Breton Parks

New Song!

2012-01-02T12:27:00.001-08:00

I have my new song 'figure it out on my own' posted on bolachas.org

A HUGE thank you to them and to cakes and tapes. I have an upcoming release happening in 2012. More news on that later. In the mean time... check out the new song. :)

Breton Parks: figure it out on my own [2012]

New song on the way plus a few other projects

2011-12-26T23:20:00.002-08:00

1. I'm nearly done mixing a new song. I'll post it as soon as it's ready to go. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

2. I've been writing music for a movie. This movie in fact: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/372588702/knock-down-drag-out

3. I'm sound designing a mobile game as well. I'm doing both music and the sound effects for it.

4. Plus, I'm also scoring a children's musical for a local theatre company.

Tons of fun stuff in the works!

I just bought this as well:

REVIEW of 'Whelk'

2011-09-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

A review of my album 'Whelk' has just been posted to the Italian music site: indie-zone.it

A HUGE thanks to Alessandro Scotti for the review. He's also interviewing me! I'll be posting that as well when it's out.

Get out your google translator and check this out:
http://www.indie-zone.it/r.asp?id=3671

Glass Homes show Aug 26th

2011-08-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

My other band Glass Homes will be playing The Lions Lair on Aug 26th.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=240746769298503

Don't forget to 'like' BRETON PARKS and GLASS HOMES on Facebook

2011-08-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Bolachas.org. They posted my album up on their blog and wrote some really nice things. Check out the article!

http://bolachas.org/?p=481

New website and recent shows

2011-07-26T06:59:00.001-07:00

I have a new website f0r my music. You visit it by going to: bretonparksmusic.com. You can stream and download my new album there as well as email me. Fun huh?

I played a show with my band, Glass Homes the other night (7/23). It went swimmingly. As of July 23rd, our self titled album is officially out and ready to be purchased. You can buy it digitally here: glasshomes.bandcamp.com, or buy a physical copy here: glasshomes.myminto.com. Here are some pictures from the show

I also just finished my third year of teaching and designing sound for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Youth Repertoire program. It is a summer theatre camp for kids ages 14-18. We mounted two shows in five weeks. Here's a cool video off what it looked like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B4zeu79hto

New Music!!!! FINALLY!!!!

2011-07-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

Hey there! If you read this then you know its been more than a little since I've posted anything. I've been hard at work with theatre productions as well as recording new music. In fact, I have a new album out. Yup, its all recorded, mixed, and generally done-zo. Here's a link to listen to the whole thing if you're interested.

The album is entitled "Whelk"

Whelk by Breton Parks

:) :)

Thanks

YouTube Channel

2010-09-06T14:13:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/user/bretonparks

This includes my sound design clips and music!

Arsenic and Old Lace, Crazy for You, and the new Glass Homes album

2010-04-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been very busy. I just finished working on Arsenic and Old Lace, another Theatreworks production. It was a relativity painless tech week and great opening night. Here is the review for the show.

http://csartsblog.freedomblogging.com/2010/04/23/theatreworks-delivers-old-tyme-fun-in-arsenic-and-old-lace/6401/

In the next week I will have the pleasure, and the pain, of working on one of the "biggest" musicals ever written, Crazy for You. Complete with an enormous chorus of dancing girls and cowboys, this show is sure to be a monster. I have 18 wireless mics in use for the show with 27 actors with speaking lines and solos. Lucky me. I get to chart out who is getting a microphone when, and how. :) Really excited.

http://www.csfineartscenter.org/CrazyForYou.asp

Lastly, Nick Salmon finished up the Glass Homes album two weeks ago in Omaha. This is the album we worked on last summer. I played bass on all the songs and we had Clark from The Faint play drums for us. Here is a sample of the song Waiting.

Waiting clip from breton christopherson on Vimeo.

March and April

2010-04-09T23:10:00.000-07:00

March-April Demo from breton christopherson on Vimeo.

ALL MY SONS

2010-03-11T09:58:00.001-08:00

Hi there,

This week I'm preparing for my new show at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, "All My Sons" by Arthur Miller. Aside from being really depressing, its going to be a great show. The director wanted most of the sound design to include music by the film composer Thomas Newman. It's going to have an interesting great vibe.

I recently started working at a commercial recording studio in town call Audio Architects. Things have been going great over there. I get to work with some pretty awesome equipment :)

In music world, all the demos from Tea Diffuser are posted in full on RPMChallenge.com. You can find them by looking through what they call the "jukebox." Searching by year is your best bet. Also, I've made a few more electronic demos that actually sound pretty decent. However, I think my next attempt at music is going to be more acoustic guitar based. We'll see though, its still up in the air

http://www.csfineartscenter.org/AllMySons.asp

The Finish Line

2010-02-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

Once again, I've finished another RPM Challenge (rpmchallenge.com). I had to create 10 original songs and record them during the month of February. The album is my attempt at electronic music. I'm pleased with how it turned out and can't wait to add lyrics and singing over the next few months. You'll be able to stream the whole album online within a few weeks. I'll share the link as soon as its posted.

Clips from the upcoming album

RPM Album Teaser from breton christopherson on Vimeo.

