sized rooms and not freak out about selling tickets. I’d like music to be an extension of living a healthy and happy life. I’d like to use my art to meet and connect with people. Though if something weird happened and I had some type of unexpected notoriety, I think I’d allow it and not implode. I hope to also help other musicians realize that a life of making art can be done through hard work too and not through dumb luck because I think that is a pervasive attitude that is not factual.

JP: Right. What about music publishing-how did you connect with Jingle Punks?

BRIAN: I had a couple of my songs featured on “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”. I received the cue sheet afterwards and saw that a great deal of the songs on the episode were from Jingle Punks. I then did my background research and saw that they were pretty top-notch and sent my music in.

JP: I know it must be sort of strange to upload your music and have no idea where its going- if could control that- what would be your dream show to be on?

BRIAN: [Thinks for a moment] — Well the current shows that I watch are “The Daily Show”, “The Colbert Report” and “30 Rock”. Anything on HBO would be fantastic and any show whose viewers seek out the music that they hear. Up to this point, I have had only instrumentals featured so a vocal track would be truly fantastic. I’m also a BIG fan of movies so a feature film would be super exciting. I’ll be starting a new record soon so I’m looking forward to running that up the flagpole too and seeing what I can get out of it!

JP: Speaking of, anything you want to let the community know about upcoming plans, records, shows…etc?

BRIAN: I’m playing at The Hotel Utah in SF on June 21st…and I have 50 or 60 shows this summer. Next month I plan on doing a series of live music videos that showcase the new songs that will be making up my next album. I’ll be shooting these in some pretty cool locations and playing with a unique group of backing musicians. Then I hope to record the new album this fall. I’m still completely independent and self-represented so I hope to build up my clout enough this summer and fall to court some great management. I have a vision but I need help with execution.

JP: Wow! That’s a lot of shows! That’s wonderful. We’ll be sure to include a link to the dates in this post. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me! I look forward to following your success.