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• Perk your ears for Brian Esmao

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Brian Esmao in performance.

Related Venues

Geovanti's »
Address: 401 E. Green St. Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 344-4600
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Canopy Club »
Address: 708 S. Goodwin Ave. Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: (217) 367-3140
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Pop/Rock/Indie is how Brian Esmao classifies his music on his MySpace page (myspace.com/brianesmao), yet he forgot to mention one influence: rap. As in the rap he deftly recites in his song so aptly named the “Creeps Anthem." Oh, and it’s a smattering of pick-up lines that are pure gold. Interested? You should be. Keep your ears perked for this upcoming CU singer/songwriter.

buzz: What is your songwriting process like?

Brian: Well, it's sort of like natural selection, where the "fittest" music is music that excites me. I'm always writing words and I find an exciting piano part and words that feel right at that given time. They evolve into improvising and creating piano parts, but if words or music don't excite me, Darwin kills them and I just forget about them. But when the planets align, and I find an exciting piano part and words that feel right at that given time, they evolve into a full song.

buzz: How do you feel about your style of music integrating into the local music scene?

Brian:Everyone I've seen in Champaign-Urbana brings something new to the table, so I'd like to think I have something unique too. You can see that everyone's putting their whole selves into their own sound, and that's always great to watch and listen to, so I'd be really happy if I could become a part of the music scene here and bring something new that people like to listen to.

buzz: Has your music style changed since your first song? How would you compare your very first song to your latest?

Brian: I've always kind of tried to jump around and explore different musical styles, but I guess hopefully in my latest songs, you can see that I've been trying to hone all my abilities. I'm starting to feel like a pretty good songwriter and performer.

buzz: What can people expect from your live show? What kind of impression would you ideally like to make on your audience?

Brian: I always kind of treat the audience like they have ADD. I try to keep my songs moving, something to keep your interest at all times, and I try to keep lots of contrast between songs: fast and loud then slow and soft, poppy then not-so-poppy, serious and intimate then silly and fun. Ideally, I'd like to show the audience that I can write good songs in lots of different styles. I guess I wanna sound like an iPod on shuffle.