Ian Brennan (music producer, author)
| Ian Brennan | |
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 Ian Brennan recording in Cambodia (June 2015).
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ian Brennan |
| Born | Oakland, California |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Instruments | |
| Years active | since 1987 |
| Associated acts | Tinariwen, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Zomba Prison Project, Malawi Mouse Boys, The Good Ones (Rwanda), Tanzania Albinism Collective |
| Website | ianbrennan |
Ian Brennan is an American music producer from California. He is a Grammy winner, has authored four books and lectures internationally about violence prevention. The SOLAS Festival (UK) calls him, "...one of the most respected world music producers working today."
He was born in Oakland, California to James Brennan, a railroad engineer, and Marilyn Brennan, a nurse from a tiny town in eastern Kansas. He grew up on the Pleasant Hill border in the same suburban home his entire life. He and his older brother and sister have a mere two-and-one-half year span between the three of them. This is due in part to his sister, who is the middle child, being born more than two months premature with Down syndrome.
At age five, he began playing drums and switched to guitar at age 6 - which he taught himself to play.
At age 19, his poetry was published for the first time in an anthology (Fineline Thunder) curated by his adult-school creative writing instructor, Professor Betty Solomon. He was published again that same year in the Berkeley poetry journal, Agape.
At age 20, he self-released his first solo album and went on to produce eight more. He reflects now that he was his "own worst enemy" and made some of "most horrible albums possible" due to his obsessive-compulsive, autocratic approach.
Beginning in 1996, for five years he hosted a free, mostly acoustic music show in a San Francisco laundromat. He would perform solo and feature a different local band each week. He documented the shows as field recordings and these resulted in three Unscrubbed compilation releases.
He also regularly organized benefit shows for social and/or political causes during this period—most notably presenting Fugazi, Vic Chesnutt, and Sleater-Kinney for free in Dolores Park to honor the 20th anniversary of Food Not Bombs, as well as staging Green Day for free on the front of the steps of San Francisco's City Hall on the Sunday before George Bush's election as president.
Two of his Grammy nominations were for producing albums in the Traditional Folk category (Ramblin' Jack Elliott 2006,Peter Case 2007). The Ramblin' Jack record features Lucinda Williams and members of Wilco,X (American band), Los Lobos, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
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