Brother Dan releases his inner orb

GLENN LANDBERG/THE ARBITER

Local artist Brother Dan, a 22-year-old mechanical engineering major from Pocatello, has true DIY (do-it-yourself) rock-and-roll know how. The artist, whose real name is Daniel Kerr, has just self-released a full-length album called “The Orb.” It’s a psychedelic 48-minute journey showcasing a true musical virtuoso.

After toying with other more regal names for himself, Kerr decided to remain humble.

“I was going through different prefixes: Chief Dan, Warrior Dan and it was like Brother is pretty rad,” he said.

Kerr got his first electric guitar when he was in third grade and was inspired early on by bands such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. It is easy to tell when listening to “The Orb” that these bands have found a home among his top influences.

“It was my dad, really,” Kerr said. “He had a big CD collection and nice headphones. Once I figured that whole thing out, I piled through his CDs and was gone from there, couldn’t get enough of it. It’s stuck with me for sure. No matter what, I can turn back to them and find new tracks that are interesting and understand why I got into music in the first place.”

When Kerr started high school, he began adding different instruments to his repertoire and playing in bands, most notably, a three-piece rock and blues trio called Red Shift.

“I would say for being a Pocatello, Idaho band and being young, we were one of the top bands in town. The shows we created ourselves were always top notch, had a bunch of people and lots of energy,” Kerr said.

“The Orb” was recorded entirely in the Boise Bomb Shelter where Kerr rents a space for his equipment. Every instrument on every song (save one harmonica part and one female vocal harmony) was played by Kerr. These instruments include drums, shaker, bass, guitar, keyboard, organ, synthesizer, harmonica, vocals and an assortment of midi instruments. Tracks were recorded into Logic Pro, an audio editing program, through inexpensive microphones.

“With the equipment I had, I took advantage of their strengths and made it sound at least comparable to today’s recordings,” Kerr said.

The DIY approach is consistent for the album’s reproduction, which has 175 hard copies made, and the cosmos-inspired cover art was made by Zach Voss, Kerr’s roommate and illustration major. Voss screen printed and pressed every cover by hand. Kerr copied every disc from his iMac.

“I was up a ton of different nights: next disc, next disc, next disc, trying not to scratch any or get fingerprints on them,” Kerr said.

Voss also helped produce a music video for a song from “The Orb” called “Igor Pops,” a folk ballad about a tortured old man.

Kerr’s pursuit of a mechanical engineering degree is important to him but takes a back seat to his potential music career and a couple other interests.

“I could party and bike and play music all day long, for the rest of my life,” he said.

You can preview “The Orb” and purchase a digital copy on brotherdan.bandcamp.com. If you’d like to purchase a hard copy of “The Orb,” it is available at Hyde Park Books, The Boise Bicycle Project and The Record Exchange.

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Posted by Courtesy on Feb 7 2011. Filed under Culture, Main Feature, Multimedia, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.