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Keith LuBrant - Pop/Rock Artist

Keith Lubrant is a singer/songwriter who is finding his own, unique niche! His music is pure pop with it's catchy melodies and hooks. Combine that with edgy guitar riffs and a voice that will make the young girls cry, and you get a powerhouse that is sure to come out of your car stereo soon!

Listen to "If You See Mary"

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Madame Butterfly Riff (from Face in The Crowd)

Raised on heavy doses of classic rock as well as the Gin Blossoms, Mike Viola, Cheap Trick and Bon Jovi, LuBrant parlayed his youthful love of music into a burgeoning career early in life when he joined his first band, The Innocent. "The Innocent was a good starting point for me," relates LuBrant. "It gave me a chance to really hone my songwriting ability."

After The Innocent split, LuBrant found himself still writing with some members of the band and another project was put together, but it never really got off the ground. Grunge was mainstream now, and LuBrant slowly found himself not having the same fire he once had with music. “Bands like Nirvana were huge, but I was really not connecting with the music. Nothing against those type of bands. It just was not my style.

”Fast forward to the year 2000 and LuBrant finds himself constantly writing songs. A new desire was now there: the feeling to create. One day, while looking at all the rough demos he had collected, LuBrant decides to record them and with that Face In The Crowd is born. “It made no sense just having the songs sitting on a shelf. The whole purpose of the project was validation. ‘Could I be a competent songwriter in the face of industry?’ In a band situation, you always have to compromise your song ideas in order to have everybody on board. This was different. Being the sole writer of the songs, the pressure is on you.“ With a combination of older material and newly penned songs, the CD is finally recorded. With a brand new outlook on the music scene, LuBrant finds himself eager to "get in the ring."

Access Rock: Congratulations on your debut CD! Eight months is a long time to work on an album, right?

Keith: It was actually cool because it was self-made..I did it all basically in my home studio. With that you have the time, you don't have the pressure of a studio and the money situation. You can let the creativity flow a little bit more instead of watching the clock! That part I really like. The part that was kind of challenging was having all of the responsibilities on me. It was a labor of love, however, and I enjoyed it. I am talking to a couple of people about producing my next CD.

Access Rock: Right. That's probably wise.

Keith: It's funny because the original Face in the Crowd CD really wasn't meant to be put out in the public. There were fourteen songs on it which is a lot for a CD. I really just wanted to document my songs. Subsequently, an independent label (Dreamscape) heard it and wanted to pick it up. It's now in the process of getting remixed and they are going to put it out as an eleven song CD.

Access Rock: The album doesn't sound like it was made in your basement! How do you account for that?

Keith: Thank you very much. It was done on a Roland VS1680 which is a sixteen track digital recorder. I had a friend of mine, Darren, who has been recording since he was a little boy, come down and record the drums then I recorded the rest. I took the whole unit to his house and we meticulously mixed it. There is a lot of automation where your riding the vocals and stuff like that. We really spent the bulk of the time mixing. I'm pretty anal when it comes to that because you always want everything perfect. I go a little overboard with it, so Darren is the perfect yin for my yang! We work really well together. We took our time and made sure everything sounded as good as it could be.

Access Rock: So the drums were obviously live drums. How was it recording live drums in a home situation?

Keith: Yes, we had about seven tracks for the drum set and that's another reason why I brought Darren in. He has a barrage of excellent microphones. We just set up the drums in the basement and we set the control room upstairs. Every once in a while it was funny when we listened back to a track and heard planes going over head before the song starts. But, I think it's just a really healthy atmosphere if someone can do it that way. Like I said..you have the time. I remember going in to professional studios and it's like $40 or $50 an hour.

Access Rock: Pressure!

Keith: Exactly. Maybe the drummer didn't get the part right in that one spot, but hey, it's good enough!

Access Rock: Yah..I've done a couple of albums the way you did, and it's a double-edged sword because you do have so much time that you can go nuts going back over stuff a hundred times!

Keith: Yah, that's the other end of that. I remember doing that with my vocals. That's why I think hiring an outside producer and getting outside feedback for my next album will help in that situation. Yah, my Roland VS1680 has sixteen digital tracks, but you can do alot with digital these days. I would think that there are between twenty-four and thirty tracks on each song by sub mixing and stuff like that. We even mastered it with the Roland. There are a couple of mastering patches on there. It came out pretty good. I was anxious to hear what it sounded like when it was professionally mastered.

Access Rock: So you engineered yourself?

Keith: Yep. It was kind-of a dual effort. Darren recorded the drums, I recorded the rest. Then it was a dual effort with the mixing. Yah, when it came down to the vocals and guitars, that's what I did.

Access Rock: Did you have someone actually pressing the record button for you?

