Brian Carpenter is an American musician, songwriter, composer, and arranger. He is the lead singer and songwriter for the Boston, Massachusetts band

Beat Circus Beat Circus is a band from Boston, Massachusetts, US, fronted by the multi-instrumentalist / singer-songwriter Brian Carpenter, who has been its only constant member since its inception. Musical style The band's songs are characterized by lush ...

. In 2011, he formed Brian Carpenter & The Confessions and released its debut album in 2015. He is also a founder and lead arranger of Ghost Train Orchestra in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Personal life

Brian Carpenter was born in

Melbourne, Florida Melbourne is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is located southeast of Orlando. As of th2020 Decennial Census there was a population of 84,678. The municipality is the second-largest in the county by both size and population. ...

. He first attended the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in the mid-1990s, where he studied engineering and became part of the burgeoning music scene in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

. He moved to Boston in 2000 and began hosting a radio show on WZBC-FM in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

and formed the band Beat Circus in 2002. In 2009 he revealed his son had

high-functioning autism High-functioning autism (HFA) is an autism classification where a person exhibits no intellectual disability, but may exhibit deficits in communication, emotion recognition and expression, and social interaction. HFA is not included in either t ...

Musical career

After the formation of Beat Circus, Carpenter began composing a "Weird American Gothic" trilogy of albums, starting with '' Dreamland'', released on the

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

label in 2008, a song cycle loosely based on the Coney Island theme park of the same name. '' Boy from Black Mountain'' followed in 2009 with Southern folk songs inspired by his son and his father's life growing up as a farmer in the

Florida Panhandle The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a Salient (geography), salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia (U. ...

. The album won the Independent Music Award that year for Best Alt/Country Album. In 2012 Carpenter began collaborating with the

Berkeley Repertory Theater Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It runs seven productions each season from its two stages in Downtown Berkeley. History The company was founded in 1968, as the East Bay's first resident p ...

on a musical loosely based on Herbert Asbury's Gold Rush saga The Barbary Coast.

Ghost Train Orchestra

In 2006 Carpenter was hired as the musical director for a run of vaudeville shows at an historic theater in Boston, then celebrating its 90th anniversary. He formed a 9-piece band called the Ghost Train Orchestra to perform the event and in 2011 released an album of rearranged music from obscure late 1920s Chicago and Harlem bands called ''Hothouse Stomp''. The ensemble went on to reconstruct and re-imagine compositions by idiosyncratic American composers from the late 1930s with the album ''Book of Rhapsodies''.

Brian Carpenter & The Confessions

In 2011 Carpenter announced the formation of a new band called Brian Carpenter & The Confessions which debuted in January 2011 in

Biddeford, Maine Biddeford is a city in York County, Maine, United States. It is the principal commercial center of York County. Its population was 22,552 at the 2020 census. The twin cities of Saco and Biddeford include the resort communities of Biddeford Poo ...

. The band recorded their debut ''The Far End of the World'' with Rafi Sofer at

Q Division Studios Q Division Studios is a recording studio located in Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1986, Q Division was originally located at 443 Albany Street in Boston, but moved to its current two-studio facility in 2000. Bands that have ...

Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81, ...

and mixed with

Craig Schumacher Craig Schumacher is an American Record producer, producer and audio engineer based in Tucson, Arizona. He is known for recording and mixing albums by Calexico (band), Calexico, Devotchka, Neko Case, Giant Sand, The Jayhawks, Friends of Dean Martin ...

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. The album was released in 2015.

Radio

In 2001, Carpenter began hosting a weekly experimental radio program ''Free Association'' on

WZBC WZBC (90.3 FM) is a radio station broadcasting an Alternative format. Licensed to Newton, Massachusetts, United States, the station serves Boston and its western suburbs. The station is currently owned by Boston College. While the station is ru ...

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

. He then began producing lengthy

radio documentaries A radio documentary is a spoken word radio format devoted to non-fiction narrative. It is broadcast on radio as well as distributed through media such as tape, CD, and podcast. A radio documentary, or feature, covers a topic in depth from one or ...

, starting with ''The Sound of Horror'', a four-hour study on sound design in horror and science-fiction film. Among other projects, Carpenter aired documentaries on jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer Sam Rivers and composer, inventor, and electronic music pioneer

Raymond Scott Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow; September 10, 1908 – February 8, 1994) was an American composer, band leader, pianist, record producer, and inventor of electronic instruments. Though Scott never scored cartoon soundtracks, his music is ...

Discography

Beat Circus Beat Circus is a band from Boston, Massachusetts, US, fronted by the multi-instrumentalist / singer-songwriter Brian Carpenter, who has been its only constant member since its inception. Musical style The band's songs are characterized by lush ...

*''Ringleaders Revolt'' (2004) *'' Dreamland'' (2008) *'' Boy From Black Mountain'' (2009) *''These Wicked Things'' (2019)

Brian Carpenter and the Confessions

*''Blind'' (2012) *''The Far End of the World'' (2015)

Ghost Train Orchestra

*'' Hothouse Stomp'' (2011) *''Book of Rhapsodies'' (2013) *''Hot Town'' (2015) *''Book of Rhapsodies Vol II'' (2017)

Appears on

Swans Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Someti ...

, '' My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky'' (2010) *

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...

, '' Long Time Passing'' (2020) *

Thalia Zedek Thalia Zedek (born 1961) is an American singer and guitarist. Active since the early 1980s, she has been a member of several notable alternative rock groups, including Live Skull and Uzi (band), Uzi both of which, according to ''Spin (magazine) ...

, '' Perfect Vision'' (2021)

Radio Documentaries

*''The Sound of Horror: Sound Design in Horror and Science-Fiction Film'' (2003, with Stephen Jay Schneider, Stephen Barden, Craig Henighan) *''Rivers and Rhythms: A Sam Rivers Retrospective'' (2012, with Allan Chase,

Steve Coleman Steve Coleman (born September 20, 1956) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader and music theorist. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Early life Steve Coleman was born and grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing al ...

, Russ Gershon, and

Dave Holland David “Dave” Holland (born 1 October 1946) is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for over 40 years. His extensive discography r ...

) *''Imagination and Innovation: The World of Raymond Scott'' (2012, with

Irwin Chusid Irwin Chusid (born April 22, 1951 in Newark, New Jersey) is a journalist, music historian, radio personality, record producer, and self-described "landmark preservationist". His stated mission has been to "find things on the scrapheap of history t ...

, Tom Rhea,

Jim Thirlwell James George Thirlwell (born 29 January 1960), also known as Clint Ruin, Frank Want, and Foetus, among other names, is an Australian musician, composer, and record producer. He is known for juxtaposing a variety of different musical styles. ...

) *''Ennio Morricone: Magician of Sound'' (2020, with Alessandro De Rosa)

References

External links

Brian Carpenter & The Confessions

Brian Carpenter - Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Brian 1971 births Living people University of Florida alumni People from Melbourne, Florida Singers from Massachusetts 21st-century American singers Ghost Train Orchestra members Satellite High School alumni