 Eddie B. Morain, Sr Jared M. Brandt Jared M. Brandt A veteran of the musically rich Pacific Northwest, Jared Brandt is a formally trained musician with professional music and engineering careers spanning 25 years. His primary instruments are Drums and Vocals, but as you can hear on the album, his talents do not stop there. During his musical tenure, Jared has logged an incredible 12,000 hours of live paid performances, playing in bands with such noted artists as Tanya Dennis, formerly of The Faith Hill Band, and John Fohl, currently with Dr. John's 911 band and formerly of the Cherry Poppin Daddies with their smash hit platinum record "Zoot Suit Riot." The list of performances with similarly talented players goes on and on. Check out the Artists links below for more detail. In addition, Jared has also logged over 2500 hours of studio work. Jared also holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Gonzaga University, Cum Laude, with emphasis on Semiconductors, Mathematics, and Physics, and he held the chair of President of the Gonzaga Chapter of the Engineering Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi. He was also honored to receiving the much-coveted National Jesuit Honor Society Award, from Alpha Sigma Nu, being one of only four students from the School of Engineering accepted into membership in 1993. Additionally, the Engineering Faculty elected Jared to serve as Banner Bearer for the School of Engineering at the graduation ceremonies in 1993, an honor given to only one student per year. Upon graduation, Jared went to work as a Research and Development Engineer designing CMOS SRAM Memories for American Microsystems, now On Semiconductors, in Pocatello, Idaho. Jared's chip design work is literally in thousands of products worldwide, including many medical devices such as the Lifescan glucose monitoring product line, Alesis and EMU musical electronics, the Boeing 777 aircraft cockpit equipment and displays, a wide array of automotive and spacecraft electronic products, a number of classified projects for the FBI and Lockheed Skunkworks, and the Javelin portable cruise missile guidance system. After nearly a decade of R&D, Jared has now turned his attention to Audio Engineering and has broken new ground in this field by developing proprietary recording techniques that result in recording quality that is unparalleled in the industry. Listen to the album and you will see for yourself. Jared has had the good fortune of working with many of the very best musicians in the Northwest United States. This list includes: Artist Links: James Armstrong Mike Lloyd Credits include: Faith Hill Band, Janie Fricke, Wade Hayes, Skip Ewing, Dave Gibson, Eddie Raven, Whispering Bill Anderson. Credits include: Dr. John's 911 Band, Cherry Poppin Daddies, Joe Krown Organ Combo, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Henry Vestine, Spencer Bohren, David Doucet Credits include: Randy Meisner (Eagles), Firefall, Robert Cray, Richie Havens, New Riders Of The Purple Sage, Sheb Wooley, Del Reeves, Danny Gans, Judy Collins. Credits include: Judy Collins, Joan Baez, John Prine, Michael Hedges, Quiet Riot, The Nylons, Merle Haggard, Pure Prairie League, BB King, John Mayal, Danny Gans. Terry Pullman Credits include: Inland Empire Blues Society Award--Best Male Blues Vocalist Credits include: Iron Butterfly, Mount Rushmore, Sam The Sham Samudio, D.K. Stewart, No Mean Feet, and The Chambers Brothers. Also recorded with CBS and Paramount Records Credits include: BBC Discovery Channel and PBS, working with Ric Parnell--former drummer of Spinal Tap. Credits include: LA Guns and many others. After so many hours of pro experience, Jared has developed an impressive series of advantages when working on recordings. Nicknamed "The Bionic Ear," Jared can hear intonation problems just a few cents sharp or flat. He can also hear if a part is being played out of the pocket by just a few milliseconds. And he has a true 3.8 octave vocal range. "We know these facts are true," Eddie says, "Because we have measured them. Listen to the album and see for yourself. It is all right there in front of you." In addition, his Engineering background means he understands acoustics right down the the equations that govern the physics of sound. "The recording world is full of false engineers." Eddie says. "When asked about superposition principles of the compression waves that govern acoustics and how they might interfere with recordings, most of these "Engineers" will just stare at you. At Brandt Morain Studios we don't suffer from such deficiencies." "When I am laying down drum tracks my good performances are withing 5 milliseconds of dead center. If I am playing 10 milliseconds out of the pocket, I am usually going to re-record the track," Jared says. "Fourteen thousand hours of live performance and studio work will do strange things to you. And don't forget, none of those hours includes rehearsals or practice." As a songwriter, this experience has resulted in even more advantages. Jared has played virtually every style that there is and can draw upon any one of them when writing or recording. As an amateur percussionist he performed Symphonic and Jazz music for 6 years, holding first chair for five of those years. As a professional he has performed Jazz, Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Blues, Fifties and Sixties, Funk, A cappella, Country and Country rock, Reggae, Heavy Metal and more. "I deliberately joined bands with differing styles," Jared says. "I would be in a country band one moment and then go out touring with a Heavy Metal group, for example. I did this in an effort to become as well rounded as possible. Plus I simply like all forms of music and had fun mastering each style." "Just look at the list of folks I played with," Jared says. "Tanya is an extremely talented country girl who played with the Faith Hill Band, and John Fohl is one of Louisiana's hottest blues guitarist currently working with Dr. John's 911 Band. Mike Lloyd was a jaw-dropping Pat Metheny styled, die-hard jazz fusion player." "I have played everything except Rap," Jared says. "I never have played Rap and I never will. Rap doesn't even qualify as a musical genre--it is entertainment only--the musical equivalent of the Jerry Springer Show." When asked about his influences, Jared says, "Everyone, almost. I would have to say that my favorite drumming style to play in is like Jeff