Blues Guitarist Brandon Teskey To Release Second Solo Album “Screaming Into The Void”
Brandon Teskey is a blues guitarist, known most notably as the guitar player and songwriter of the blues-rock band, Until the Sun. His music includes and often fuses elements of Blues, Fusion, Alternative Rock, Psychedelia, and Jazz.
Brandon’s forthcoming second solo album titled “Screaming Into The Void’ is an eclectic array of blues, rock, fusion, jazz, psychedelic, and alternative music that spans throughout an album with surprising twists and turns. Discontent with tired formulas, or being confined to a single genre, Brandon Teskey finds creative freedom in an album that breaks all the rules and lets the truth of the music speak for itself. Though the album features two songs with Brandon singing, and two songs with Alyssa Swartz (Until the Sun) singing, the mostly instrumental guitar-driven album delves into a variety of styles exploring the expanse of musicianship and virtuosity the players have to offer.
Says Brandon, “I strove to create true musical artwork that spoke for itself. It encompassed many of my favourite musical genres, while still staying true to my blues-rock roots.”
The album was recorded at Mind’s Eye Studio in Glendale Arizona. It was produced by Brandon Teskey and engineered by Larry Elyea. There are twelve tracks on the album. Most of the songs are original, however, it does feature a few covers including, “Side Tracked” by Freddy King, “Equinox” by John Coltrane, and “Autumn Leaves” by Joseph Kosma and Jacques Prevert.
Brandon assembled a world-class group of musicians to play on the project. The personnel includes Brandon Teskey, on Guitar and Vocals, Chris Tex (Until the Sun), on Drums, Jon Nadel (Marbin) on Bass, Will Kyriazis on Keyboard, Danny Markovitch (Marbin) on Saxophone and Alyssa Swartz on Vocals.
Brandon Teskey was born and raised in Southern California. At age 11 he began playing the guitar and was exposed to Blues music shortly thereafter and became consumed with the playing of Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Albert King, Robert Johnson, Albert Collins, and T-Bone Walker, as well as Rock artists like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and Eric Johnson. Along with his obsession with guitar playing also came the obsession of songwriting and almost as soon as he had picked up the instrument, he began coming up with chord progressions and penning lyrics.
By the time Brandon was 15 years old, he had joined an established blues band with some members forty years his senior and by the time he was 16, he had played the prominent San Juan Capistrano venue, The Coach House, where he had seen many of his idols play as a kid. Brandon further developed his playing, becoming intrigued with the technical and harmonic sophistication of players like Scott Henderson, Robben Ford, and John Scofield and began studying the works of Jazz musicians like Charlie Parker, Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, and Joe Pass.
Brandon moved to Arizona to attend Arizona State University in the summer of 2003, studying Music and Philosophy. While attending ASU, he met Bruce Jensen where they formed their first Rock band, playing gigs all across the Phoenix valley. In 2011 Brandon and Bruce formed bluesy hard rock band ‘Corium’. The band released an EP and opened for many national performers across Arizona.
In 2017, Brandon released “The Chime”, a solo rock instrumental album that combined influences of Rock, Delta Blues, Electronic Rock, and Jazz. The same year Brandon, along with other bandmates, formed ‘Until the Sun’, which allowed Brandon to return to his Blues-Rock roots and opened new doors of creativity in his songwriting and playing. In 2019 Until the Sun released their debut album, “Blackheart”, followed by their 2021 album, “Drowning in Blue”. Throughout 2021 Until the Sun played numerous shows and went on some small tours, despite the Covid lockdown.
In June of 2021, Brandon began recording his second solo album, “Screaming Into The Void”. Throughout the recording process, he pushed himself to the limits of his playing ability and the boundaries of his creativity to make true musical art. The mostly instrumental album defies the genre boundaries and includes rock, blues, fusion, psychedelic and jazz songs. Says Brandon, ‘I pushed myself beyond the limits of my playing and writing ability.’
