Brandon Brown: Age Is Nothing But A Number

 
Brandon Brown has built up an incredible resume in just 10 years. From a diverse range of artists to a variety of recording projects, Brandon’s undoubted maturity and impeccable taste have been in constant demand.

From the start, Brandon’s musicality seeped into everything he touched. The first band that he joined in High School, NuJynisis, is still making music under their own name and as a band for hire. Their first professional gig? They were the backing band for the late, Soul legend Isaac Hayes! Quite a way to spend your senior year! At 19, he appeared on the soundtrack to Hustle and Flow playing on Three Six Mafia’s Oscar-winning song, It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp His career has been on a steady climb ever since.

We recently had the chance to chat with Brandon before he heads out on the road with Jessica Simpson about his beginnings, lessons learned and his approach to playing bass in a modern Country setting.

I’d like to start right at the beginning – when did you start playing bass?
I’ve been playing bass now for close to ten years; I started when I was 15 and I’m 24 now. I’m from Memphis, Tennessee and I grew up playing in church – my father was a pastor and a musician as well. So really, the majority of the people in my family are musicians or preachers (laughs)! The first bass player that really caught my attention was Jermaine Jackson. After that it was James Jamerson and Victor Wooten, those two guys are my main influences.

Did you start playing live right away?
Yeah, I played in church and also joined the band that I am still in now, NuJynisis. Actually, the year that the band started was the year that I picked up the bass. There are five of us and we grew up together playing in churches and in school; we went to the same schools together. But how we got our start was playing talent shows. We won a few of them and we were like, “Man, maybe we’ve got something here!” So, we kind of kept that going and also started playing for other people. I was 18 years old when I got my first professional gig and that was with Isaac Hayes.

That’s an impressive first pro gig!
Yeah! We were his backing band for about a year. He was really great, god rest his soul. Mr. Hayes helped us out a lot and taught us about songwriting. His big lesson was that everybody should have a part to play and you should play your part. If you’re in a band, everybody shouldn’t play the exact same thing. You should keep it simple and when everything comes together it will click. That took us a long way!

I bet!
From there, we played with Stevie Wonder, Yolanda Adams, Kirk Whalum, Mint Condition and William Bell from the Stax Record label. The list is pretty long. Oh, and a lot of Gospel artists as well.

So you guys are almost like an entire band for hire.
Yeah, that’s true. NuJynisis also has it’s own album on iTunes, Rhapsody and CD Baby and we have some stuff that’s about to be released soon. We also do solo stuff as well.
Check out NuJynisis here: http://www.myspace.com/nugenesis

It really seems like in just a few years, you guys did a lot of work!
Yeah, it’s funny how it all happened. It’s been a blessing; God has blessed us. We’ve been able to do a lot of stuff. Currently, I’m playing for Jessica Simpson, Boys to Men and Leona Lewis from time to time. One of our keyboard players is with me doing the Jessica Simpson tour. Our other keyboard player/lead singer is out with Chris Cornell. And the drummer and guitar player are out on the road with Stevie Wonder right now. So, all five of us are on major tours – it’s kind of funny! Sometimes, all I can say is “wow”!

And you guys are all around the same age right?
Yeah, we’re all pretty young - we range from 23 to 27.

That’s amazing!
We’ve been doing this… like I said since I was 15 and I have learned a whole lot - a whole lot for my age. I think the reason I get a lot of calls is because of my maturity and a wide knowledge of music because I’ve played Country, Jazz, R&B, Soul, Funk, Hip-Hop, Gospel, Alternative… And NuJynisis; we have a strong rock vibe because of the heavy guitars. But it still has a gospel/fusion edge because we all play Jazz as well.

 

bbrown2


With all of the knowledge that you have from playing in a wide-variety of styles; how is it playing in Jessica’s band, which is really modern country?
Yeah, it is modern country. I guess being from Memphis I would sit in with Bluegrass cats. Memphis is the home of the Blues but also to Country-western, Bluegrass and Folk music, so I was exposed to all of that early on but I never had the opportunity to apply it. Sometimes I’ll get real excited and throw a lick in there and the MD will go, “Brandon, keep it country!” (Laughs) But the music is really good and the band is amazing and sometimes you just want to put something in there. But the best thing to do with Country is what Mr. Hayes told me when I was younger, “Play your part and keep it simple”. If everybody does that, there won’t be any sound conflicts. That’s really my train of thought for Jessica’s tour. I’m even using a passive bass, I don’t play active bass for this; I wanted to keep it true to the roots and get that real full sound – I don’t need to be aggressive on this gig at all.

It’s more about having the low-end there and “keeping the train moving” as they say!
Yeah, you gotta keep it pushing!

Any other playing requirements for this gig - did you have to alter your approach?
Playing-wise you want to play as sustained as possible using a lot of whole notes. Usually, there are only one or two notes per measure so you do a lot of slides in the songs to give it personality. That’s the farthest you can stretch – so I’ve learn how to do that because I really wasn’t that good at sliding into notes before. But now, I’m more accustomed to sliding in and out of notes because I was really listening to the material before we started playing.
Also, you want to play as laid back as you can because a lot of the Country guys have a tendency to rush. Their timing is good but I guess it’s because the banjo and fiddle players are playing all these 32nd notes and you have all those chicken-pickin’ guitar licks, there is that tendency to rush things live. So it’s on you, the bass player, to make sure that the timing is good. It’s really not the drummer; he can almost get away with rushing but as long as you lay back everything will be in sync. The bass player has to play laid back.

I know you touched on it a bit but what is something important, gear-wise, to bring to a situation like this?
Well a four-string instrument would handle the situation fine but for me personally, since we have some songs in C and D, you want to have that low B string to make it as full as possible. Sometimes you might want to play fifths, the one and the fifth together, to make it real full, especially on the ballads. I use flat-wounds on one of my basses but I usually use steel round wounds on the main bass. For this tour I’m taking the AG500 and the DB210 and DB212 cabinets in Chocolate Thunder. That combination of the 10” and 12” speakers is crazy! I used it once before at a store and it was amazing. They really give you that fullness that you need to make it warm, and not only satisfy you but to make sure that you are anchoring that band. For this first leg of the tour we’re opening for Rascal Flatts, so I’m not bringing the big rig. Then we’re going to go out again as headliner and for that I’ll be bringing the DB 750 and DB 412. Oh, and of course I’m using the Tone Hammer!

That’s right – you were one of our first artists with one!
That’s my secret weapon right there – it’s amazing. I make sure that it is always with me. Actually I should get another one! Like I was saying when I first heard it, it does not color your sound; it takes what it is and gives it a boost. Other preamps and D.I. boxes color your sound; you get a lot of mids or something strange like that. But you play through this and it is really just what your bass sounds like! I love that.

So far, you’ve done some spot dates with Jessica right?
Yeah, we did all of the talk shows and then some casino shows. I forgot all of the appearances we did but I know there was Letterman, Ellen, Good Morning America, The View and a great show at The Grand Old Opry. That was the most amazing experience because there is so much history in that place from all of the artists that performed there. That was my favorite show so far!

How long is the full tour going to be?
We’re starting on January 16th in Kansas City and go through March 12th.

Thanks Brandon for sharing your story with us!

bbrown3

For more information on Brandon Brown, visit his Myspace page at:
http://www.myspace.com/nujbassmane