Today we’d like to introduce you to Brendan Burns.
Brendan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m 22 years old and I was born and raised on the west side of Pasadena. My interest in music began at a very young age as my father is a sound engineer, originally mixing records at a studio in Colorado and eventually moving to California to mix television and films. My mother is a teacher and very supportive of me learning anything new so my parents had me start up piano lessons around five years old and through the years guitar, bass, drums came into the mix as well. I think my dad actually turned me on to production at an early age too without even knowing it; I was around 10 or 12 years old and he downloaded an early version of the application GarageBand onto the family computer and showed me how to drag in drum loops and make little songs. It’s scary to think about the monstrosities that I made on that computer and my parents had to listen to but it makes me smile because I still use GarageBand to this day. I was in a number of bands growing up, most notably my high school 3-piece “Danny DeVideo”, we didn’t have a bass player, we practiced in my garage and recorded demos in my bedroom. The neighbors hated us, it was classic. But it wasn’t until a year or two out of high school that I started developing my style and releasing music on my own under the name “Lakewood”. I remember being 16 or 17 with a fake ID sneaking into Low End Theory on Wednesday nights in Lincoln Heights to see people like Dibiase, Jonwayne, and Samiyam and thinking “wow, I really need to be making music like this”. I tried to go to that show every week for the years it served the LA community and it just gave me a totally new take on music.
Growing up with the internet obviously helped me develop my sound a lot but more importantly helped me connect with so many people that I wouldn’t have otherwise. In 2017 I saw a flyer for a pretty lowkey hiphop/beat show in Oakland that they were gonna record live to cassette tape, I thought that was so dope. I hit a few of the artists up on Instagram and said I was gonna take the bus up from LA for the weekend and check it out. I showed up to Oakland by myself and they welcomed me with warm arms, had me get up and play some beats, and invited me to stay and play on a radio show the next day. They had me on Orange Radio, I played my first beat set ever, and met some of my best friends to this day including Eighty9’s, 4D, Dutchmastered, Nimsins, Ovrkast, the Orange Radio boys, and a bunch of other musicians. I ended up getting featured on a compilation tape out of the Bay Area called “LoFiction & Friends” along with a few other L.A. artists, which was pivotal in starting dialogue and collaborations between the L.A. and Bay Area underground hiphop scenes. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to have played a lot more shows and even booked some for my friends. I’ve also been releasing music digitally here and there but spending most of my time working with an independent label called Otherground Tapes….
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I’m still young and I know my biggest challenges are probably still ahead of me. I don’t like to complain because I know growing up is tough for everyone but I had a particularly hard time getting by in school. I was always behind and my grades were constantly slipping. When I was in the 6th grade, 11 or 12 years old, my parents had me tested and I was diagnosed with ADHD and immediately put on pills like Ritalin and Adderall so that I could stay focused in school. This leads to a downward spiral of side effects, and by the time I got to high school, I was also diagnosed with other stuff like major depressive disorder and put on antidepressants. I had to switch schools a number of times due to academic performance and overall mischievous activities. I just didn’t feel like I ever had a place at school or in a classroom and it makes it hard for me to go back to college and keep pursuing higher education. I’m proud to be free of prescription drugs for I don’t know how many years now, and I can definitely say that making music has played a huge role in maintaining my mental health. It seems like mental health issues are sometimes the hardest ailments for people to confront because you can’t really see them. That’s why I try to urge ANYONE at all to reach out to me or to your friends just to talk about what’s going on. My email and DM’s are always open!
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
Along with releasing my personal music, I have been curating compilation tapes, booking artists for shows, and doing general A&R work for a Los Angeles based label called Otherground Tapes. Founded by my good friend Brett Bushmill in 2017, Otherground is a cassette-focused label creating quality physical releases for independent artists as well as creating a digital platform for streaming, live performances, and radio shows. Currently, we are preparing to release our 10th tape as a label, as well as keeping up a live Twitch stream with different artists performing every night throughout the Covid-19 quarantine.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
To me the biggest manifestation of luck is being at the right place in the right time. Many people say that the music industry is “all about connections and who you know” which I think is bullshit….. but it doesn’t hurt to be in the right place at the right time, and sometimes you have to put yourself there. I remember going to Low End Theory at the Airliner in Lincoln Heights, some nights waiting in line for 3 hours to get in because the line was around the block and they had such a small capacity. But sometimes getting there early would land you in a conversation with one of your favorite rappers outside, or a face-to-face view of Thundercat while he plays his set and sweats on you. For me luck isn’t about what physical deals or hands you shake, but more so what you get to experience.
Contact Info:
- Website: otherground.net
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lakewood.mp3/?hl=en
- Other: https://lakewood.bandcamp.com
Image Credit:
Adrian Esteban, Frankie Monterey, Torrey Gentillon, Marco Lopez, Adrian Terrones
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