Brian Mackey Offers Honest Love and an Honest Love for Life
Tell us about your project. When did you start writing your music?
Well I’ve always been writing for as long as I can remember, from sitting in the bathtub as a little kid, coming up with melodies as I was rolling up the wet toilet paper and throwing it on the ceiling.
Some of those melodies stuck as good as the toilet paper, and some of those were soon forgotten. It was really just trial and error, and still is.
Who are your musical influences?
Well everybody always says the Beatles, is there really any other band than the Beatles?! I’d say they would be one influence of mine, but to make a short list just for the expediency of this interview…
I’d say Beethoven, The Clash, Bob Dylan, Mozart, Billy Joel, Lionel Richie, The Zombies, I could go on all day like this.. and these are just the one that are hitting me right now. I like a lot of 80′s pop, the Cars would be another one. Again, just too many songs going on in my head at all times. I love a lot of songs from today as well. But I try not to listen to too much, because I don’t want to be overly influenced by any group or genre in particular.
Talk to us about the writing process for your songs. How are your ideas born?
Usually the writing process could be in my car, or in a supermarket. Or even in my sleep. And the ideas sometimes just really seem to flow, but sometimes they require more concentration and effort. I’ve talked to a lot of songwriters at in the round type things, and they would go into these big shpeils on how to craft a song and what’s proper, what works for them, but I could say what works for me is anything and everything. Lyrics first, music first. I have a whole junkyard of songs that I pull parts off of to make a song, that drives down the road crooked, with the windows down, can you hear it? I can… 
You have a song that has gotten a lot of radio play, Honest Love. Congratulations on that! How did that come about?
Oh, well thank you 
I think it happened by accident… It’s kind of funny I was talking with my girlfriend’s grandfather who was down in Florida for the winter and he was in a Bealls department store down there buying a polo shirt for golf. He ran into the back and told the manager and said, “This is Brian Mackey playing on your sound system!” and sure enough, the manager goes, “Yeah, it is..how bout that?” and he said, “Yeah, I know him!”. Then I think the guy asked him if he was going to buy that shirt. I don’t know if he got a discount that day, but he was happy that he heard it on the radio and so was I…
You also recently released a video for Honest Love. Tell us more about the creative process for the video?
The video was shot in Chicago on my way back from a show I played in Kansas at a college there. We rolled into town on gas fumes, and hardly enough money to eat. I should have cashed that check back in Kansas, because it was a bank that was really just local to the town in Kansas I played. But that’s a whole other story! It was really cold and overcast that day. There was a line of people at the Hard Rock Hotel waiting to be extras in the video. Under the guidance of my good friend and director Nick Cavalier, and by the grace of the good power above the rain held off just long enough to shoot the video which was shot in one very long day. As far as the creative process, it was very impromptu and a lot of the energy was picked up just through natural city life in Chicago. It felt like it lent itself well to the message we were trying to convey with respect to honesty, or the lack thereof when it comes to love, on how it can either hold you or hurt you, keep you or desert you.
What was your most memorable gig and why?
Wow, do I have to mention one? Can I give you two or three or four… how about 10? Well I played one at a go-go bar once, behind a cage and I didn’t know it was going to be this type of place until I peered out through the cage hole and saw really shiny poles from floor to ceiling. Then the girls started twirling around, and it was basically a biker bar. Then a fight broke out about halfway into the set and guys were getting slammed up against the cages as we were playing. Blood, beer and glass somehow managed to get through the holes in the cage. And the girls never stopped dancing, and we never stopped playing, and the bikers never stopped fighting. It was truly a memorable gig. I can still smell it sometimes.. I could go on all day like this with the most memorable gig things, whether it be in people’s basements, at radio stations, gigs with 2 people in the audience, gigs with 10,000 in the audience. The gig at the Knitting Factory was really fun.
When you play out, do you usually play solo, have a set band or do you have different configurations?
It’s been mostly solo lately. I do some duos with my sideman Sam Ashworth who’s a Nashville guy. He’s super super talented. I do the band thing too, I have guys down in Nashville I play with. But lately I’ve been a one man song and dance man.
What is your ultimate goal for your project?
World domination really… And to have a lot of fun, talk to people. I like that. Record more, write more, be a better person.
What do you have in the works for 2011?
2011, a lot of cool stuff happening. The small stuff I can talk about, but the big stuff I can’t talk about, because they have those waivers you sign saying that you won’t say anything. Are they afraid that there are secret agents on the blogs? But the small stuff I can talk about, I’m shooting a new video for the song Sunshower next month, which was on the Songs of Love for Japan CD Compilation with Sara Barielles, Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco, Keton Simons, Brendon James and many more awesome artists, recording a new Album, Just released a Brian Mackey IPhone/IPad App, so if you really need your Brian Mackey fix, it’s the next best thing to the actual person.. would def be the app, because you can at least shut it off whenever you want. I’m going to also be featured in a major music magazine in June. We have a Brianstormers fan site that was a creation of Tara Shehorn, my fav person in Kentucky, it’s another place you can see my face…!
Where can we find your music or hear you play?
Many online retailers, iTunes, Amazon, Think Indie, Tesco’s (UK), there’s alot, I will put some links here for you. And for playing live, we are putting together our summer tour schedule, so stayed tuned for new dates! Thanks for the interview! It was fun
ITUNES LINK: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/honest-love/id397219524
IPHONE APP: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brian-mackey-official-app/id428797056?mt=8
AMAZON STORE: http://www.amazon.com/Brian-Mackey/e/B004U5W50Y
YOUTUBE LINK: http://www.youtube.com/user/brianmackeymusic#p/a/u/0/K23IKSaRUsM
REVERBNATION LINK: http://www.reverbnation.com/brianmackey
MYSPACE LINK: http://www.myspace.com/brimackey
WEBSITE LINK: http://www.brianmackeymusic.com
FAN CLUB SITE: http://brianstormers.wordpress.com/
