Posted on November 7, 2009 - by Editor

Chasing Dreams: Bryan McPherson

Bryan McPherson

Bryan McPherson may not be a well known name outside of the East Coast, USA. More specifically plying his trade predominantly between Boston and New York, Bryan has been playing his one man show of heart on sleeve, acoustic(and harmonica) accompanied folk/punk long before the current trend of names have been adorning the press. Currently unsigned, the quiet and honest musician is as good as you get for downright passionate, insightful and heartfelt music.

Hi Bryan, so how are things in Beantown? You have a few exciting shows coming up with the Dropkick Murphy’s and Mark Lind and The Unloved (same line-up I saw you perform with in March!) with the Street Dogs later in the year too. Good times it seems?

Bryan: Things are good.  When one thing is going well something else is going bad.  It’s tough to make an absolute statement and say that all is well.  A family member is really sick right now.  But as far as music goes.  Things are going well.  I’m on some exciting shows coming up and I can’t complain about that.

At the St Paddy’s shows with the Murphy’s earlier in the year you performed a ‘Badlands’ cover with the guys. How did that come about & how special was it to play those shows from your perspective?

Bryan:  Yup that was pretty awesome.  Basically the ‘Badlands’ thing was Ken Casey’s idea.  Fucking right I’ll do ‘Badlands’ with you guys I thought.  Then I had to learn the song and it’s tough because Bruce Springsteen writes in a way that’s good for Bruce Springsteen but not me.  He has some weird chord changes and tempos I have a hard time grasping.  Anyways doing ‘Badlands’ with them was kind of surreal. Doing those shows was a blast, but not short of drama.

I was supposed to do all seven of The Saint Pat’s shows.  After night one I came down with something.  The second night I played sick.  Day three I woke up with laryngitis and could barely speak never mind sing.  I basically went to bed for the weekend.  They were shooting for a video so they asked if I could come in and do the ‘Badlands’ thing, so I crawled out of bed, took a taxi down to Lansdowne street and jumped onstage to play ‘Badlands’ with the Dropkick Murphys and the sax player from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones to a sold out House of Blues, got off stage, jumped in a cab and went back to bed. Pretty unfucking real.  As a kid growing up in Boston that shits like a dream come true.  So yeah I went to bed and polished off the last two shows.  I got four out of seven, so had it been the World Series I would have won.  That’s how I look at it.

I have said previously how there seems to be quite a family feel to Boston punk rock, would you agree? Would you say

Bryan McPherson

bands have been pretty good at helping out?

Bryan: I would.  There is a family feel. The Boston punk scene has been pretty supportive of me.  What I learned from punk rock is put everybody on the flyer.  Thank other bands/artists on your record.  Stuff like that.  These are things other “scenes” should take note of.  I started out going to All-Ages shows at The Rat and the Middle East, seeing bands like The Ducky Boys, Dropkick Murphys, the Showcase Showdown. Now I’m playing shows with these guys.  Pretty cool I’ll say.

There seems to be an upsurge of the singer song-writer (stupid tag I know) and folk-punk in the press over the past year or so. Would you consider yourself in that ilk and have you experienced any change in popularity/ demand?

Bryan:  Sometimes I think I used to be more folk-punk than I am now!  I kind of think that I was folk-punk when these folk-punk guys were still playing in their bands.  I generally stay away from tags and genres.  I don’t want to be limited to a certain sound.  I need freedom for my songs and creativity.  I can’t be sitting there thinking “oh is this punk folk enough?” while I’m writing. I have experienced a big change in popularity.  I don’t know what to attribute that to.  Like I said, back when I started writing songs and playing shows which was like ten years ago, playing an acoustic guitar was insane and incomprehensible to a lot of dudes in bands.  The word folk was a four letter word. I guess now I just consider myself a singer songwriter.

For those who have not heard your music, there is a mixture of punk rock angst, American folk of the 60’s and raw energy.  Tell us a bit about your own musical roots and how you were inspired to pick up your first instrument?

Bryan: I grew up on a lot of different music.  A lot of punk rock, pop, rock and roll, rap. I just knew I had songs to write so I had to play.  That’s the short of it.

You were raised in Dorchester, a working class neighbourhood in Boston (is there any other kind?) How has your upbringing helped shape your outlook and musical writing?

Bryan: I just write what I see and what I feel.  Whether I’m in Boston or Yugoslavia.  I will absorb what’s around me and what I am experiencing and spit it out.  As far as Boston being all working class that is not quite the case.  There is this thing called gentrification that is sort of running a lot of lower income working class families out of the city for more upscale young professionals in converted luxury lofts and what not.  There are also like 10,000 colleges here, so there is a strong school/institutional element.  Like I said, it’s a complicate place and can be very divided at times.  I have a lot of different types of friends and I would like to think that my music brings people together rather than separate.  Is the new working class trading in work boots for cubicles?  Basically I see a lot of people working for a few people.  What’s that all about?

You have also supported Chuck Berry, The Neighbourhoods, Chad Smith of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black 47, H20. Who would be top of your list to perform with and if you had to play with an all star backing band who would play what?

Bryan:  I have no idea.  In my band I would like Jesus on drums, Mohammad playing bass, and Buddha on a keyboard. As far as people I would like to do shows with;  Myself, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan and Bob Costas. I like Bobs.

I have heard you are a quiet person off stage, do you feel a change in persona when onstage- do you ever get daunted by some of the crowds you perform for?

Bryan:  I can be quiet.  Sometimes I have nothing to say and sometimes I am completely freaked out by human beings.   I don’t understand the whole stage persona thing.  I feel myself on stage singing songs.  There is no time or space for me to be someone else. I save that for being off stage and going to work or surviving in society.  I feel just as nervous playing for three people or 3000.  It’s why I get up in the morning and bother to keep at it.  Daunted by crowds? Yeah you know beforehand its nerve wracking but when you get up there you just do it. Sometimes I feel like a lamb for the slaughter.   If I think too much I’m fucked.  I just go out and play.

Bryan McPherson on Harmonica

Onto your music, your record “Fourteen Stories” of which I’m a big fan, was released several years ago on Indecent Music. Earlier this year you self released for free an online live album called “Street Lights”. What was the reason behind that? Are you looking to release a new album of material and would you go the label route?

Bryan:  Thanks. Yeah I set up a show to showcase some of my new material.  I got a good recording of it and decided to release it on the web to meet a demand for new stuff.  Yes I would like to make a new record.  I can’t eat and pay rent and bankroll recording costs myself right now.  I will go whatever route I have to, to make music.  If I could, I would have had two records out since “14 Stories”.  It’s a catch 22.

Your songs seem to capture daily events and inspired from the street life of Boston and surrounding areas. Is it a case of writing and singing about what’s in front of you in simplistic sense?

Bryan: Absolutely. I don’t write about what I don’t know about. It doesn’t really work that way for me.

Live you are very impassioned, raw & emotional? You sing about private life, injustices and from one most apt review “riveting, heartfelt, and downright intense.” How would you respond to that?

Bryan:  I would say yup. If you’re not, then what the fuck are you doing? Get out of the way.  I don’t understand half measures or one foot in one foot out of art.

Do you have plans for future tours beyond the US borders?

Bryan:  No.  Should the opportunity arise I would leave in two weeks!

Any: Final comments?

Bryan: Don’t pigeonhole pigeons!

“Street Lights” and is available for free at http://www.gimmesound.com/bryanmcpherson

Bryan McPherson