Five Questions for...Jon Dorn of Brewster Productions

Brewster Productions has released a studio album featuring two local musicians. The Brewster Sessions, Vol. 1 costs $7 with the proceeds funding a concert series and the Plymouth Independent Music Festival this summer.

Brewster Productions cofounder Jon Dorn answers five questions about the album.

1. What's the story behind the Brewster Sessions?
As Brewster Productions was growing during the past few years, our longtime friend and collaborator Shaun Dever, who’s featured on the record, came up with the idea of doing live studio recording sessions with various artists we work with. We came up with a nice simple, catchy name: The Brewster Sessions. We brainstormed and talked about the idea for a while, and finally decided to go ahead and put out the first collection. So last year, we got Ben Carter on board to record some songs along with Shaun.
    We did separate recording sessions for Ben and Shaun in 2010, and had a lot of fun hearing the stories of the songs, and even hearing some brand new songs – like Ben’s “Okay Then, Let’s Take Down the Sky”, which he had never played publicly until that recording session.
    The motivation behind the series is to provide the artists we work with another avenue to help get their music out. We started Brewster Productions with the mission of helping young aspiring artists get their music out there – and along with producing shows, we can use our music distribution resources to put out an original collection of music.

And rather than putting together a sampler or mix tape, we want to provide people a new look at these artist’s work. So, with The Brewster Sessions, listeners will hear interesting new versions of the music, the stories behind the songs, and even totally new songs.

2. Whose on the CD?
The album features two local singer-songwriters, Ben Carter and Shaun Dever. We’ve known and worked with these guys since we started Brewster Productions, and thought they’d be the perfect people to kick off our ongoing series. They both have a great folk-pop sound to their songs. Ben is based in Boston, and many of his tunes have a sentimental edge to them, tending to be deeply personal – he’ll be playing at our concert series this Saturday, June 4, and headlining a show at the Hedge House on August 5. Shaun is originally from Plymouth, and graduated with Scott, Harry, and I from Plymouth South in 2005 – he now lives in New Hampshire. His songs draw a lot of influence from surf rock and have a great summertime sound. Shaun will also be playing at the CD release show on June 4 at the Hedge House Lawn.

3. Can I get it for my iPod?
The Brewster Sessions is primarily available as a digital download, so it’s super easy to put it on an iPod. When you buy the album, you get mp3 files, which will go right onto any mp3 player. We will also have a very limited run of physical CDs available at the June 4th release show – they’ll be individually numbered and autographed by Ben and Shaun.

4. On Brewster Productions Facebook page, you've got four reasons to buy The Brewster Sessions, Vol. 1 Can you give them to me here?
1) You get to hear interesting new versions of Ben and Shaun’s original music, plus their comments on the songs they play. 2) This album has 2 completely new songs, “Okay Then, Let’s Take Down the Sky” by Ben Carter, and “Colleen” by Shaun Dever – it’s the first place these songs have ever been released. 3) Sure you can listen to the album all you want online for free, but if you buy it, you’ll be helping to support local music and free concerts. Proceeds from this record will help fund the Acoustic Nights Free Concert Series, and the Plymouth Independent Music Festival on July 23rd. 4) You can buy the album now, then come sing along to the songs this Saturday at the release show in Plymouth! The show starts at 2pm at the Hedge House Lawn on the waterfront – it’s totally free and will feature Ben, Shaun, and several other local acoustic artists all day.

5. This disc is Volume 1, when is Volume 2 coming out?
We’re not quite sure when Volume 2 will be out, but we’re shooting for sometime in the fall or winter. Since we just started with the Brewster Sessions series, we’re not totally sure what sort of fun stuff we’re going to do with it, but right now our goal is to put out 2 or 3 volumes per year. Who knows, maybe even more!