By Jim Barber
Sometimes a crowd-funding campaign is more than just a way to help raise money to see a project through to fruition. Sometimes, there’s a deeper meaning behind the campaign, a message that goes beyond the creation of art, music or a cool product. It’s a resonant epistle that speaks about identity, about reclaiming independence of spirit, of building community, of sending a message that inequality of opportunity and bias is no longer acceptable.
For blues-rock artist/songwriter/performer/producer, Brandy Zdan, her new Kickstarter campaign is an example of all of this and more. It’s a call to arms, a chance to not just help her write, record, and release new music, but stake her ground as a respected record producer in an industry that is woefully short of women working ‘behind the board,’ especially in the rock genre.
And the music that she is making for the album that will come out later this year entitled SO WHAT! fits into that same theme, where the medium is also the message, and the message is part of the medium.
“I think the greater statement here is that I’m a female producer in rock and roll and I’m trying to make my way doing that. I don’t have anyone to look at in terms of people who have been on this path, and I feel like the greater part of this is I want my daughter to understand that if she can see it, she can be it. It’s that whole thing. This is just as much for her as it is for me because she needs to know that her place can be wherever she wants it to be, no matter how much of a boys’ club it is or has been. And that it may not be an easy path, but you just have to figure out a way to make it happen. There’s like, six per cent of women behind the board producing records, and especially in my genre, it almost doesn’t exist. It’s starting to get better, but it’s a weird road, and I’m now ready to open my own doors, if that makes sense, because people are not opening the doors for me,” the native of Winnipeg, now resident of Nashville said, adding that it took her a long time, and the birth of her daughter Lucky just before the start of the global COVID pandemic in early 2020 to raise herself up above to noise, steel herself against the doubts of the industry and even her own doubts, and push forward. After a number of years of producing music for others, she finally decided that she was good enough, and worthy enough of producing her own.
“I know I am as good as any male producer and I know my own work better than anyone else. But I think there’s a little bit of a stigma in producing your own music even though everybody does it, and everybody certainly did it in 2020. I did do a record in 2021 of my own music during COVID, but what I am doing now is a full-on rock record. This is very different. It’s a progression. And I really honestly thought, ‘how am I going to get people to think that this matters?’ I really thought for a long time that I needed to have a ‘name’ attached to it – that people will see insert name of famous rock producer here and then all of a sudden my music has qualified in their eyes.
“And it took me a long time to figure out that it’s kind of weird that I am out there preaching about needing more women behind the board, female producers, and I just go out and hire this dude to produce my next record. I have to feel and think that I’m just as important and just as competent as those guys to go and do this. And I am. It was really just a natural progression of trying to feel confident in taking the role of taking on my own music. This record was harder to do than any record I’ve produced for anybody else because you’re really turning your brain on and off, going from artist to producer and back and forth. I do have the ability to see the project through from start to finish: the beginning, the middle, the end and all of these things can be at play in my brain. And I think that’s why I can do it. It’s a challenge though, all of it’s challenging. But you know what, to hire someone to do it just because of their name, it’s the wrong reason.”
Zdan has been living in Nashville for more than decade, after a couple of years in Texas. She and husband Aaron Haynes wanted a family and the bundle of joy named Lucky appeared. If you see some of the photos and videos from Zdan’s SO WHAT! Kickstarter campaign and occasionally on social media, the adorable and precocious Lucky makes the occasional cameo appearance, watching her mom work and playing around in the studio for the album, which is expected to be released in early November.
“With COVID and everything it was a crazy time to become a mom for the first time. Being a mom has not influenced the kind of music I’m making necessarily. I could almost say that becoming a mom has made me a little more radicalized. I feel like I’m writing more political songs. And having a daughter in the current America, let’s say I’m writing more about the obvious things that are happening. And so that’s informed the music. But honestly, the coolest thing that being a mom has done for me is that I’ve made better choices in my career ever since she’s been around. And I mean in the choices of how I use my time, what projects I decide to take on, what I feel is important. Even just diving into being a producer, that’s really happened since she’s been around. And I feel like there’s been some sort of solidification of confidence in all my skills,” she said.
“I just don’t have time to worry about stupid stuff anymore. I don’t have time for self-doubt, and I’m past the point in my career where I have to prove that I am a good artist. I am not checking myself asking, ‘am I writing good songs?’ I’ve been doing this for a long time; I don’t need to think about that stuff anymore. So that’s why I decided to not go down the path of hiring a name producer and do it myself, and put myself out there like I am. I’ve never had super great luck in the music industry. I think I realized that I am now on my own path. I don’t know where that path is going to lead, but also the music industry just sucks in general. Nobody’s taking chances, nobody’s investing in an artist’s growth. And that’s what I’m doing for myself and what I’m doing here and with this Kickstarter thing. I want to look back when I’m 55 and see all these records I’ve produced, especially my own.
