Rising Music Star Shawn Brown On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry
An Interview With Elana Cohen
It’s a weird time to be making music, especially since the “music business” is essentially non-existent in a lot of regards. That said, I’d just continue to encourage folks to spend their valuable time writing the best songs they can and play them to as many people as possible, the rest of it isn’t in your control anyway. It’s tempting to waste interna resources on all the worry of the business stuff, it’s not the best headspace to wear if you’re looking to thrive creatively. Also be authentic. Every person you meet, play with, write with, talk shop with, interview…everyone is (most likely) doing their best. The stakes aren’t ever as high as you feel that are, so just be YOU and enjoy people. That way, those connections can actually be fueling.
As a part of our interview series with leaders, stars, and rising stars in the music industry, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Shawn Brown.
Shawn Brown’s music has always buoyed itself between genres. While heavily influenced by soul singers, R&B, and guitar-based pop — he has always leaned equally heavily towards his deep love of the rootsier side of Rock & Roll. And after an extended break from music, Shawn is BACK and continues to blur the lines between the genres that move him most. His latest EP, The Rain Parade, was self-released on 8/19/22 and his newest single “Road of Bones” was released on 6/2/23.
Brown has elevated his unique folk/songwriter sound by leaning further into a pop sensibility and creating one of his catchiest songs to date. “Road of Bones” conjures that 90’s rock and folk/country style, which is not only timeless but in recent times has found a resurgence with young and old listeners alike. “Road of Bones” was written with the listener in mind”, says Brown. “It’s a song hopefully folks can relate to — I can’t wait to play this one live for everybody.” His 2022 EP The Rain Parade is available to stream now, and “Road of Bones” will be available 6/2 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all other streaming platforms. “Road of Bones” is the continued evolution of Shawn Brown’s songwriting and passion for hooks. Far more than a craft, Shawn has often spoken about songwriting as his salvation and escape from the daily grind and world often seen to be in disarray. Brown credits his consistency in making relatable music with bringing people together intentionally, deepening his relationship with his fans, and being open to creating new opportunities to connect within his career. “Road of Bones” is a singable continuation of Shawn’s ongoing songwriting goal to tie life’s struggles together with personal growth and use that growth as a means of better connecting with other people. The song comes from new songwriting sessions he began just after the release of his 2022 EP The Rain Parade. Brown’s comeback into writing and releasing music comes thanks to his longtime friend, Rafa Cirne Lima, who introduced him to a writing and production alliance that includes Grecco Buratto (Shakira) and Brendan Buckley (Morrisey). Lima also played bass guitar in the effort. The track involved help from engineer Alberto Lopez (for vocals) and was mastered by Grammy winner Robert Carranza.
Thank you so much for joining us again in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about your “origin story”. Can you tell us the story of how you initially connected with music as a vocation?
Thanks for having me back! The truth of it is — I was always a fan first. I remember having John Mellencamp and Rush cassettes in middle school. I played the heck out of those things. At the time — it would have been late 80’s — my family lived in the Seattle area so the local music was quickly becoming important to all of us. The fall of my freshman year of high school The Connells came and played a show in our gym. That was a pretty formative show, I’m pretty sure I started my first band the next week. The cassettes went from Mellencamp to The Replacements immediately.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
By the time I put out my very first EP, it was very clear to me that I HAD to play music. Not only did I love being up on stage, but I have always loved writing songs. Even today, I’m a fairly novice level musician. Once I learned my first few chords on the guitar, I was off writing my own songs. I probably could have spent a bit more time learning how to play better from a music theory perspective, but I was just too darn fired up to write my own stuff. Singing quickly followed all that too. It felt good to sing the words, even if it sounded awful at first.