Album Cover

RPM attempt 10

2010-02-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

Here is some fun Euro disco I made. This has been a great month. :) :) ♥♥♥♥

RPM Demo 10 from breton christopherson on Vimeo.

RPM Update

2010-02-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

Mesita Living/Breathing (live in Studio) video

2010-02-05T16:58:00.000-08:00

This rocks. Way to go James

Mesita - Living/Breathing (Live in Studio) from mesitamusic on Vimeo.

Grandpa Rod

2010-01-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

I wanted to put this story down before I forget it completely. Last week I had a really strange dream. I was standing by an old tv set with a telephone in my hand listening to the static that they both make. All of a sudden I heard my dead Grandpa's voice coming out of the telephone. Strangest thing, I actually heard his voice. It wasn't some made up version I called his voice in my dream, but his real voice. After talking with him for a few minutes I handed the phone to the other members of my family so that they could have a turn to once again talk to him.

I haven't thought about my Grandpa in a long time. I was pretty young when he passed and so I can't recall a lot of the experiences and dates leading up to his death. Yesterday, I told my mom about the dream and she informed me that the anniversary of his death was last week. I think the brain is so strange. It's amazing how it can remember things like the sound of someones voice. It's also amazing how it let me have the chance to hear his voice once again on the anniversary of his death.

head starts

2010-01-26T14:36:00.000-08:00

I made this today. The rest of the song sounds way less techno-y

Sweeney Todd and The RPM Challenge

2010-01-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

Hey Ya'll,

I've been really busy the last few weeks sound designing Sweeney Todd at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. The show is going to be great, I'm just beat from working on it so much. It opens January 22nd. http://www.csfineartscenter.org/SweeneyTodd.asp

In music news, I signed up to do the RPM Challenge in February. The challenge asks its participants to record a 10 song (or 35 minute) album within the course of the month. I'm not sure what direction I'm going to take as far as sound but I just need to get something down. I've been experimenting with some minimalist electronic music as well as some acoustic songs. I'm not sure how the album is going to work but I may split it in half and do some electronic and some acoustic.

2009-12-05T00:08:00.000-08:00

Hey ya'll. I have been working really hard on creating some new music and as it stands right now I have about ten demos in the works. I have really been struggling with writers block for the last two years so things are going really slow.

Here is a sample of one of the demos I'm currently working on. It was a track I wrote for a band I was in with James Cooley and Lauren Haroutunian. Both of them helped me to get the song where it is at the current moment. Thanks guys. :) :)

Please forgive the crappy quality of the photos, I swiped them from facebook, cuz i suck a little :(

Blogz

2009-08-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

Nick Salmon is my friend on facebook. :)

New Breton Parks tunes in the works

2009-08-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

So after a little time off, I've finally started creating the beginnings of what might become a new Breton Parks album. It's been two years since I made 'Substitute' and now that I'm out of school and have tons of free time on my hands, I've started to demo out some new tracks. So far I have two songs in the works and many more ideas floating around. I'm not going to rush myself as I have been battling with writers block, but hopefully I can pull something together good enough for people to hear. Wish me luck

Getting stuff done

2009-06-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

So we have tracked vocals completely for two songs, "Night No Day," and "End It." Although Nick needed a couple takes to warm up, the vocal tracking is going very smoothly now. Nick is currently singing "Die in Cars."

Vocals

2009-06-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

We have finally finished up tracking the instruments on all the songs and have moved onto vocals. We're going to try to punch them out as fast as possible being that its the last day we're here. Nick has been doing his warm ups and ready to start.

Joel stopped by and showed us how to use the modular synthesizer and it made some seriously awesome sounds. Here is a little video of Nick trying to work it

Moving Foward

2009-06-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

We've spent most of the morning working through the songs and filling in gaps. We're about to take a lunch break at Chipotle and then start vocals after.

Here is a little sample of "Privacy"

END OF DAY 4

2009-06-04T23:15:00.000-07:00

After finishing up all of the guitars and basic synth parts, we spent a fair amount of time going through each song and filling in empty spots. It was really cool digging deep into the music and finding parts that complimented the song. Kyle is a great producer and collaborator in the studio. With all of our creativity at full steam, we were able to finish all the instrumentation on at least five songs.

The plan for tomorrow is track all the vocals, continue to fill in spots, and hopfully create a quick mix of all the songs. Joel is stopping by to show how to use the modular synth tomorrow, I'm really excited.

Kyle tears it up

2009-06-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

We're going "out there"

2009-06-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

Now that we have finished all of the basic synth tracks we have started the experimentation phase. We are going through each song and pulling out as many instruments and effects pedals as possible to fill in gaps in songs. It was pretty fun messing around on the Memory Moog. We also found a place to use a baritone guitar. It was low and out there but in the mix it was pretty cool. We have been creating some pretty interesting sounds.

Synthesizers

2009-06-04T13:15:00.001-07:00

We just finished all of the guitar tracking and have moved on to the synthesizers. We have one song down and have moved on to "Die in Cars." Everything is going quickly and smoothly, just how we want it.

