Artist Interview: Brady Perl
Finding His Way Again
Brady Perl, 2021
We all have inflection points in our lives, the moments we look back on and identify as the point at which our life or our worldview took a different path. For Minnesota folk artist Brady Perl, one of those moments came during the run-up to the 2016 election.
“I had this gig in a venue out in the middle of nowhere, on the border of Minnesota and the Dakotas,” he recalls. After his set, an audience member approached him at the merch table and asked how much his CD was.
As he often does, Perl named the price but told the man he could have it anyway if he didn’t have the money. “And then — out of nowhere — he says something like, ‘Well I got money, you see, because there’s Black people and then there’s [N-words].’” Perl didn’t wait to hear any more. He walked away, stunned.
He was under no illusion that such views didn’t exist. “Those of us who knew what racism was knew what was coming out of this presidential race.” The difference? “It was the first time I’d heard it at one of my gigs, with somebody holding my CD like they’re my fan.” And it didn’t stop there. “I got invited to do a second gig that night. Someone kept requesting ‘Wagon Wheel’ so I did it. Someone else realized it was the Darius Rucker song and called him the N-word.”
Perl’s revelation came later that night, as he pulled the wad of bills he’d earned in tips from his pocket. “It was over $700, and I looked at it and asked myself, ‘Was that worth it?’ And I said no. It was in that moment I realized I had to do and say a whole lot more. Hearing that word to me was proof that I hadn’t been clear enough in my music, so I began to make sure people knew. I thought, ‘I didn’t do enough, I didn’t say enough.’ In the years since, I’ve been far more direct with people.”
‘My music’s always been about something’
When asked to describe his music, Perl turns to another anecdote. “Once at a gig, somebody asked me what my songs were about. And the answer that came to me was ‘You are who you are, and the moment you start to accept that is the moment you’re able to accept the rest of the world — to the degree that the rest of the world is acceptable.’ I believe you can say a lot with the platforms we have. If we’re not saying anything, then what are we even doing?”
It’s not that he thinks music has to be overtly political (though he doesn’t shy away from political commentary in lyrics like “There’s a crazy clown kissin’ the mirror in the White House bathroom”). His songs run the gamut from working-man blues to wistful love ballads. He’s just not interested in music that’s devoid of meaning. “Bob Marley music is a great example of this. It's the greatest-sounding, most relaxing music, in my opinion; it's also the most uplifting and makes you want to work to be triumphant with your neighbor, with your family, with yourself, and it’s the ultimate protest music.
“It's the musician's job to be about something; it’s the listener’s job to receive that information,” Perl adds. “My music’s always been about something, and if you want it to be about nothing, that’s bullshit.”
The Headwinds of Algorithms and COVID
It’s hard to be an unsigned artist, especially when the rules of self-promotion keep changing. Perl had garnered a decent following and successful engagement on his Facebook page, when algorithm changes caused a sudden and precipitous drop in views. “Like two years ago, my analytics were great. My outreach was really good. And Facebook was allowing everyone to engage with it. And then all of a sudden, all that changed. And I had no control over it whatsoever.” Due to restrictions on artist pages, he can’t even message his fans to let them know what’s going on.
“Zuckerberg will say things like, ‘Oh, we had a great quarter. This is like the best quarter of the year.’ I'm like, dude, you have fucked me over. And I've spent all this time on your platform, keeping people on it for you, and you want me to pay you to stay on your platform. It's just infuriating.”
The Facebook freeze-out happened shortly before the pandemic, when the most vital avenue for a working musician to connect with fans was closed off: live shows. “The whole last 12 months for me has just been an honest to god clusterfuck,” Perl admits. “Performers associate a lot of where we're at with where we're going, and for some of us, COVID only exacerbated an already dry workplace. Not being able to go and perform is one thing, and not being able to teach music lessons is another, then having to basically homeschool...I mean, holy shit.”
Perl had been planning to start a Patreon even before COVID-19 hit, so he did, but in the chaos of lockdown, he’s unsatisfied with his rollout. And with severe limitations on how he can even tell people about this new platform, he’s struggled to gain the following he’d hoped for.
Still, he’s found a few bright spots in lockdown: “It’s helped me remember what I sound like. When you’re in a loud place like a bar, you sing up and out, trying to get their attention.” He’d been hoping, pre-pandemic, to do more ticketed sit-down shows for that very reason. “When it’s ticketed, people are there to see the show. When it's free, even if people are enjoying it, you’re going to have talkers. Or,” he adds wryly, speaking from experience, “you’re in a pizzeria and have the pizza dropped when you’re in the middle of a love song.”
What he’s found with COVID, Perl says, is “the quiet again. I finally remember what it’s like to perform in the quiet. Like livestream. It’s interesting, if you watch my Patreon you can see the progression of me getting it together.”
‘Bringing it back to something new’
He’s also found time to work on an ambitious venture years in the making that he dubs “the 50 Song Project.” It started after a particularly long gig when he challenged himself not to repeat a song throughout the night. That led him to count his songs, and he realized he had over 60 that he could perform, and decided to record his 50 best in a multi-album project.
He got about halfway through. “Producing my first album myself was exhausting and made me never want to record again. Even making my second one in a studio was exhausting and didn’t end up like what I was going for.”
Now, having rediscovered his voice and his sound in the quiet of lockdown, Perl has a new path forward for the 50 Song Project. “I’m redoing the whole thing,” he says. “These days I’m playing for myself in a room where there’s nobody there, and that’s how I’m gonna do my project. I want to make sure I do it right, have the right songs in there. I want to make sure I’m being understood, making myself clear.“
He explains the origin of the idea: “I used to practice in an old metal barn when I worked for my dad as a landscaper, and I’d bring a tape recorder. I've been trying to figure out the best way to do my project, and decided the best way is analog — on tape.”
“Bringing it back to something new” is how he describes it. “I know a neuromusicologist who says it’s proven that analog/vinyl sounds better, because it’s a better representation of that soundwave versus MP3, which is compressed. Brain receptors respond better to vinyl because the brain doesn’t have to work as hard to hear everything it’s trying to enjoy.
“I’ll still transfer into digital, but it’ll be more organic. I’ll do video so people can see it’s a live version of a song. All on camera, all done in one take. I want to just sing into a tape recorder, and I think people will enjoy it far more.”
‘Something to do, somewhere to go’
What’s next for Perl? While he’s itching to get back out and perform, he’s adamant that nothing is more important than safety. “I really feel for the venue owners, and I really want to go out and be a part of that community as well, but there’s a responsibility on our part to shorten this thing. Being angry at people that try to do that, and voting for the guy who’s calling this a hoax, is total bullshit.”
Still, he adds, “I want to get back to working on the craft. I’ve spent way too much time learning how to build a website, how to do livestreams. I’m ready to get back to having something to do, somewhere to go.”
Until then, check out this video Perl recorded especially for this article of his recently written song, “A New Anthem.” You can also join his Patreon site for regular livestreams, exclusive videos, and updates on the 50 Song Project.
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the main music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym @taberkeley!