It has been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
It’s a good question, though I’m not sure I think about mistakes as anything other than the mechanisms in which we figure things out. There were certainly some pretty hilarious mistakes made early on as far as signing development deals with various record companies which resulted in my projects being shelved. Basically the first 10 years of my career was literally one big comedy act. I had no idea what I was doing and was lucky to be surrounded by super enthusiastic friends who wanted this whole thing to work out worse than I did. There wasn’t one morsel of expertise in the bunch! If I learned anything from all that, it was to just enjoy it all for what it actually is. Making music is about a lot of things, but for me — connecting with folks is really at the top of that list. You can’t connect if you’re not enjoying it, that’s for sure.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I love this question because I’m lucky to have so many people that I feel immense gratitude towards. These days, Rafa Cirne Lima is absolutely as responsible for everything that is happening with this new music as anyone. We’ve been friends for a long, long time. What I love about our friendship though is that it wasn’t about music for years. We both knew about each other’s story in music, but we didn’t sit down to actually play together for a long time. It just wasn’t the focal point of our friendship, which in retrospect, is pretty cool. I’ve talked a lot about how instrumental he was in coaxing me back out into writing and recording, but I’m not sure I’ve talked enough about the monster musician that guy is. Just a super special guy all around.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I’m obsessed with Rick Rubin’s new book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. I could literally pull an impactful quote off of each page. I like how he views Rules and how much power we can inadvertently let them have on us — as creatives or otherwise. He says “Rules direct us to average behaviors. If we’re aiming to create works that are exceptional, most rules don’t apply. Average is nothing to aspire to. The goal is not to fit in.” I like the idea that none of it is caught in some version of a binary trap. It’s not a default position to reject a rule, the practice would be being aware enough to not let the rules define any of the process in the first place.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
My first stand-alone single “Road of Bones” is set to drop June 2nd. I am extremely excited to get this song out there. It’s one of those tunes that sounds incredibly happy, but when you stop and take a look at the lyrics — things are not as simple as they seem. I’ve always loved that conceit in writing. That “Every Breath You Take” trick. Super fun to play with that way of writing and I hope folks love it.
We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in music, film, and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
I’m super appreciative that you have that lens. I’ll give you one big reason to start. True diversity in ALL fields is one of the quickest ways to defeat the “binary thinking trap” that is such a sickness at the moment. In the US, we are certainly suffering the insidious impacts that either/or and all types of binary thinking foster. It’s an easy trap to unwittingly fall into — that there’s a good or bad, wrong or right, Republican or Democrat.
We see it all the time, if there’s automatically a wrong by default in every equation, it pushes out the practice of acceptance. More importantly, the impulse to be curious about differences isn’t developed at all. In my mind, one of the greatest gifts of equitable representation in the arts (or anywhere else) has always been the potential to be curious. In my experience, the arts in general have often been ground zero for those types of connections to be made. Novels, stand-up comedy, visual art, dance…all of it. Psychologically, targeting pass/fail thinking really can allow people more room to be curious and maybe even less threatened by differences.
I suppose one step further would be that the default setting itself was to celebrate and honor diversity. That would be amazing. We’ve got miles to go on that one though. To that end, it also seems pertinent to acknowledge that I am commenting on a question around diversity through the privileges I receive by being male, white and hetrosexual. I guarantee I have as much work as anyone else in building awareness around difference and endeavoring to be an ally to those who are fundamentally underrepresented.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
It’s a weird time to be making music, especially since the “music business” is essentially non-existent in a lot of regards. That said, I’d just continue to encourage folks to spend their valuable time writing the best songs they can and play them to as many people as possible, the rest of it isn’t in your control anyway. It’s tempting to waste interna resources on all the worry of the business stuff, it’s not the best headspace to wear if you’re looking to thrive creatively. Also be authentic. Every person you meet, play with, write with, talk shop with, interview…everyone is (most likely) doing their best. The stakes aren’t ever as high as you feel that are, so just be YOU and enjoy people. That way, those connections can actually be fueling.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
While it might sound super cliche, I think I’d probably want to inspire people to be as ‘in the present’ as humanly possible. You can take all of the Mindfulness chat anyway you want, but for me I come at it from more of a pragmatic place. Factually, most of our anxiety and sadness lives either in the past or future. There’s almost never anything problematic happening RIGHT NOW. Therefore, why not spend more time in the RIGHT NOW? It’s pretty cool here. It’s often the safest headspace there is. Take a walk, smile at someone walking down the street, throw on your favorite song, meditate…do you.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? They might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
I’d like to have a pint with Bono, so if you guys hook that up, that would be awesome!
How can our readers follow you online?
All the important stuff can be found here — https://linktr.ee/shawnbrownsings.
Thanks again for having me.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
