Meet Brandon Reisdorf, ISC Finalist! ISC entries are now closed but you can enter your songs and be a finalist like Brandon for Unsigned Only right from your RadioAirplay.com Dashboard!I'm a singer-songwriter and fiddle player from the Chicago area. I've been playing music since I started on the violin as a kid. A few years later, I picked up the guitar and started singing. I studied Music Theory & Composition in college, with a second major in Philosophy. Looking back, I couldn't have picked a better pairing - especially as they relate to songwriting. Both areas are such a big part of my daily life, although the combination does tend to raise some eyebrows on a resume. During school I also actively studied the violin and classical voice. After graduating, I found myself more attracted to acoustic folk music and bluegrass. I started playing country music because that is where the fiddle gigs were, but I eventually fell in love with the world of songwriting. Nowadays, I keep up with music in all kinds of genres, and I draw inspiration from anywhere that I can find it.
Can you describe your sound in one ramble-on sentence?
I write songs that bridge several genres, because I don't think a specific sound or style is as important as plain old good songwriting and I guess if it has to be a ramble-on sentence I would say that I also play the violin (or fiddle) and sometimes write funny political songs too.
What's your earliest music-related memory growing up?
I remember watching a classmate play the violin in a "show-and-tell" in early elementary school and being totally amazed. In hindsight, I think he may have been playing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", but at the time it totally blew my mind. I picked up the violin a few years later and didn't make the connection until I was much older.
If you were to cover another band/artist's album, which would you pick and why?
This is a tough one, especially in the age of Spotify playlists. I think I'd probably go with the Blaze Foley album "Sittin' by the Road". I think this album is basically perfect from a songwriting standpoint, and Blaze Foley is incredible and underappreciated as one of the best American songwriters of all time. Plus, I think I'd o
nly have to learn like 2 new songs.
Do you write/compose your own songs? Briefly describe your songwriting process.
I'm a very systematic writer. I am constantly collecting lyric snippets, song ideas & concepts, melodies, and chord progressions, and I obsessively archive them on Google Drive. I have at least 100 pages of
unused lyrics, and hours of unused audio material. I periodically review this archive and see if anything jumps out to inspire me, at which point the song seems to just fall out. I also love to co-write with other writers. I'm fascinated by the collaborative process, and how it leads to a finished song that could never have been written by any of the writers alone.
Does anything in particular inspire you to write? What get's your creative juices flowing?
Nature, psychology, philosophy, current events, consciousness. And airplanes... something about being in a tube in the sky seems to be very helpful for my songwriting.
What has been a highlight for you in the past year? (Either personally or for your music career.)
I think the highlights of the past year have been building a new collaborative relationship with a longtime friend and winding up with several songs that we are both really proud of.
What 's next? Can you give us a hint for whats to come remainder of 2018 into 2019?
I'm planning to really hit the pavement in the next year and get more of my music properly recorded. Ultimately I'd love to work more closely with artists that are looking for great songs for their own releases.
What do you like more: Performing live or recording in the studio?
They are both so different and indispensable. I love the thrill of the moment performing live: improvisation, playing off the energy of the crowd, etc. But the studio gives you a chance to get it exactly right, and the standards of perfection are so much higher. I suppose if I had to pick one to do for the rest of my life it would be the studio, just because you can keep revisiting the great musical moments anytime you want. Plus, I've been practicing my ProTools shortcuts, and it feels pretty cool to navigate around a session without a mouse 😉
What are some artists/bands that you're into at the moment? Or any particular song you find yourself listening to over and over?
Lately I have been listening to "The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby a lot. I think it is a great song because it has a very specific (and unfortunately timeless) political message, but it's delivered in a way that makes it accessible to a huge group of people. Even people who may disagree with the politics will find themselves singing along. That's how you change the world, if you ask me.
Any embarrassing on stage moments you'd like to share? C’mon, don’t be shy.
During the last couple years, I have written several political satire songs. I've played them live a bunch, and they usually go over well, but on one occasion I definitely misread the room and the audience was not too happy with the message of the song (which one individual made very clear to me after the set). Unfortunately for him, I was the one with the microphone.
What's one thing people should know about you?
I think a lot of people who come to different shows that I play don't realize that I actively perform in a bunch of styles, on a bunch of instruments. I play fiddle, guitar, and banjo, I sing, and I write songs. I play anything from fiddling in a rock band to singing John Prine songs in the corner of a bar to playing in an orchestra in Chicago.
I like how each type of gig exercises different parts of my brain, and I'd have a hard time picking any one of them over the others.
What do you enjoy doing outside of music? Does your hobby rejuvenate your creativity?
I love to travel, especially outside of the country. The changes of culture and scenery are a huge inspiration to me. I also find myself pretty engaged in politics, which tends to inform some of my songwriting.
If you had one message to give to your fans, what would it be?
Go out there and support good music! We create the marketplace by what we decide to listen to and buy tickets for! There is a lot of good music out there, but it is not always easy to find.
What do you like the most about the Radio Airplay service?
I like that you seem to give a platform to lesser known artists. I'm a firm believer that some of the best stuff out there is never going to be mainstream. This gives people a chance to find hidden music that they might love.
Brandon's Links:
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/reisdorfmusic/
WEBSITE: www.brandonreisdorf.com
TWITTER: @breisdor
INSTAGRAM: @brandonreisdorf
WEBSITE: www.brandonreisdorf.com
TWITTER: @breisdor
INSTAGRAM: @brandonreisdorf