Upcoming Events at Bookmarks

Ian Brennan is a Grammy award winning record producer who has secured four nominations over the past ten years. His most recent nomination (World Music) is for a record produced with musicians at Zomba Prison in southern Malawi.
In the studio he has worked with a wide range of artists such as Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Tinariwen, Lucinda Williams, Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney), Richard Thompson, and many more.

His latest book How Music Dies (or Lives): Field Recording and the Battle for Democracy in the Arts is a virtual how-to manual for those on a quest for authenticity in an age of airbrushed and auto-tuned so-called “artists”.

“Recorded music is now something we take as a given. It’s now people’s primary source of receiving music and for expressing themselves musically, usually by proxy using someone else’s performances. But all those performances are mummified and already dead. So the repetition of those performances, and divorcing ourselves from labor, is actually an act of death. It has benefits, and it’s beautiful in many respects—I love recorded music—but there are dangers which have become dominant.”

“On another level, “authenticity” also becomes a myth when a band like Mumford & Sons unplugs and bulldozes all of the subtlety out of a working- class art form.”

As well as being a musician, Brennan also has a background working in social services and mental health.

For this very special event, Ian will be in conversation with Sam Lee and Lopa Kothari (following a radio session together that morning).

This will be followed by a Q&A and a book signing.