We were lucky to catch up with Brett Parnell recently and have shared our conversation below.
Brett, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I’m always so grateful that I’ve known that I wanted to pursue music as a career ever since I was 13. That’s how old I was when I started playing guitar. My brother was going to the Silver Bell Ball which was a formal dance at our tiny school in North Carolina. I wasn’t old enough to go so he asked me to pick up a CD for him at Disc Jockey when I went out to eat with my folks that night. He said I could open it up and listen to it when I got home if I wanted to. The album was Ozzy Osbourne’s Randy Rhoads Tribute. I started the CD and was like, whoa this is cool, then track two was Crazy Train which absolutely blew my 13 year old mind. I started playing guitar the next day and almost immediately knew that playing music was what I wanted to do with my life. There was that moment where I had to decide if I was gonna be a professional musician or a pro basketball player which I one million percent could not have done but my teenage self really toiled over it!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I feel like the way I have decided to make a living here in New York is by wearing as many musical hats as I can. On the performing side of things that meant starting to learn a bunch of instruments. I feel like everyone I know is a phenomenal guitarist so I ventured out into a lot of the country/folk instruments that function somewhat similarly. I don’t really front my own band anymore so I am more like a hired gun that can cover a variety of sounds when backing a singer or sitting in with a band. I also LOVE learning new instruments so this part is very fun for me even if it is challenging to keep everything sounding good. I also taught myself to record many years ago so I am able to record myself for people to drop in on songs that they are working on. I also producer and engineer albums for people. I really love doing this because writing some or all of the supporting parts on someone else’s material is very creatively gratifying. It is always my goal to make the recording process as stress free and enjoyable as possible for everyone while also turning out a fantastic sounding record. Some people like to force people out of the comfort zone which can be great but that’s not my business model.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
100% it is collaboration. I just want to play. I say that all the time. Having the ability to work on something with someone else or a group of people is one of life’s great joys for me. I work hard because it feels really fantastic when you can help bring a communal thing to life whatever the size of it is. I played team sports growing up and it feels similar to me.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Oh man I wish i had an actual answer for this! I think a basic first step is to value artistic work. Making fun of artists is an easy punch line and it has been since before was born and it will be long after I am gone probably. I think people see stories of highly successful and wealthy artists and they create judgements about all people in that field based on a small set. I never call myself an artist. I feel more like a person that you hire to do a musical thing. I am very passionate about it and I work very hard to keep the quality of my work up. I think if there was value placed on how hard very many artists are working then that would be a great first step to figuring out how to create a thriving ecosystem.
Contact Info:
- Website: bearinabarnnyc.com
- Instagram: bear_in_a_barn_nyc
- Youtube: @brettparnell136
Image Credits
Jonny Servais