Brittany Shane
An Interview with Singer-Songwriter Brttany Shane
by John Noyd
June 2012
Eighteen year old Baraboo native Brittany Safranek moved to San Francisco with plans to stay a year before hitting L.A. She established herself as a folk-singer, recording three well-received CDs and rubbing elbows with celebrities from Peter Frampton to Chris Isaak, but ten years, a name change and a half a dozen day jobs later Brittany Shane decided to pull up stakes again and make Austin her new home. Part of her reason was how much it reminded her of Madison. Two years and already an established fixture with weekly gigs, Brittany revisits Wisconsin this July with a sparkling new CD, “Loud Nights on a Short String,” and many warm memories.
“I miss so many things about Madison,“ Brittany recently wrote, “going to the Terrace and watching music by the lake during a warm summer night or grabbing a coffee at Michelangelo’s in the morning and walking down State Street.” “I’ve had the opportunity to travel around the U.S. four times on tour, and I’ve gotta say, Madison is still one of my favorite cities.”
When asked about her experiences forging a musical career and what she learned from integrating herself into three cities’ scenes Brittany confessed she has five big lessons she learned along the way
1. Never turn down an invitation. If someone invites you to a show or a party, go.. You never know who you might meet or what might happen from there. Things happen and start to move when you meet new people.
2. Just ask, you never know, that person might just say…yes! I have been told many times that a producer or well-known guitar player might be too busy for me, but I went up and asked anyway. The majority of the time, they actually said yes or it led to a project later.
3. Its ok to put the guitar down. It’s very important to know when to take a break. The world won’t pass you up if stop playing because you are tired. Try another creative project for a bit, relax or better yet, go out and see some great live music. Be the audience for awhile and get inspired again. Then get back out there with the energy to put on a good show.
4. Be nice, talk to everyone from the person doing your lights to the next band. The music world is actually quite small and you’ll probably bump into them again.
5. Don’t take things too seriously. Have fun, be yourself and most importantly, laugh!
Co-produced by Austin’s talented George Reiff (Court Yard Hounds) and Scrappy Jud Newcomb (Ian ‘Mac’ McLagan & The Bump Band), “Short String,” also enlists Dony Wynn (Robert Palmer) and Johnny Goudie (Skyrocket) to support Brittany’s rockin’ and boppin’ Southwestern alt-pop potions. Showcasing her batter-dipped ballads at Madison’s Frequency July 13th along with The Deadbeat Club, the prodigal daughter will surely shine. A candid sample of impromptu Brittany can be heard when she visits WORT’s, “In Her Infinite Variety,” noon, July 8th.
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