Unraveling Brett Detar
*Older article written for website Gaining Ground Media
Although Brett Detar’s name may not immediately ring a bell for people, his credentials as a musician serve as a blasting siren which could immediately trigger anyone’s attention. As a songwriter, singer, film composer and music producer, Detar’s resume falls nothing short of being overly qualified in the job field of music. Once fronting the now departed band The Juliana Theory, Detar’s role helped to escalate the emo music scene by providing a foundation for other bands to one day reconstruct.
Working now as a solo artist, Detar’s most recent material Bird In The Tangle possesses a flicker of country, rock and folk and is offered for free download as a way to attract new and curious listeners. “My main goal with releasing Bird In The Tangle for free was just to get the music out there to as many people as might like to hear it,” said Detar. “I wanted people to be able to give the record a chance without having to buy it.” Sarcastically labeling this act as his “drug dealer approach,” Detar hoped the free album would give listeners a steady fix and eventually come back for more later on.
Juxtaposed to the download, Detar released a vinyl package in an effort to express his passion in an aesthetic form and to not just generate revenue. “I don’t really think small-run vinyl can be too much of a money maker because it’s just so expensive to create,” said Detar. “I wasn’t thinking about profit with that packaging. I just wanted to put out something beautiful with huge attention to detail...something that had as much heart and soul as the music on the record did.”
Through playing his solo material live, Detar’s stage show is heavily geared towards being a one man act. By having no backup band, Detar relies on the support of his acoustic guitar and banjo as honorary members of the performance. “Really, I am just focusing on the songs and my voice,” said Detar. “I have to admit that I am enjoying playing these songs the way they were written. There’s nothing to get in the way of the song itself. It’s stripped down and raw and I sing much better that way too.”
Stating how he never set out to become a singer, Detar discussed how the evolution of his singing ultimately resulted in him trying to find his own voice. “I used to sound quite nasally and for a while there I was singing in a very angular way- changing my notes in a stiff, almost drum-machine like way,” said Detar. With the solo album, Detar found a more innate way of delivering his melodies. “The difference nowadays is that I sing with my natural voice. I tend to sound on record and live exactly how I sound when I sing in my house when no one’s around,” said Detar. “It’s a more natural thing and I’d argue it has a good bit more soul and feeling to it.”
Detar’s voice and solo material may be more stripped down compared to The Juliana Theory; however, the songs also inhabit the subtle nuances of layered tracks. “The song is king in my world,” said Detar. “I try not to get too attached to arrangements. Arrangements are secondary to the song itself. If the song is not compelling with just a vocal and one instrument then it’s not good enough.”
Currently in Los Angeles working on a new album, Detar identified his latest recordings as an extension of Bird In The Tangle. “The biggest differences sonically are probably that there are more electric guitars on this new record and a lot more piano and Wurlitzer too,” said Detar. “There’s also more space for the vocal to breathe- less lead instruments filling in between vocal lines with mini solo-type parts.”
Though recording a new album is exciting, it has severe competition with Detar’s exhilaration of sitting in a movie theater and hearing his own music score. Recently writing the music for the Brent Bell horror movie The Devil Inside, Detar revealed how composing a film score inhabited a different process than writing regular music. “With a movie score the vision is not entirely your own, your job is to bring the director’s vision to life,” said Detar. “With a movie, it’s not about the music... it’s about helping the audience feel the emotion they are intended to feel during a particular moment on screen.” It is safe to say Detar enjoyed his cinematic taste of Hollywood, for he will be providing the music score to Bell’s next movie titled WER.
The devotion conveyed in writing scores and original music has not been sporadic for Detar, but rather implemented through his playing in the influential metal band Zao in 1997. “I think the biggest element that I’ve tried to bring to anything I’ve ever worked on musically is my heart- my passion,” said Detar. “I know that we believed in that band with all of our hearts and really tried to make it the best it could be at that time and that’s what I am trying to do today.”
What is left of Detar’s musical accomplishments are perhaps far from the expected fame of dabbling in Hollywood. “I’m just a working class guy trying to pay my bills and make a living doing what I believe in,” said Detar. One thing remains certain for Detar, the glamour of being a musician still depends on the craft of songwriting. “You can have 100,000 Twitter followers or spend all day on the internet promoting yourself, but if your songs are no good then it’s just a waste of time,” said Detar. “People want to be moved by music. I can’t imagine that ever changing and if it ever does I hope I’m dead and buried by then.”
