Band Member Spotlight: Brandon Bujnowski (Former Member)

PRECAP:

Contibutes: 

• Keys
• Back up vocals 

Personal Websites:

• Facebook
• If and Only If Productions (site currently under construction) 

Notable Links: 

• Fuctiphino

Favorite quote from the article:

"I love how the music in Looney Toons imitates the actions and how the different orchestration of the instruments can set an emotional overtone for the entire piece.That's where I've drawn a lot of the inspiration for my musical composition."

Imagine your way over to Plymouth, Connecticut and picture a young kid, say three or four, absorbed in an old episode of Looney Toons (and probably sitting about two feet from the television, if we're being perfectly honest). Bugs Bunny is being chased by Elmer Fudd and the predictable slapstick comedy ensues, but this particular child not only enthralled by the animation and the silliness like most young ones, but also by something that usually remains only in the background of most children's minds: the music.

In fact, that's how I Am the Third keyboardist Brandon Bujnowski (pronounced boy-now-ski) found his calling to the piano. Brandon shared with me that he loves Bugs Bunny and all cartoons, and that they had a huge impact on his music career:

"I love how the music in Looney Toons imitates the actions and how the different orchestration of the instruments can set an emotional overtone for the entire piece.That's where I've drawn a lot of the inspiration from my musical composition."

Once his mom found about about this spark that had caught on in her son, she found him a piano from a local Baptist church (the piano would have otherwise been sent to the dump) and let him try it out. Once his natural affinity quickly became obvious, he began lessons and actually enjoyed the instrument so much

that, unlike most kids, actually had fun practicing. From those humble beginnings we now have the musician we know and love today.

As far as joining IATT, Brandon admits, like many members of the band, to have been drawn to the project initially by Dan Victor, who has worked with most of the members previously. Since joining, he has contributed a lot to the writing, and actually did most of the writing for "Western Love." Brandon says he loves the song for its uniqueness, among other things, including the fact that it's the only song in the band's repertoire that is a ballad and also the only one in 6/8 time signature. When I asked him about what influenced his writing for this song, we returned again to cartoons, specifically, the American classic Fievel Goes West, and Brandon tells me to look:

"Particularly [at] the scene where the sister mouse, Tanya, sings into the mirror and pretends she has the showgirl outfit and she sings a [certain] chord progression [...] and that became the basic chord structure for Western Love."

As for Brandon's other favorites, he loves playing "(Where Do We) Draw the Line" because he "think[s] the harmonies are beautiful and [...] it really draws a lot of attention to the crowd." He also loves "It Won't Be Long," which used to be their show closer, because "it's a very positive, powerful song, it converys a very positive message, and [he's] very happy about that. [It's] just fun to play."

As far as music outside of IATT, Brandon tells me:

"I am influenced by music of all different genres. I used to be in a metal band called UPdownAllAround, and have a strong background in metal music. As a classically-trained pianist, I am inspired by many Romantic Era composers, namely Chopin. I have a whole book of Chopin Norturnes, and I love playing them in my spare time. I [also] am a music producer and am currently in production of my punk band's (Fuctiphino) album, for which I play the drums and sing backup vocals."

If you happen to look for him away from the world of music, you will find that Brandon feels shaped and inspired by his time as an audio book producer at Audible.com. When I asked him how he felt about the work, he said, "I love it, and it's honestly given me a newfound interest in speech and language pathology." He is even considering applying to a graduate program in that field.

You can't keep him away from music for long, though, and on that note (pun intended, I'm ashamed to say), Brandon closes us out with a teaser to the upcoming album, Western Love:

"We're really trying to engineer this up so that it's the culmination of several genres wrapped into one big ball that is IATT and that will launch us into 2013 in a positive way "