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**Brianna McGeehan single/video release with special guest (NerdKween)\* live at Eddie's Attic!***Brianna McGeehan*
A little over a decade ago, Brianna McGeehan dropped out of the Music Therapy program at a small college in Portland. It was in part a protest over the firing the program’s director but also because she realized she just wanted to perform…you either have to or you don’t.
Born in Oregon to a music teacher father, she began studying music around age 6, playing piano then violin, but it was singing that captivated her most. Harmony was a revelation. McGeehan knew she’d spend the rest of her life doing it. Her music studies have taken her to as far reaching places as India and Tanzania.
She was influenced by a grab bag menagerie: Lauryn Hill, Radiohead, The Cranberries… Dad’s Beatles, Aunt Kitty’s Irish folk tapes. Growing up in the 90’s in the Pacific Northwest, grunge was one of the building blocks of a healthy musical diet, but rainy afternoons also lent themselves to Beethoven on the piano.
Brianna picked up the guitar in her early 20’s and started writing songs. Moved to New York and played some gigs. Got pregnant and had a baby, returned to Portland and became a single mom. She wasn’t about to quit music, though, so she put a band together with some friends from the Music Therapy scene. She let that go to join forces with Drew de Man - now her husband and musical partner - and the two formed a band, calling it Pretend Sweethearts. They spent the next few years touring the US and Europe playing their version of Americana, that was as poetic and political as it was spiritual. “Heart Hunters’ music might sound delicate on first listen, but it packs a heavy punch.” - No Depression
The pandemic kept her off the road, and almost off the stage entirely, while she and her man raised their two kids together and put their energy into community organizing. Now she’s got a whole new crop of solo material and it’s something of a departure from the old vision she’s had since those first days in New York - a cocktail of powerful vocals and synth strings, traditional instruments and electronic beats and loops.
McGeehan has shared the stage with the likes of Allison Russell, Richard Buckner and Rising Appalachia. Her voice - effortlessly powerful and delicately beautiful - resounds with the talent of a genius and the skills honed in rigorous vocal training. She is an activist and community organizer who feels called to do social justice work through music. She just might change the world. When you hear that voice, she’ll surely change yours.
*(Nerdkween)\**
Nerdkween is the moniker of singer/songwriter/composer Monica Arrington. Arrington was born in Indiana and brought up on her family’s farm in Alabama. Her parents who were former General Motors workers moved the family to the secluded countryside to live an alternative lifestyle. Her parents exposed her to spirituals, gospel music and Motown but early on, Arrington was drawn to musicals, pop and rock music. She later took classical vocal training in high school and studied musical composition in college. And this is when she began writing songs and learning to play piano and guitar.
After college, Arrington immediately moved to Atlanta to begin her musical career. Arrington continued to study different styles of music while developing her own unique sound through her analog and 4 track recordings. She self released several demos, which featured experimental elements in the underground music scene and received rave reviews and accolades from press.
Arrington is known for lo-fi recordings and minimalist style of electric guitar playing with added electronic noises. She is also known for a wide range in vocal ability, from haunting and airy tones to gritty and country-like twangs. Her music is a part of the genres noise pop, lo-fi, slowcore or dream pop. Arrington started self-releasing cassette tape demos in 2000 starting with "i see things differently now". Then she released other CD demos "the dark horse" and "Sketches at Eddie's Attic". Arrington's debut full-length album "Synergy" is distributed through Stickfigure Records in Atlanta, Georgia.
In recent years, Arrington has worked on other creative projects including teaching music privately and performing in the band Blackfox. She has also co-founded a restoration musical group called The Hills and the Holler with Stacey Cargal. She currently works to coach new and aspiring creative artists to realize and manifest their goals in the modern world
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Eddie's Attic, 515 N McDonough St,Decatur,GA,United States
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