“I am basically totally indie now. I had a manager for a little bit; I haven’t had an agent for years. It’s so impossible to get one right now. I’ve courted some labels, but I got a bunch of nos. And it’s cool. It’s not that I necessarily want to be completely indie, it’s just that this is the path right now. And I can’t wait any longer to put out this work. So that’s why artists turn to crowdfunding because you need to put your work out into the world. None of this is by choice, but it’s hard to find good people to support you, the people that believe in longevity and the long game in terms of the music career. I’m not here to be a viral star. I’m here to create a real long, big body of work.”
Warming to the theme, Zdan talks about how this whole operation, the pondering of possibilities, the self-examination, the processing and its broader significance has, as stated at the start of this piece, become more than just a way to raise funds for the new album. It’s become a vital and necessary turning point or realignment of her approach to life, her priorities and her self-determination as a creative entity.
“I do feel this is a turning point for me, whether that’s for me as an artist or my career or in my life. All I know is this is the best work I’ve ever done. And it’ll just keep getting better. And it’s funny because the people around me have been saying these things for a while. I just wasn’t listening, or I wasn’t taking it to heart. As soon as I mentioned my plan to my husband about a year ago, I said, ‘I just need to do this,’ and he’s like, ‘well, duh!’ And it was the same with some of my closest friends who I work with a lot. They’re like, ‘of course you should,’ but they knew they couldn’t tell me. They knew I had to figure it out for myself. And do you know what? Whatever soul searching, and growth that needed to happen was absolutely worthwhile because I’m here and I’m ready to take the seat,” she said, as the conversation came back around to how she is more focused and energized and confident in what she’s doing now, since becoming Lucky’s mom. But she also acknowledges that being a mom also exacerbates the aforementioned negative attitudes that still have traction within the music industry, and society in general, about working moms.
“Being a mother in the music industry is starting to get better, but I have a lot of friends and colleagues that are mothers, and they are singers, songwriters and we all have similar stories. As soon as you say that you’re going to become a mom or that you want to get pregnant people just think, ‘oh well, they’re done now. What else are they going to do?’ That literally crosses people’s minds and often comes out of their mouths. And I am sure that happens in a lot of different industries and professions, but it is slowly changing. The path that I am creating shows that it’s not limiting, it’s actually expansive to be a mom. And, like I was saying earlier, my skills are better,” she said.
“Everything, including my critical thinking skills is just better because I am a mom. But I know there are people that don’t even like to say out loud that they’re a mom, or announce that they’re pregnant, especially in a genre like rock and roll. It’s just a place that’s always been primarily men and primarily men behind the board, which it still is. It’s about creating this new path and it’s about getting in all of those spaces and being accepted and not having to completely prove yourself every time. It’s a space where you’re looked upon as an equal. If someone wants to choose not to have kids, that’s their path. There are lots of different ways to approach it. But it’s not just a black and white situation. I was on the road for most of my life touring and that’s how I made my living. But now I want to go back on the road, and I will, but this whole production side of the business, which I equally love, came about from staying home a little more, so you never know where things are going to lead.”
Zdan has Ukrainian blood coursing through er veins, which is not surprising, considering Winnipeg, and large part of the Province of Manitoba, have a large, longstanding and culturally enriching Ukrainian community. What is also significant about Manitoba is its impressive musical legacy. Starting in the mid-1960s the city produced the legendary music and cultural icon Neil Young, as well as the iconic and groundbreaking rock bands The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive among many others in the generations since.
“Every time I go back it feels special. I knew I grew up in a special place. I don’t know why so many amazing artists came out of there, though. I think it might be the isolation of the city and the winter. In the winter you kind of hole up and work on your craft, and you get really, really good. I knew about those bands, but for me, there was a lot of modern-day artists, women who were already doing this thing when I was a teenager. Someone like Cara Luft, who was a founding member of the Wailin’ Jennys, and the same with Nicky Mehta. I was a teen when they started out doing their thing, and I was looking to them as examples, and was even able to have conversations with them. I realized, ‘oh damn, they’re doing it,’ and even though it was on a smaller level than the massive things that Neil Young did, I was getting these examples of people coming to the big Winnipeg Folk Festival who were career singer/songwriters that I’ve never heard of, but they’re out their making a living from music. I thought, ‘this is incredible. This is a thing that can happen,’” she said, raising the name of another iconic influence.
