Eric Brengle

Eric Brengle

Intimate, energetic and honest, Eric Brengle’s acoustic pop walks a fine line between melodic and unexpected. His multi-dimensional sound is a blend of smaller, yet self-sufficient, parts. “He builds upon the basic track to really put a nice musical statement together,” said Jesse Feister, the drummer on Brengle’s newest album, No End of Patches.

The handcrafted melodies reflect the interaction between music and lyric: lyric driving the music, music driving the lyrics. With a unique, welcoming voice, Brengle’s words speak clearly and creatively of experiences that are both personal and universal. “It’s really a battle of writing stuff that fulfills what you want to say and what people want to hear,” he said. “If you can find that balance, then you’ve got something.”

And something, it’s obvious, he’s got. Born December 13th, 1984 in Cincinnati, Oh., Brengle was singing by age 8 and playing the guitar by age 12. Inspired by the classic, spunky sound of James Taylor, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Hootie and the Blowfish and Ellis Paul, Brengle began writing and recording out of his basement experimentally. It wasn’t long before he understood that music is, for him, the only goal.

“When I was exploring what I wanted to do, I looked at a bunch of different options, but at the end of the day I’d always come home and pick up my guitar,” he said. “I’d sit for hours when I should have been doing other things, but the other stuff just didn’t fulfill what music did for me.”

Soon, the passion became a reality as Brengle created ECB Music, LCC in early 2004. By January of 2005, he had released an E.P. entitled, Cameras and Notebooks. Music fans hailed the three-song cd as honest, intelligent and demonstrative of Brengle’s potential as a singer and songwriter.

“Each song was well-written and well-formed and is marketable to a wide audience,” said Elizabeth Robey, a club concerts director in Bloomington, IN. “The E.P. showed that he has incredible potential to make really big records with hit upon hit upon hit.”

“Version of Yourself,” the featured song off Cameras and Notebooks, was a success with both critics and Brengle’s widening audience. “Version of Yourself” hit the local campus media at Indiana University, where he is currently a junior, and was selected for the 2005 compilation, Live From Bloomington.

Dan Coleman, a reporter for the Bloomington Herald-Times, agreed. “Like a younger James Taylor his simple neo-folk rock is becoming a town favorite.”

On sharing a stage with Brengle, Feister said, “He’s easy to put in front of people because you know that people will be receptive of his music even if they’re hearing him for the first time.”

Determined and passionate about his work, Brengle has continued to grow both musically and popularly. He produced and recorded on The Identity Slip with rock band Marking Twain, represented himself at the 2005 NACA Mid-America conference and has attended Berklee College of Music summer sessions.

He has toured in the Midwest and select locations in the Northeast, was selected to perform at the 2005 Mid-point Music Festival and has now completed a full album.

This new project is entitled No End of Patches. Set for released in late December, No End of Patches was a self-proclaimed success story even before completion. “I really feel that lyrically the album opens up; at the end, you kind of go through it,” Brengle said of his album. “My goal in writing the record was to take these ten songs and basically say, “this is a snapshot of me right now.’”

The honesty and integrity of the album is tangible; the intent honorable. Brengle has played to audiences as large as 700, as small as his 2 dogs. But regardless of venue, audience or medium, the performance comes across as honest. Deliberate.

“People are looking for young, vibrant performers,” added Robey, “and he’s definitely one of them.”

Written by: Anne B. Zelek