Young Alumni: Matt Brennan making his mark on the music world
2010-11-01 09:14:01
By Melissa Lombard
Matt Brennan (’02) took a roundabout way to Mount Allison. After studying jazz drumming for two years in Montreal, he realized that he missed the Maritimes and that his friends at Mount Allison “seemed to be having more fun.” He decided to transfer — and he’s glad he did.
In high school Brennan was encouraged to do what he felt most passionate about — and that was music — but he says he became starved for reading books and chose to study English and philosophy at Mount Allison.
“It matched the sort of education and the size of ideas I thought I should be learning in university. But I couldn’t stay away from music for too long.”
Then fate stepped in.
Brennan came across books by Simon Frith and he thought it was the best music writing he had ever read.
“It was both inspiring and discouraging because I realized that someone had already written something I wanted to write. He was really interesting and walked the line between a professional rock critic and serious scholar and is one of the only guys that I know who has been published by Rolling Stone and Harvard Press.”
Brennan remembers sitting in Mount Allison’s Crabtree computer lab one night, “Googling” Frith’s name and the University of Stirling in Scotland came up. He sent the professor what Brennan now calls “a really naďve e-mail” and received a response the next day.
“Coming full circle, I ended up doing my Master’s, PhD, and am now finishing up a Post-Doc with him, so everything worked out pretty well.”
His Postdoctoral Fellowship with Frith and Professor Martin Cloonan at the University of Edinburgh is entitled “Researching Live Music in the UK.” Brennan is a researcher on the three-year project, which received approximately $500,000 (CAN) in funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council — the UK equivalent of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The project looks at the development of the live music industry in Britain since 1950, from which his team will be writing a three-volume history.
“I spend my time going to libraries in Britain and looking through microfilm and old magazines and interviewing music industry ‘dinosaurs.’ I’ve interviewed people like Pink Floyd’s former manager, and a booking agent for Bob Dylan and Neil Young. They started out in the 60s and always have interesting stories to tell.”
Brennan said the best part of his job is coming across brand new information and discovering something that he hasn’t read in any book before.
“You are hearing a story from the mouth of a person that lived a particular experience and you realize that their story reveals something about the history of music in Britain that people didn’t know before. Putting the pieces together is really exciting.”
Along with his music scholarship, Brennan is a member of a three-piece band called Zoey Van Goey. The band has signed to a Scottish label and put out its first album. The group has also worked with the National Theatre of Scotland on a stage adaptation of a Japanese film, Dolls. He says one of their most notable accomplishments is playing in Scotland’s most popular music festival — T in the Park.
“This festival had lots of stages where different bands play at the same time. Iconic band R.E.M was headlining on the main stage at the same time as our performance. We actually had people at our show, so we thought that was an achievement,” he jokes.
Now 30, Brennan has found a way to marry both his academic and creative sides. He recently returned home to Fredericton for a visit and came to Sackville to take part in an indie music forum during Sappyfest — a three-day independent music festival that annually hosts more than 50 bands.
His postdoctoral research will officially end in the early part of 2011, so he is starting to think about what’s next.
“I miss home and haven’t ruled out coming back, but for now I have great work, great friends, and a band here in Scotland.”