We were lucky to catch up with Brick Briscoe recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brick , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

I was in film school at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. A grad student asked me if I’d score his thesis film. I was flabbergasted and excited.

It turns out the film was about Bedouin tribes in Iraq. It was shot mostly without sound and was narrated. The filmmaker wanted me to also create some sound effects.

This was prior to computers in production and everything was done on tape. I lugged a rented piano up the stairs to my loft and borrowed a bunch of percussion instruments.

I watched his rough cut on a flatbed film editor, rewinding over and over to get the beat of the Bedouin women pounding grain and coffee beans. I also imitated the sounds of camels in the desert. I had rice and sand all over the floor.

Writing the music was the easy part for sure. But the $200 he gave me was like gold. I was hooked. No looking back from that.

I never saw the finished product and I can’t remember the filmmaker’s name. I hope he’s well.

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 grew up in Petersburg, Indiana. My father was my high school principal and mother was a nurse turned full time housewife.

Mom and Dad always encouraged me to challenge myself and develop whatever talents I had. I started life focused on sports and when the thrill of that wore out I realized that my true passion was music, poetry and taking pictures.

During a summer break I moved to Seattle to stay with an uncle and my grandmother. I formed a band and the bug bit me hard and the I was infected. I didn’t know what else I could do the would be as satisfying.

Still, I felt I needed to go to college to develop some marketable skills and eventually I found myself at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale studying Cinema. I discovered that working with film scratched all the same itches that music, poetry, and taking pictures offered. Plus, it seemed like I could actually make a living being involved with the industry somehow.

I packed up, moved to NYC, stayed a few years, got married, moved to Los Angeles, welcomed a daughter, and stayed a few more years. I made an awful feature film, but made lots of friends in the industry. Moved home to Indiana, made a little better feature film then moved back to New York with lots of experience. I got involved with a company (who shall remain un-named) where I served as a producer and cinematographer for television pilots. When their scam hit the fan, I moved back to Indiana and was offered the position of Director of Promotions at WTVW in Evansville.

I learned more in the four years working for WTVW than I did the entire time in NYC and LA. Specifically about business and marketing. I made great friends and wonderful business contacts during that time and felt it was time to get out of the corporate game and get back to chasing the music/film dragon. This was in 2000.

Now, I live in Petersburg, Indiana with my wife. I have a radio show that airs on WNIN (NPR), a television show that airs on WNIN and streams on PBS.org. I travel all over the USA, and now Europe, making those shows and playing music.

I’m most proud of the fact that I stuck with it. Growing up in a small Indiana town it was hard to find my bearing for my artistic direction. Great parents, family, friends and teachers gave me the confidence to go out on a limb. I’ve developed my skills working with some folks I consider at the top of their games all over the world. I’m lucky to take on or create projects that interest me, whether music, audio, or TV/Film. I feel like I run projects as good as anyone. I seldom worry about anything now. I’m happy I live in Indiana where the cost of living is doable which allows me to be able to travel more to seek out the world.

What I’ve learned is that people are the same everywhere. I love meeting people and learning about their story. I’ve come to realize that people are simply amazing. You can learn from anyone. So, if you don’t like people, I’d say, don’t get into media..

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Cancer came upon me in 2017. I spent 35-40 days in hospital going through some intense chemotherapy. I was starting to reach an interesting point in my career at the time. In fact, before I started chemo, I begged my oncologist to let me go to Florida and produce a short film for Panasonic HVAC products. I knew I’d need the money. He relented and my crew took care of me for the ten day experience.

I got home, started chemo at the same time I was offered the opportunity to score and do sound design for a documentary. I asked the oncology department at Gateway if I could set up a little recording studio in Hospital room. The allowed me to. So, hooked put to a complicated cocktail of drugs, I scored a lovely documentary that won some awards. I also recorded some parts for my own record in that same Hospital room.

As soon as I finished chemo, I went to France to produce and direct another documentary. So I feel like the experience of continuing to work through cancer made me realize I could do most anything I had the desire to do.

I have since developed another form of cancer and have continued to work and travel producing music and doing concerts.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I love people. I love talking to, getting to know, and sometimes just watching folks in an airport or wherever. I learned from my father to be outwardly friendly, open, and try to be a good listener.

Now whether I do those things well, I’m not sure. But I do make a point to say hello, or good morning to anyone whose I eye meet walking down the street, whether in Petersburg, Paris, or New York. I’ve met some really interesting people that way. And ideas come from those interactions. Hopefully that shows up in my work.

This is what I’d like to think my mission is. Whether I write a song, make a documentary, or radio show, I’m trying to communicate. To share ideas. And what I’ve found is that people will talk back. Pro, or con. And both responses are great.

So the mission to me probably is… share experiences and viewpoints with whoever you can. Expect them to respond in their own way. That’s something I wish I’d known in my twenties. I just hadn’t realized that the response to a work is just as important as the work itself. I just want to share in the human experience by being true to myself as I learn what that truth is. I’m better for the conversation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brickbriscoe.com
• Instagram: brick_briscoe
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brickbriscoemusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BrickBriscoe