Extreme Changes: Spotlight on FireDean & The Brooklyn Garden Club

From oil rig… to alt-rock band… to an acoustic based alt-folk band… FireDean has been through some changes!

FireDean’s musical journey started on an oil rig in SW Louisiana. While there, his voice was brought to the attention of the choir director at a local Pentecostal Church. An audition followed – along with instructions to get in the back row and sing quietly.

Not much later, he pursued another calling and began performing on stages all over the US and England, and has enjoyed recording some of those songs with Warren Bruleigh (Lou Reed, The Violent Femmes) at the famed Electric Lady in NYC.

Now, as owner of a Brooklyn based landscape company (yes Brooklyn has many secret gardens), he’s begun to merge his narrative style of ‘alt-folk’ with stories about the long, torrid affair he’s had with various plants.

Recently, FireDean licensed 2 of his songs to Hot Diamonds, a large jewelry outlet based in the UK, for use in advertising campaigns. Here is the video using his song Tell the Truth:

The decision to go all acoustic stemmed from several things: “I realized the more exposed my songs were, the more audiences would connect; I wanted people to hear my lyrics, and the feedback I received for them was all positive.”

Also, FireDean goes on to say, “learning how to get a band to play quiet is an art form that if done well creates a lot of  what Tom would call ‘moments’… and also more opportunities to play live!”

FireDean’s bandmates Daniel Weintraub & Jason Broome, endow the group with moog, lap steel, mandolin, glockenspiel, accordion, acoustic bass, lead acoustic guitar, floor tom, cajon, recorded beats, backing vocals, and triangle.

The band has just embarked on a mini-NorthEast house concert tour and are shooting music videos to be released soon. Here’s a sample of one of their house concert sets:

The extreme changes throughout FireDean’s musical history have created challenges for his live show. When his ‘next big thing’ alt-rock band broke up, he went from being a Mic Jaggeresqe-type front person leader of a hi-octane alt-rock band to an acoustic based singer/songwriter.

FireDean explains that “without the protective wall of sound” surrounding him he felt naked. “Occasionally I’d embrace that vulnerability and channel it live; but more often than not I faltered under its weight and the show would crumble.”

He heard about Tom Jackson through Tom’s friend, Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR, and quickly signed up for our Backstage Pass. “I knew right away Tom had my number,” FireDean admits. “I was relying solely on what my ego told me was my innate ability. But he was on to me, he knew it wasn’t enough. Clearly he was dedicated to the solution. I watched as he broke it all down.”

Through Tom’s teaching, FireDean began to understand his successes and failures, to analyze what worked and what didn’t. “With Tom’s help, I learned I needed to present my material much differently in front of a live audience than in front of a mic in the studio. More importantly, I’m learning how to do it consistently.”

The hardest thing to accept about the changes he needed to make to his live performance? “Simply admitting I needed Tom’s help in the first place. Like most things, the enemy is within,” FireDean confesses.

Be sure and check out FireDean & the Brooklyn Garden Club or their ReverbNation site for a list of upcoming events. They’d love to see you at one of their shows!

Tom Jackson

Tom is uniquely talented and skilled at transforming an artist's live show into a magical experience for the audience; helping artists at every level create a live show that is engaging and memorable, teaching them to exceed their audiences' expectations and to create fans for life. Tom has taught indie and major artists of every genre. He has worked with Taylor Swift, Le Crae, Home Free, The Tenors, Shawn Mendes, The Band Perry, Francesca Battistelli, Jars of Clay, & many more. Tom also teaches at colleges, conferences and events worldwide.

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