Porcaro, although I really admire Dave Weckyl." As a vocalist, Jared is most influenced by Steve Perry of Journey, all the guys in Toto and The Eagles--most notably Timothy B. Schmidt, Ray Charles and, of course, "Nobody can touch Take Six," Jared says. When on the keys, Jared will tell you his favorite style to play is like Bruce Hornsby. "Bruce has this wonderful out of the pocket drag triplet feel that I love. It also defies MIDI sequencers because you can't quantize drag triplets, grace notes, or deliberate out of the pocket performances," Jared says. "Bruce's style of playing is very simple but very attractive, which is good for me because I am not very good at the keys." Jared uses Yamaha Acoustic Drums with Paiste cymbals and a Zildian and Wuhan or two tossed in for good measure. His Auxiliary Percussion includes Remo Roto Toms, Alesis and Yamaha Electronic drums played with Simmons and Roland trigger pads. He uses Alesis workstations when working on compositions and also when recording pianos and synthesizers. Eddie B. Morain, Sr. Hailing from Phoenix Arizona, Eddie is a seasoned guitarist with a style of playing that can only be described as listening to warm chocolate. In his earlier years, Eddie toured the Western U.S. extensively, playing primarily country music before countless audiences and on TV and radio. Eddie's guitar work is only exceeded by his rich vocal style. "Take a listen to the character in his delivery on our tune, Heartburn, and you will understand what we are talking about" Jared says. Eddie's primary instruments are guitar and vocals, but once again, as the CD will show, his talents don't stop there. "When I first met Eddie, he was not used to listening with a producers ear, but now, years later, I am amazed at how good he has become," Jared says. "He has this great ability to get the best performances out of me time and time again. I can be struggling with a part, vocals for example, and he will say---'Stop trying to impress the whole #@# world and just relax and sing. This is a simple part. What is wrong with you?' And Boom, I relax, stop trying to impress, and we capture the right performance." Eddie shares Jared's attitude about recording. "At Brandt Morain Studios we use a very purist approach to music. We don't use any drum machines. All the drums you hear are recorded live. We don't use any pitch correction devices or vocal modellers or vocal processors. We record vocals the old fashioned way-- We actually sing," he says. "We bought a version of Autotune years ago and it promptly went into the garbage can. I mean, when you have a guy like Jared at the microphone, why waste your time with Autotune? It just slows you down and produces sterile results. Besides, sometimes you want to pitch your voice just a little sharp or flat to produce the right kind of character. This is something that the industry has forgotten about." In addition, Eddie and Jared believe the best music is usually the simplest. "When we sit down and compose parts---drums, guitars, vocals, whatever, our primary focus is on melodic content. Does this part fit the song, or are we just showing off? We can play those tasmanian devil parts if we want, but the songs usually sound the best with simple, beautiful phrasing. Virtuosity is a distant second," Eddie says. "David Gilmour knows this, The Eagles know this, and we know this." As a producer, Eddie is relentless. "I love working with this guy because he never lets me off the hook," Jared says. "He knows exactly what I am capable of and if I ever become tempted to accept a questionable performance, he will always say 'You are going to hate yourself in a few months if you accept this.' Of course, I produce Eddie the same way, although I would like to think that I am a bit nicer about it----but I am probably not!" "This unforgiving process is very difficult on us at times, but there is no arguing with the results. This is why Eddie and I gave up trying to record and play with other musicians several years ago--Nobody could take the beating, so we just decided to do it all ourselves," Jared says. When asked why they worked on this album so hard for so long, Jared says, "We just want to keep Mutt awake at night." When asked about his guitar influences, Eddie says he likes David Gilmour, Roy Clark, Chet Atkins and Tommy Shaw. When asked about his songwriting influences, Eddie likes Merle Haggard and Marty Robbins. Vocally, Eddie has been most influenced by Elvis Presley, and Ricky Van Shelton. Eddie plays Fender and Gibson Electric Guitars and Ovation Acoustic Guitars. Adam Morain We must not forget to acknowledge Adam's contribution to the album. Adam is Eddie's youngest son and is the new kid on the block, musically. In spite of his youth, Adam is showing real promise as a songwriter. "When Adam approached me with a bunch of ideas, I instantly saw real gold in some of the work," Jared says. "We took two of those early pieces and worked them up into fantastic songs that were strong enough to make it on the album. He was also mature enough to hand over his ideas and let Eddie and I dice them up. This is a hard thing to do, but it is something every serious songwriter must endure at some point. Abandoning one's ego for the sake of good songwriting is a critical step in a new songwriter's growth. If you don't go through this you usually stall at some mediocre point and never improve. We all went through it. This is part of paying one's dues." We hope Adam continues to study and grow musically and continue to contribute this level of quality in the future. Bravo, Adam!! So there you have it. Professional musical veterans, solid songwriting born from years of study, rich and powerful performances, new breakthroughs in sonic quality, a real engineer sitting in the producer's chair, and a few thousand hours of detailed, thoughtful work. All this translates into what we think is a fantastic album. We hope you do to! Thanks for your attention. Jared & Eddie. All content that exists on this website including graphics and photography copyright © 2009 by Jared M. Brandt and Eddie B. Morain, Sr. Music and Lyrics copyright © 2007 by Jared M. Brandt except for "Heartburn" and "That's What I Get" copyright © 2007 by Jared M. Brandt, Eddie B. Morain, Sr, and Adam Morain. Sound compilation copyright © 2009 by Jared M. Brandt, Eddie B. Morain, Sr. All rights reserved. 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