Biography
Chris Brecht and The Dead Flowers
When Chris Brecht moved to Austin in 2006 from northern Colorado, he never expected fate to be so kind. After a series of misfortunes, including break-up with a longtime girlfriend, Brecht quickly found himself with nowhere to live. In the middle of the night, he moved his belongings into a room he rented a room at the St. Elmo Motel, a cheap 26 dollar a night complex on the south side of Austin that was notorious for drug-addicts, vagrants, and drunks. It was the dead of winter and the following night the pipes burst and flooded the room. He stayed regardless and experiences still have a way of weaving into lyrics of songs for his Alternative Country git-up The Dead Flowers. The St. Elmo Motel has since been torn town and Brecht has moved way from that time in his life. For someone who writes incessantly about 10 songs a month, Chris Brecht is now poised to release his 2nd record since those days at the St. Elmo, and everything has changed.
The current project he aptly calls, Dead Flower Motel, is a follow up to his 2008 debut, the Great Ride. The poet-troubadour and his edgy new alt-country get-up, the Dead Flowers are making music that is a complete divergence from the folk Americana that Brecht has created in the past as well as any of the traditional country music coming out of Austin today. The songs are cross country and soulful like music right off the sunset strip in the 1970s, with a fearless mix of Brooklyn-esque raunchy bright guitar tones, swooping organ, jagged electric leads and a perfect landscape for Brecht’s lyrics. With his traditional folk roots far off in the distance, the new material possesses an air of sweetheart L.A. country. No love here. The songs are electrified with new influences shining through and a sound that will re-define the boundaries of alt-country genre. Updates, blogs, poetry, half finished tracks and reflections are posted at www.deadflowermotel.com (the website developed specifically for the album project).
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A few months after his stint at the St. Elmo Motel, Chris Brecht met guitarist/producer Brad Rice (Ryan Adams, Son Volt, Keith Urban) at a local coffee shop in Austin. The two went back to Rice’s place and Brecht played some of his songs in the garage. Brad Rice, who was looking to become more involved in production, took a liking to “Night Highway 99” and everything progressed from there. July 2007 they assembled a band, and laid down cuts “Night Highway 99” and an early version of “I Played Cards With the Devil.” The results were so grand that the tracks became the foundation Chris Brecht’s (2008) debut album The Great Ride, also produced by Brad Rice.
The Great Ride is a collection of ten folk country songs filled with gritty guitar, sweeping steel, beat-poet lyricism, and Brecht’s off-pitch Dylan-esque drawl. The reviews were great. Chris Brecht earned comparison to Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Ryan Adams. Seattle Weekly: “In a lazy drawl that sounds like a hybrid cross between Ryan Adam’s soulful North Carolina slur and Bob Dylan’s off-pitch nasal mutterings, Austin songwriter Chris Brecht croons about trains, lost love and the nomadic life with the same passion and timeless appeal of greats from Woody Guthrie to Willie Nelson…” says the Seattle Weekly.
“My last record was really inspired by my admiration for Dylan. I won't deny that…,” admits Brecht. “The words he wrote really lived with me for a long time. They traveled with me to this town. I didn't think much about writing my first record for any one. I wrote it because I was the kinda lifestyle where you leave behind one life for a new one.”
Laurie Gallardo KUT 90.5 FM wrote: "Chris Brecht isn’t exactly sure why he moved from Boulder, CO to Austin about two years ago, but it proved to be a fruitful decision.
There’s nothing really restricting a songwriter like Brecht to the “alt.-country” label. He digs more deeply, inspired by influences like Dylan but not imitating them. He’s even gone a step further by casting aside digital recording in favor of capturing his sound on a 2-inch reel-to-reel. That’s how he recorded his 2008 release, The Great Ride.”
The Great Ride is anything but contrived. From the subject matter to production, the album reeks of authenticity. The record was cut “Basement Tapes” style in three days. With everyone in one room, the band recorded the entire album in the studio live on 2” tape-the way records used to be made. According to Brecht, analog tape “...adds a warmth and beauty that digital recording has a hard time capturing. The whole process is different. ” He even goes a step further and writes all of his song by hand or on his typewriter. Sitting on the floor of his apartment thumping away into the dead of the night, Brecht stays up until 2,3,4 o’clock in the morning piecing his songs together. “When the world gets silent, I can hear, ” Brecht explains. In an age where everything is run by computers, it’s refreshing and comforting to come across music with such honesty and depth.
Chris Brecht’s poetic songs retrace his journey through the many emotions of love, loneliness, confusion, the struggle and sensation of letting go, and the freedom and exhilaration of embracing the new. Heavily influenced by the writings of Hemmingway, Kerouac, and Gary Snyder, Brecht’s songwriting takes on a very literate evocative quality with subject matter that shifts from personal confessions to allusive stories. The songs he writes are evidence to his nomadic life, relationships, and the people he encounters. “They’re about living life and having no excuses for how you’ve done it.” Chris Brecht lives life by embracing every experience for what its worth, holding nothing back, traveling hard distances, taking chances, and living with no regrets.
“All that stuff happens on its own,” says Brecht describing his life. “Just like livin' when you're really livin'. Travelin' is travelin', it's not just sight seein'. When you're livin', things just happen on their own. Meeting people. Being in places you never thought you'd be. You can't do too much looking around. You just gotta keep your senses sharp and make sure you keep movin'.”
