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David Arthur Brown is an American musician and the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for the US band
Brazzaville Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...
.


Life and career

David Arthur Brown was born in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, California, on June 19, 1967. He was a runaway who later became interested in low budget travel and poetry. His early years were spent largely in the
Koreatown A Koreatown (), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula. History Koreatowns as an East Asian ethnic enclave have only been in existence s ...
district of Los Angeles. Beginning in his late teens he traveled extensively through
Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
,
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
, and
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. Along the way he learned to play the saxophone which he played in
Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...
's band from 1997 through 2000. In
Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, during one of Beck's European tours he bought a guitar and began writing songs and singing. From 1997 through 2017, he wrote and recorded 11 full length albums with his band Brazzaville and toured extensively throughout the world. He currently resides in the
Eixample The Eixample (, ) is a district of Barcelona between the old city (Ciutat Vella) and what were once surrounding small towns (Sants, Gràcia, Sant Andreu, etc.), constructed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its population was 262,000 at ...
neighborhood of
Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, with his wife and two children. In 2013, he founded Soyuz Microphones along with Pavel Bazdyrev.


Early years

David Arthur Brown was born in Los Angeles in 1967 to Shulamit Soltes and Robert Wellington Brown. His early years were spent in foster care and then later with his paternal grandmother, Dorothy Ida Brown, a poet who greatly influenced Brown both creatively and spiritually. Brown's teenage years were spent primarily in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles as well as brief stints in
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...
and
Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...
. He began writing poetry at the age of 16 giving readings at local venues.


Brazzaville

From 1997 to 2000, Brown toured with
Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...
as his saxophone player. While on tour, he was exposed to many different bands. He met and became friends with
Mark Sandman Mark Sandman (September 24, 1952 – July 3, 1999) was an American singer, songwriter, musical instrument inventor, multi-instrumentalist and comic writer. Sandman possessed a distinctive, deep bass-baritone voice and a mysterious demeanour. He w ...
of
Morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
and began to develop an interest in other genres of music than jazz. He decided to try writing lyrics and singing. He contacted his friend
Kenny Lyon Kenny Lyon (born April 22, 1956) is an American guitarist, bassist, music producer, and author. He has performed and recorded with artists such as the Lemonheads, Jann Arden, NOFX, Mark Curry, Los Super Elegantes, Joel Virgel, Jim Bianco, and Bra ...
, a guitar and bass player and suggested they form a band. Finding a suitable name proved difficult. It was when Brown was reading a story in the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' about the civil war in Congo, particularly about events unfolding in the city of
Brazzaville Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...
, that he finally came up with the name. Much of Brazzaville's early music reflects Brown's fascination with shipping, Asia, low budget travel, and misfits. At the age of 11, he spent many days at work with his father, who worked as a trucker hauling shipping containers from the ports in San Pedro and Long Beach to the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific train yards. That period left a lasting impression on Brown and his songwriting and can be heard on tracks like Deng Xiaoping, Shams, and Love Sky. Over the next 20 years, Brown wrote and released 11 albums with Brazzaville. In 2003, Brown moved to Spain. Since 2023 he has lived in Russia where he has a Russian fiancée and business.


Discography


Albums

*
2002
' (South China Sea Music, 1998) *
Somnambulista
' (South China Sea Music, 2000) *
Rouge On Pockmarked Cheeks
' (South China Sea Music, 2002) *
Hastings Street
' (Zakat, 2004) * ''Welcome to... Brazzaville'' (Web of Mimicry, 2004), (Zakat, 2005)— greatest hits vol.1 *
East L.A. Breeze
' (Zakat, 2006) *
21st Century Girl
' (South China Sea Music, 2008) *
Teenage Summer Days
' (South China Sea Music, 2009) * ''Brazzaville in Istanbul'' (South China Sea Music, 2010) *
Welcome to Brazzaville 2
' (South China Sea Music, 2010) greatest hits vol.2 *
Jetlag Poetry
' (South China Sea Music, 2011) *
Morro Bay
' (South China Sea Music, 2013) *
Oceans of Ganymede
' (South China Sea Music, 2016)


References


External links


Official site
Brazzaville {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, David Arthur 1967 births American male singer-songwriters Living people