Where does Brumbylon Music Come From

This week’s feature: Julian’s Song

He crossed oceans to find us

January 1st, 2014, I flew out of Logan Airport in Boston, I had a 4 hour layover in Los Angeles then 13 1/2 hours in the air to finally arrive in Auckland, New Zealand. It was the first time I set foot in the country of my birth since 1969.  

For months before I left, I was flooded with emotions and memories that became catalysts for many pieces of music and songs. Most of these have not seen the light of day as they were more of a personal journey documenting my history and processing my childhood “stuff”. Lisa was incredibly supportive through this time as were the friends and family that helped make this trip possible. I am eternally grateful. We have yet to assemble all of these pieces into a cohesive collection but rest assured, it will happen!  

Julian’s Song was written for the man that became my dad, Julian F. Brumby. I had been spending so much time addressing the darker parts of my early history that I was forgetting the one person that changed everything.

Julian, a.k.a. Jim, met and married my mother and brought my brother and I ( he was 8, I was 7) to the states. He was in the US Navy at the time, his ship took port in New Zealand and the rest is history. Maybe one day I’ll be able to put lyrics to this music, or maybe Lisa will.

Who knows how it all works. I didn’t have the words when the music came but the love is there. Thank you Dad for your decisiveness, bad-assery, commitment to meeting mum, your gentle spirit and love.

                                I would be a great man to be half the man you are.

Enjoy our little gift to you from Brumbylon – we hope it finds you well and feeds your soul. Stay tuned for next week’s feature when we invite you back INTO THE CAVE!

Enjoy our little gift to you from Brumbylon – we hope it finds you well and feeds your soul. Stay tuned for next week’s feature when we invite you back INTO THE CAVE!

Where does Brumbylon Music Come From

This week’s feature: Dark Angry Moody Shit

Can a millipede dance to Brumbylon music?

It’s interesting to look back at a moment in time and wonder: What was going on for a piece of original music to earn the working title, “Dark Angry Moody Shit”? It was probably not the cheeriest of days, though there is always a great deal of joy that comes from creating a guitar piece like this. Listening today it feels more complicated and pensive than just dark, angry and moody.

Unlike last week’s song, which held a 9-beat measure, this one flows from an odd time to 4/4 groove, possibly inspired by the Pink Floyd song, Money, which flows from a 7/8 feel to a 4/4 feel and back again. The song was written and structured in a way that leaves room for a melody line and vocals, which will most likely be colored by the feel of the music…but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. 

We at Brumbylon also have a fascination with nature – be it flora, fauna, land, sky or seascape – we enjoy capturing rare moments. The video accompanying this song is of a yellow spotted millipede (I think). This battle-weary critter (notice it is missing antenna) was filmed during a family camping trip in Vermont, and seems to pair nicely with this piece of music. If you watch the video through the 00:56 mark, you’ll see Millie get some real groove on.  

Enjoy our little gift to you from Brumbylon – we hope it finds you well and feeds your soul. Stay tuned for next week’s feature when we invite you back INTO THE CAVE!

Where does Brumbylon Music Come From?

This week’s feature: The Puzzle 

At its inception, this piece of music was an experiment in timing. The initial “lick” began as a 9-beat per measure phrase, which continued throughout the other sections of the song. Musicians regularly use something called a click track when recording. The click track sets the tempo so it’s easier to sync up any additional tracks or digital sounds, or export the song to a different system. We at Brumbylon prefer to use digital percussion tracks instead. They tend to sound better than a click, and informs the direction of the song for a real drummer to create and track the final drums. Programming the percussion for The Puzzle was a bit challenging because of its unconventional 9-beatness (is that a word?)…but we finally figured it out. Ideally, this song would be recorded live with a full band instead of one track at a time.

The Puzzle has all of the sections of a song, but was not really intended to become more than what it is. If you listen carefully, you may notice that one of the guitar tracks contains a wrong note (something that sounds a bit off) which happens in the same place throughout the song, It was never fixed because The Puzzle was conceived as an experiment, one that we liked well enough to keep around. Does it have a future? Who knows.

There is not much that happens in the Brumbylon Cave that we consider to be time wasted. The cave is an experiment chamber, a musical boneyard. We play around with instrumental sections, recording techniques, lyrics, melodies, and countless other ideas that may or may not find their way into the songs that we publish. One never knows what will inspire us to chase the rabbit, or how far down the rabbit hole we will go. Sometimes the rabbit just jumps right in our lap. Such is the wonder of the cave…and the cave rabbit apparently!

Enjoy our little gift to you from Brumbylon – we hope it finds you well and feeds your soul. Stay tuned for next week’s feature when we invite you back INTO THE CAVE!

Where does Brumbylon Music Come From

This week’s feature: 5 – 6 Capo

The name is unfinished like the song…it had a meaning then. Basically, the guitar was only capoed on 5 of the 6 strings (a capo is a device that clamps down the strings to alter the key). It’s even possible that it was in a different tuning, but we’d have to go back and relearn it to find out!

This piece is still in its raw form, and known to us only as 5-6 Capo. First it was composed, and then learned well enough to be recorded (strangely, just because we write it doesn’t mean we can play it). But like many skeletons in the Brumbylon Cave it has yet to see the light of day. The arrangement of the song at this point in its life is more about the sections and how they flow into each other. Lyrics and melody, if they are ever created, may alter that arrangement. Some songs seem to come with a lyrical direction at the same time that the music is being written. Others, like 5-6 Capo, seem to arrive as just music – according to Lisa that means it’s up for grabs! Many Brumbylon songs have grown out of instrumental pieces like 5-6 Capo. Girls in the Trees and Crazy were created in this manner. We like this snippet and think it may evolve into a song at some point. Snippets that don’t become songs are sometimes deconstructed and used for parts!

Enjoy our little gift to you from Brumbylon – we hope it finds you well and feeds your soul. Stay tuned for next week’s feature when we invite you back INTO THE CAVE!