In the year and a half since the release of The Great Ride, Brecht has toured the country, grabbed remarkable radio play, and formed a steadily growing fan-base across the nation. Within the past year, Chris Brecht has restructured his band The Dead Flowers Earlier this summer, Chris spent two weeks touring solo across northern Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, sleeping on sofas and driving endlessly through the night. Now, Chris Brecht has returned to Austin with a new batch of songs, experiences, and a wealth of new stories to tell.
Currently, Chris Brecht and the Dead Flowers are recording the follow-up to The Great Ride. The poet-troubadour and his edgy new alt-country get-up, the Dead Flowers are making music that is entirely unique and unlike any of the traditional alternative country music coming out of Austin. Updates are posted at www.deadflowermotel.com The songs are chic and soulful, like the sunset strip in the 1970s, with a fearless mix of bright guitar tones, swooping organ, jagged electric leads and a landscape of poetry. With his traditional folk roots far off in the distance, the new material possesses an air of L.A. chic country. The songs are faster with new influences that re-define the boundaries of alt-country genre.
KUT 90.5 FM: "Chris Brecht isn’t exactly sure why he moved from Boulder, CO to Austin about two years ago, but it proved to be a fruitful decision.
There’s nothing really restricting a songwriter like Brecht to the “alt.-country” label. He digs more deeply, inspired by influences like Dylan but not imitating them. He’s even gone a step further by casting aside digital recording in favor of capturing his sound on a 2-inch reel-to-reel. That’s how he recorded his 2008 release, The Great Ride." ~ Laurie Gallardo, KUT 90.5 FM
the SEATTLE WEEKLY: In a lazy drawl that sounds like a hybrid cross between Ryan Adams' soulful North Carolina slur and Bob Dylan's off-pitch, nasal mutterings, Austin songwriter Chris Brecht croons about trains, lost love and the nomadic life with the same passion and timeless appeal of greats from Woody Guthrie to Willie Nelson.
The AUSTIN CHRONICLE: "It's testament to the Austin songwriter's talent that The Great Ride is a trip worth retracing..."
After the release of The Great Ride, Chris Brecht has hit the road. Even gaining opening spots for acts like Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. In August 2009, Jose Jones Films released a short film on the making of the Great Ride. This video can be seen on Youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5sluTqVqBQ .
The Great Ride has been given 4 out of 5 stars by Marquee Magazine. 5 out of 5 Stars Twice in Europe. 8 out of 10 Stars from AmericanaUK. He has made multiple appearances on KUT and other Triple A radio stations around the Country.
From Americana UK: "Brecht is a troubadour in the Dylan sense. Wordy, poetic (with nods to the Beats) and existing in a space between Blonde on Blonde and the Basement Tapes. This is a collection of ten songs which, while rooted in Dylan's late sixties sound, stand up on their own two feet and demand to be heard. ....this is an excellent debut. ... I reckon Brecht has the potential to go places if he continues in this vein."
Eugene Weekly: "Brecht sings songs about traveling by rail (trains show up in about half of his songs, something he attributes to living near them for a good portion of his life) and love lost. You know, the same stuff that Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan sang about. But while these themes could seem gimmicky or contrived in the wrong hands, Brecht’s songs feel genuine, his lazy drawl a cross between the soulful North Carolina slur of Ryan Adams’ early work and Dylan’s nasal, off-pitch utterings. But in his processes as well as his day to day existence, Brecht prefers the old school to the new."
9/17/07 ...
When Chris Brecht arrived in Austin 3-years ago, he sounded like someone who had just jumped off a freight train... or so he was once told in a scribbled note that was dropped inside his guitar case during a show. Back then, he was playing shows with only his guitar and harmonica. He had a hand me down style of playing from the 1960s that allowed him to fit right in to Austin's coffee shops and bars, and eventually make his way to the music scene's apex, The Cactus Cafe.
Now two and a half years later, Chris Brecht and his band are stirring up the genre of alt-country music. With captivating live shows, the rarest combination of pedal steel and b3 organ, cutting harmonica and Chris Brecht's unique lyricism, the band is catching the attention of a new generation listeners.
By July 2007, he teamed up with guitarist/producer Brad Rice (Ryan Adams, Son Volt, Keith Urban) to begin work on what became, The Great Ride. Between Rice's edgy guitar playing and Brecht's beatnik-style lyricism, the sessions produced a moody, freewheeling musical adventure of alt-country landscape, introducing Rice as a "live and let live" producer and Brecht as a standout songwriter in a town that is a factory of music industry talent.
It is rare it seems that, in this day and age of digital media and pro tools records, a producer and an artist would venture into the studio to record a band live, in one room, on 2 inch reel to reel tape. But they did it. The record became, The Great Ride, ten songs that wander somewhere between Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker and Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. Chris Brecht sings verse after verse one poet's experiences that a new generation of listeners can relate to.
Instrumentation
Chris Brecht - guitar, vocals, harmonica
Scott Davis - guitar
Matt Mollica - b3 organ
John Michael Schoepf - bass
Stephen Bres - drums
Discography
The Night Highway 99 Sessions (2007)
The Great Ride (2008)
(2010)
Links
| http://www.chrisbrecht.com |