Taken By Name

There are a lot of things wrong with the world right now. Brandon Green knows that. Until recently, the 21-year-old Boston-based songwriter-composer-producer-bassist wasn’t sure how to do anything about it. Brought up in the affluent suburbs of southern Connecticut, wrong was everywhere, but usually covered with a shiny facade. Taken By Name, as a result, is a musical exploration into what is real. Everything is given a name or label to represent itself, and it is up to the perceiver to t...

There are a lot of things wrong with the world right now. Brandon Green knows that. Until recently, the 21-year-old Boston-based songwriter-composer-producer-bassist wasn’t sure how to do anything about it. Brought up in the affluent suburbs of southern Connecticut, wrong was everywhere, but usually covered with a shiny facade. Taken By Name, as a result, is a musical exploration into what is real. Everything is given a name or label to represent itself, and it is up to the perceiver to truly finding meaning in it, or simply taking it for what it is. Each song or composition is part of a collective work to survey Brandon’s delving into what he feels, as well as how he fits in a constantly changing, perpetually wrong society. Brandon claims that his influences are “from Nine Inch Nails to Funkadelic to late-Romantic experimental classical music to what I see on the subway on the way to work.” A Taken By Name songs take root in Brandon’s life experiences; that quality makes the music real. The music is real, no matter the number of layers of noise Brandon places on the music. (Brandon maintains complete artistic control of the project and records all music himself in his Boston apartment.) The 80s-tinged “Dreamer” is a powerful confession of love and the fear of losing it; the droning, suspenseful "Switch On/Switch Off" analyzes the temptation of a monotonous, destructive lifestyle. All of the music culminates into the overriding concept of Taken By Name’s upcoming yet-to-be-titled debut album, in which Brandon hopes to depict one’s struggle to find meaning in a culturally crippled nation. The album is currently being written and recorded and Brandon hopes to have it released by the end of 2009. The album’s precursor, The Unspeakable EP, is awaiting release and will be available in all major online marketplaces. Brandon’s foray into music has been a lengthy one, demonstrating skill at the piano at the young age of four. Winning several awards in piano performance throughout his childhood years, he discovered rock and funk and sought more, and thus picked up the bass guitar, essentially teaching himself the instrument. Brandon then helped form the instrumental-prog-rock quartet Bushwhack in his hometown, providing bass, programming and a hefty amount of composition. While he left the band in late 2008 to pursue his solo efforts, this lengthy musical collaboration set Brandon on a musical path, allowing him to hone both his songwriting ability and live performance skill and antics. But there’s the rub: Taken By Name is currently a studio-only act, existing solely within Brandon’s and the Internet’s jurisdiction. Brandon itches to bring Taken By Name to the stage soon, but wants to do so with the right group of musicians: “3 or 4 more to not only capture the sound of Taken By Name, but bring something completely new to the table, not only a reinterpretation of my music but that of the scene as a whole. I see no band in the Boston music scene that could be as potentially inventive, exciting and thought-provoking as a live Taken By Name. I have so many ideas that I want to just throw out and see what catches on.” Ideas range from an industrial rock cover of Curtis Mayfield’s funk classic “Freddie’s Dead” to a jazz-inflected jam utilizing multiple bass guitars to an integration of Brandon’s more avant-garde electronic works. And that’s really what it comes down to: an endless meshing of styles, tempos and rhythms to find out what makes them real. “Plus, they’ll be incredibly fun to do.” In a world full of charades, it’s nice to know that something real can also be fun. Expect to see The Unspeakable EP available for purchase online by the end of Summer 2009. Details regarding a live entity for Taken By Name are coming soon, followed by gig dates and information regarding the upcoming debut album.