“I loved the Beatles so much, but if we’re talking about a major Canadian artist, it’s Joni Mitchell. I started covering her songs as a teen. She’s really someone who completely
broke down all the doors and shattered all the glass ceilings in the music industry. She is an incredible guitarist, songwriter, singer and she did whatever she wanted to do. And I love that so much and respect that so much. Someone like Joni and the classic artists, Neil Young’s a big one too, were important to me as a kid. Someone I really look to now, especially since I started producing, is Daniel Lanois. I often joke I want to be just like him when I grow up – have that producer career, have an artist career, but the female version or course.”
Before heading south of the border, Zdan was a member of the Americana Winnipeg-based duo Twilight Hotel, which released three critically-acclaimed albums, with the Colin Lindon-produced Highway Prayer (2008) getting a Juno nomination for Best Roots Album for a duo or group. The 2012 record When the Wolves Go Blind earned another Juno nod in the same category, leading the band to move to Austin, Texas where they unfortunately split soon thereafter.
Zdan stayed and joined the well-regarded roots rockers The Trishas for a couple of years, until her move to Nashville in 2014. Since then, she’s released two full solo albums, Secretear in 2018 and Falcon in 2021, as well as a number of EPs, instrumental recordings and singles.
The role of the producer is sometimes misunderstood by most music loving folks. They perceive the artist or band or songwriters as being the creators and the position of the producer and engineer is just to make them sound good. It’s not that simple. As with the previous examples of Young, Mitchell and especially Lanois, there is a particular level of artistry and creative vision required to be behind the board, and it’s an outlet that Zdan has found she enjoys as much as putting pen to paper on new lyrics or working out a new chord structure on her guitar.
“I like to be creative in a way where it’s separate from myself as an artist, and that separation is a really nice thing to have. But it’s more than that. I love to chase the sounds that I have in my head. I love to help an artist find their own voice and hone their songs and create a really interesting sound for their songs. And I also love getting a bunch of talented people in the room that are right for the project and see what can happen,” she said, saying that most modern producers see themselves more as collaborators than they do being ‘the boss’ of the project.
“The act of collaboration itself is really exciting. And no project is the same, so there’s something new to explore each time out. And I get to develop really close relationships with the artists that I work with. I create a really safe space for them to take risks and try new things. I also think we need more of that in the studio world. There are so many horror stories of women that I know who worked with producers and they felt stifled and unheard. I want to create a space for them to feel safe and heard and for them to grow.
“I think artists nowadays, because so many of them aren’t tied to the old label system, want to have more involvement in all aspects of the process and I think that’s a good thing because if you can help them hear something in their own brain and help them articulate their vision and their sounds, it’s only going to make for something better. So, it’s all very exciting. I love all of it, all aspects of it. And I’ve been really blessed by all the people I’ve worked with. They have all been incredible songwriters. And being a producer opens you up to so many things, so many experiences. I can’t wait to keep getting challenged and opening my mind more and more.”
Three singles/videos have been released so far for the new album. In general, with guitar as her primary instrument, it is a riff the comes out first, followed by melodies, the song structure and lyrics – not all necessarily in that order.
“What you’ll hear from the new single coming out in August [‘Save Me Rock and Roll’], it’s even more kind of like a punk rock anthem, with repetitive riffs and chants, but everything is based on melodic things that come to my brain. And then I think, ‘okay that’s something. Let’s develop it.’ For the latest single, Lost In Illusion, I wrote part of that song so long ago and it’s just been sitting around for I think almost three or four years. It just needed something, and it took a while to find it. And then as soon as I figured out what it was all about, I got the cool riff that you hear, and it all came together. Lyrically, it’s all about being in the headspace where you’re struggling, and you can’t get any perspective on things. I’m not in that place now, but there’s been some bouts of depression, especially postpartum depression and stuff where I’ve felt that,” she said, moving onto the feisty, fierce and rockin’ song ‘Pink Lipstick’ and the unmistakable banger, ‘Let It Out,’ which could be said to encapsulate much of the overall message of the album, and Zdan’s current approach to pretty much everything in life.
“It’s all about ‘mansplaining.’ Because that happens all the time to us – women in music all the time, especially female guitar players. “Let It Out’ was an old riff I had laying around and I just developed the idea. A lot of these songs are like, fists in the air, for lack of another way of saying it. Let’s just finally believe in ourselves. If there’s any sort of overall theme to the record it’s that for everyone to not take any shit from anyone. That you have no more f**** to give. I think motherhood does that to you, which is so great.”
For more information on her touring schedule, upcoming releases including SO WHAT! and other info, visit her website at https://www.brandyzdan.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