END OF DAY 3/Starting Day 4

2009-06-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

We decided to end day three a little early. We all needed to get out of the studio and take a break. We went to a nice little place in Dundee called the Dundee Dell to eat some food and relax a bit. We ran into Clark Baechle there who is the drummer for The Faint. After we ate we headed back to Kyle's house and I actually got to sleep on a couch instead of the floor. I also got to shower, which I hadn't done in a few days.

We were able to finishing tracking guitar on all but one song, "Night No Day."

The plan for day 4 is to finish up "Night No Day" and start tracking the basic synthesizer parts for each song. We all feel a bit more refreshed and ready to work hard.

Breaking out the PAUL STANLEY

2009-06-03T18:08:00.000-07:00

Stars preview

2009-06-03T13:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a preview of what "Stars" sounds like

Guitar Tracking

2009-06-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

So far Nick is doing a great job playing the songs. We have one song completely tracked out with guitar ("Stars") and are working on a second on one ("Never Ascend"). Kyle brought in his 1978 Les Paul Standard and Nick has been using it in addition to his Telecaster. Things are going well and we hope to get as much of the guitar done today as possible. In the mean time I get to sit back and throw in my two cents on things.

We got to use a Memory Man pedal for "Stars" and we created some crazy noise. Sounds reminiscent of Muse, but not quite. We also messed around with a bunch of different fuzz pedals (with broken input jacks). Its nice having tons of equipment at your disposal.

Nick playing with musical magnets

2009-06-02T23:41:00.001-07:00

END OF DAY 2

2009-06-02T23:31:00.000-07:00

We just called it quits on the day and are turning in. Today we finished programming all of the drum tracks and recorded (hopefully) all of the bass for the album. There may be some changes we'll need to make but for the most part these sections are complete. Tomorrow we will start fresh with guitar and move past all of the difficulties we had with the MIDI data and drum sounds.

We went to lunch at a nice restaurant called Spaghetti Works. We all had some tasty "all you can eat" pasta. While sitting at the table Kyle pointed out that I had an inch worm crawling on my shoulder. I struggled to get it off of me. Once I did, the kids at the table next to us immediately fell to their knees and examined and poked the bug. It was an "awwwweee cute" moment.

Thoroughly Exhausted

2009-06-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

As it stands we have bass recorded on all but one song. Nick and Kyle are about to import the drums and MIDI data. Hopefully with this song we won't have as many problems getting the grid to match up with the beats.

I'm totally tired. I've been playing bass constantly since about noon. We did a lot of experimenting with bass tones and sounds and we are all pleased with how the tracks turned out. I might just chill out for a little while because my fingers were on fire from playing so fast. We're moving right along.

bass tracking "privacy"

2009-06-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

We are recording bass. Here is a quick video. Gotta go, its my time to shine!!! :)

END OF DAY 1

2009-06-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

Boy, that was sure a long day. We just finished the first day and got all but one song done with the drum tracking. The plan tomorrow is to finish up the drums and then track all the bass. I'm sure I can knock it out in just a few takes, its just a matter of getting the right sound. Its my turn to shine, I think I'm ready.

Still drum programming

2009-06-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

So Kyle, our producer, out of some fluke found a great sequence to use for the song "Never Ascend." We were all feeling a little burnt out until he found that and it gave us a little energy boost. Another song down, I think we have two more to go, well for drums anyway. We are current working on the song "Night No Day."

Nick busted out the analog hand clapper again and was really excited to use it. All we needed was a sample so while Nick was just fooling around, Kyle grabbed it. I thought Nick's reaction was funny. :)

Quantizers

2009-06-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

So I guess the main culprit for the sub-par MIDI data is the quantizer. It synced all the beats to the wrong nearest interval and has caused some serious headaches.

As of right now we have drums completely tracked for the songs "End it" and "Open Arms." Right now we are finishing up "Die in Cars" and will start up again after we take a break.

Nick was very excited to use the analog hand clapper on "Open Arms."

Getting the ball (and drums) rolling

2009-06-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

After a slight dilemma trying to get the samples to work with the MIDI data, we are finally on our way with compiling the drum sounds for the first song. The ball is slightly rolling so everyone is feeling pretty good. Hopefully we can iron out all the issues with the MIDI and start rockin and rolling completely.

And here we go...

2009-06-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Nick and I have started tracking out the midi data for all the drum tracks this morning. So far things are going pretty smoothly. Hopefully today I'll be able to pull out my bass and lay down some fat sounding tracks.

Dapose just walked in and said hey. I'm glad I'm here, this is fun.

2009-05-31T23:16:00.000-07:00

So here I am, cutting a record with Nick Salmon at The Faint's studio in Omaha NE. Nick and I arrived early in the evening (5/31) and have been hanging out with the engineer/producer Kyle. He was the bass player for the last Broken Spindles tour.

The studio has a great feel. Nick and I both feel very comfortable and are very excited to hit the ground running on recording. I'm playing bass during the sessions but will also be assisting with the synth work and anything else that needs to be worked on. It is going to be and interesting experience.

Right now, I'm about to sleep on a love seat in the back room of The Faint's recording studio. Its really strange to me that I'm not weirded out or intimidated by the fact that I'm here.