Brandon Curtis is the

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...

, and

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical ins ...

in the

space rock Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drumming ...

band

The Secret Machines Secret Machines are an American alternative rock band, originally from Dallas, Texas, United States, before moving to New York City. The original lineup consisted of two brothers, Brandon (vocals, bass guitar and keyboards) and Benjamin Curtis ...

. Originally from

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma C ...

, he was friends with members of

The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Drozd (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, vocals), Derek Brown (ke ...

, The Chainsaw Kittens and

Tripping Daisy Tripping Daisy is a neo-psychedelic pop rock band that was formed in Dallas, Texas, by lead singer/guitarist Tim DeLaughter in 1990 along with Jeff Bouck (drums), Wes Berggren (guitar) and Mark Pirro (bass). The group disbanded in 1999 foll ...

. Brandon and his brother Benjamin moved to Dallas and formed The Secret Machines in the early 2000s with drummer Josh Garza. The trio later moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, where Benjamin eventually left the band to pursue a career in his previous side project, School of Seven Bells.

Career

Brandon's atmospheric keyboard style shows signs of influence from 1970s

Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, a ...

bands like Can as well as

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

artists such as

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including ha ...

, and

Roxy Music Roxy Music are an English rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter—and bassist Graham Simpson. The other longtime members are Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (saxophone and ...

. Brandon Curtis and his brother Ben also formed UFOFU with Joseph Butcher, touring locally and recording several albums between 1993 and 1997. Brandon was in Captain Audio as well, where he first played with Secret Machines' drummer Josh Garza. Curtis performed lead vocals on "Don't Fall Softly", a track by UK synthpop band

Filthy Dukes Filthy Dukes are a synthpop band from London, England. The band is composed of Olly Dixon (sampling, electronic percussion, electric guitar), Tim Lawton (synthesisers, lead vocalist) and Mark Ralph (bass guitar, backing vocals). Having been acti ...

which appears on their 2009 release "Nonsense In the Dark". He also mixed/produced two records by South African rock band BLK JKS. In June 2010, Curtis joined the touring lineup of

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cr ...

, on keyboards and vocals. In 2012, Brandon joined Interpol front man Paul Banks' live band, and he contributed to Banks' 2012 EP entitled "Julian Plenti Lives...". Curtis contributed to the production, recording, and mixing of EmptyMansions debut album "snakes/vultures/sulfate", released in April 2013. EmptyMansions is the side project of Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino. Curtis toured with EmptyMansions in Spring 2013, on bass/vocals. Curtis has produced three albums for the American

post-metal Post-metal is a music genre rooted in heavy metal but exploring approaches beyond metal conventions. It emerged in the 1990s with bands such as Neurosis and Godflesh, who transformed metal texture through experimental composition. In a way simil ...

band

Russian Circles Russian Circles is an American instrumental band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was originally formed by childhood friends Mike Sullivan and Dave Turncrantz after their previous musical projects dissolved. After parting ways with their ori ...

: ''

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situ ...

'' (2009), ''

Empros ''Empros'' is the fourth studio album by American post-metal band Russian Circles. The album was released on October 25, 2011 through Sargent House. This is Russian Circles' first album released solely through Sargent House; for their first three ...

'' (2011) and ''

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of ...

'' (2013). On October 30, 2013, Curtis' new band Cosmicide released a new song entitled "Talos' Corpse" and announced a few US tour dates. "Talos' Corpse" was written/produced by Brandon Curtis and mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer, who has previously worked with Paul Banks, Johnny Marr, Kaiser Chiefs, and more. Brandon's brother Benjamin died at the end of 2013. Cosmicide played three live shows in early 2015 (Philadelphia, Providence RI and Teaneck NJ), playing a nine-song setlist, including Talos' Corpse, consisting mostly of songs from material that is recorded and in a finished state but unreleased. In addition to Brandon, the band consisted of drums, a second keyboardist, and a guitarist. In August of 2020,

released an album titled "Awake in the Brain Chamber". Curtis performed keyboard and vocals on the album.

References

External links

* *http://www.riothouserecords.com/#!emptymansions/czn7 *http://pitchfork.com/news/47827-interpols-paul-banks-announces-tour/ *http://www.myoldkentuckyblog.com/?p=43545 *https://web.archive.org/web/20160219110107/http://www.willowwoodmusic.com/news/2015/1/15/live-review-cosmicide-ortliebs Living people Singers from Oklahoma 21st-century American keyboardists Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-rock-singer-stub