Upcoming performances
n/a
Recordings
"BEAUTIFUL DREAM"
"ROYAL JELLY"
"PROPOLIS"
"KYLE SWAN and the HONEYBREW" new 10 song record: 'PROPOLIS' released April 2015
REVIEW FROM THE VC REPORTER:
PROPOLIS
"No slouch when it comes to new aspects of making music, Kyle Swan’s latest record, Propolis, with his band the Honeybrew, was produced by Ojai guitarist Bernie Larsen (who’s played alongside everyone from Melissa Etheridge to Jackson Browne). The record is Swan’s latest exploration of the musical texture he calls “a live jazz-grit feel.” With appearances by the likes of Robben Ford, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy saxophonist Karl Hunter, Wallflowers percussionist Mario Calire and David Crosby’s bassist Kevin McCormick, it’s the follow-up to last year’s Gossamer album, and the first of two proposed albums chronicling the unfolding of the wild lotus that is the life of the Honeybrew. He also made an appearance on Ford’s latest album, Into the Sun, a smash hit on the blues charts that includes Ford’s cover of Swan’s song "Same Train." One of the things they don’t tell you about the blues is that it has texture as much as it has hues, and Swan knows this instinctively, teasing out all the colors of the dark on Propolis with a grace and a certain touch that is a wonder to be held."
— David Cotner
VC Reporter
REVIEW FROM THE VC REPORTER:
PROPOLIS
"No slouch when it comes to new aspects of making music, Kyle Swan’s latest record, Propolis, with his band the Honeybrew, was produced by Ojai guitarist Bernie Larsen (who’s played alongside everyone from Melissa Etheridge to Jackson Browne). The record is Swan’s latest exploration of the musical texture he calls “a live jazz-grit feel.” With appearances by the likes of Robben Ford, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy saxophonist Karl Hunter, Wallflowers percussionist Mario Calire and David Crosby’s bassist Kevin McCormick, it’s the follow-up to last year’s Gossamer album, and the first of two proposed albums chronicling the unfolding of the wild lotus that is the life of the Honeybrew. He also made an appearance on Ford’s latest album, Into the Sun, a smash hit on the blues charts that includes Ford’s cover of Swan’s song "Same Train." One of the things they don’t tell you about the blues is that it has texture as much as it has hues, and Swan knows this instinctively, teasing out all the colors of the dark on Propolis with a grace and a certain touch that is a wonder to be held."
— David Cotner
VC Reporter
"Gossamer"
ALBUM DESCRIPTION:
"The album "Gossamer" is a collection of my most "outside the box" chord progressions, at the point when it was recorded, and the lyrics are some of the most abstract found in my writing thus far as well. Released in October of 2014, the production has surpassed my previous recordings, in terms of complex arrangements with violin, cello, upright bass, guitar, piano, vocals, tenor sax, bass clarinet, (reeds played by Karl Hunter of the notorious big band: "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy") an african bottle-phone, an opera singer, an analog synth, various forms of percussion, and ambient sounds like humpback whales, babies crying, buzzing sounds of electrical transformers, bees, the sound of a spanish catholic choir played in reverse, crows, crickets, owls and other hand-gathered atmospheric anomalies, whipped to a thick pink-floyd-esque pudding.
There is an moody intensity to the music on this album, and the lyrics are colorful, abstract and transcendental in nature.
-Kyle Swan
"The album "Gossamer" is a collection of my most "outside the box" chord progressions, at the point when it was recorded, and the lyrics are some of the most abstract found in my writing thus far as well. Released in October of 2014, the production has surpassed my previous recordings, in terms of complex arrangements with violin, cello, upright bass, guitar, piano, vocals, tenor sax, bass clarinet, (reeds played by Karl Hunter of the notorious big band: "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy") an african bottle-phone, an opera singer, an analog synth, various forms of percussion, and ambient sounds like humpback whales, babies crying, buzzing sounds of electrical transformers, bees, the sound of a spanish catholic choir played in reverse, crows, crickets, owls and other hand-gathered atmospheric anomalies, whipped to a thick pink-floyd-esque pudding.
There is an moody intensity to the music on this album, and the lyrics are colorful, abstract and transcendental in nature.
-Kyle Swan
Artists included on "Gossamer" :
-Kyle Swan (guitars, vocals, piano, violin, bass) -Rebecca Comerford Tryon (opera vocals) -Karl Hunter (tenor sax and bass clarinet) -Scott Hughes (upright bass) -Steven Cook (upright bass) -Rafael Anita Langa (congas and african bottle-phone) -Rich Anderson (drums) -Travis Deagle (cello) -Brad Buley (percussion) |
Artwork: Front Cover illustration: Josephine Llamas Liner Art: Josephine Llamas, photo by Dawn Rosa Back cover art: Myna Sonou Album art design: Jeff Uzzel Recorded by Kyle Swan at Jackson Studios 2014 Mastered by Sean Ingoldsby at Real Time Studios 2014 |