Keith: That was all me..that's what I did. I had a trusty punch-in, punch-out pedal. (Laughs) Those are the pros and cons. The con is you wear a lot of hats and then you have to be creative.

Access Rock:It sounds like all of your songs were written on the guitar.

Keith: You're right. It's very rare that I would write on piano or keyboard. I also write mostly on the acoustic guitar. I agree with the adage "If a song works on the acoustic guitar, it will sound good with a full band." I have this really old, $34, Hondo acoustic. It's like a magical guitar to me, because when I pick it up all of the cool song ideas start coming out!

Access Rock: Were all of the songs mostly finished when you started recording?

Keith: About half of the songs were older songs of mine that I had never recorded before. One of my aspirations is to be a songwriter for other people also. I thought that this album would be a good calling card. When it came down to record them, they were pretty much finished ideas. We did some pre-production. I had the band down and we recorded some rough tracks and figured out where people should be. I would record the drums first then mess around with different guitar textures.

Access Rock: I could tell right away that you were influenced by The Gin Blossoms. What did you like about them?

Keith: I am a sucker for a good hook and a good melody. That first album of theirs was chock full of songs with great hooks and melodies. That is one thing that I aspire to is writing a great melody because that's what I enjoy in a song. It doesn't have to be a complex song and The Gin Blossoms prove that. You have a couple of chords and a great melody! I have a lot of old-school influences when it comes to songwriting. Jon Bon Jovi, I think, is an incredible songwriter. You almost don't want to say it because people rag on them. Glenn Burtnick, who is a New Jersey guy, has some phenomenal songs. I also like Mike Viola a lot. I see his band play in Philly a lot. Back in the day I was heavier with the whole hair band thing.

Access Rock: How did you get your material heard by the Dreamscape label?

Keith: There is a friend of mine who heard my new material over the Internet, and he really enjoyed the album. He had a couple of indie label contacts, and when we were talking he said, "You gotta get this out to people because it is a really good album!". He talked to some people and this guy who was interested at Dreamscape gave me a deal. I very thankful for it because now the album will be nationally distributed.

Access Rock: Did you talk with any other record companies?

Keith: Honestly I didn't. AT that time, I really didn't have a set band and I wasn't really seeking out a record deal, or prepared to be an artist.

Access Rock: Do you play live as a trio?

Keith: Actually, the line up has changed from the album line up. The only original person in the band now is the bass player, John Le Comte. I have a new drummer, Johnny Cutillo and I added another guitar player, Jeff Nixon who plays some different guitar parts. Some of the songs from the album weren't translating to our live show very well because of the number of tracks. But, we have a good collection of songs and a couple of new songs that were playing live now. Hopefully, within the next four or five months we'll start the second album..pre-production stuff.

Access Rock: Are you playing mostly in Philly right now?

Keith: Yah, for now.

Access Rock: Are you looking to get into New York city or places outside of Philly?

Keith: Yah. I'm looking at developing a nice healthy fan base here in Philly first. That's one of my goals. After that, I would like to move and get into some other cities.

Access Rock: I think that's smart. How did you get started with the guitar?

Keith: My father was a weekend warrior musician and that got me interested in music. My brother had a guitar and when he wasn't around, I would pick it up and I learned some chords and eventually some songs. I bought my own guitar and spent a lot of time practicing. Back then, you had to have a lot of lead technique. I'm glad I learned those techniques and theory because it helps with the songwriting.

Access Rock: As a man who wears all hats, how do you balance the singing, songwriting, and guitar playing responsibilities?

Keith: I never really sang lead vocals until about 1994. I didn't have any experience at that time and I can safely say that I've grown leaps and bounds since then! So, I'm pretty much cool with singing. The guitar playing is coming up with song ideas, not really practicing per se. I'm not one who is constantly writing songs. I'll record little guitar riffs and stash them away. When it comes time to write some more songs, I will pull out the tapes and construct something. I usually build the lyrics last. When it comes to the producing, that only happens when I'm recording.

Access Rock: How did you get hooked up with the Jason Becker tribute album?

Keith: Actually, I emailed the label and said 'I'm not as technically proficient as Jason Becker, but I wish him the best and if there is anything I can do, let me know.' I remember reading the article about him in a guitar magazine years ago and being really emotionally effected by it. I've always felt something for him, going through the A.L.S.. Anyway, this record company guy emailed me back and said, "Why don't you do a song Jason was a part of or any facet of his life." I decided to do a song called Party Favors, which was a song by this band Howe Two. It was kind of a Greg Howe band on this label called Shrapnel. Anyway, Jason Becker did a solo on that song. It's a blues/rock song. The cool thing was that I really got to unleash on the lead guitar playing! All of the money made from that compilation goes to Jason.