Captive Audiences
“It’s just remarkable to see how far this music seems to go without us being an active heartbeat behind it,” says Brad Corrigan (better known as “Braddigan”) after his band, Dispatch, played three sold out shows at Madison Square Garden in 2007, following an indefinite hiatus as a band in 2004. All of the money raised from the Garden’s ticket sales went directly to charities that are fighting disease, famine, and social injustice; the vast majority of the funds went to charities in Zimbabwe, though a portion was allocated to local charities that the band supports in the United States. In 2004, an estimated 110,000 loyal fans showed up at Dispatch’s “farewell concert” at the Hatch Shell in Boston to hear their unique blend of rock-funk-folk-a-reggae fusion. That show is considered the largest concert in indie music history. For most of their performances before their farewell, they were playing for 5 – 6,000 people a night. Multi-instrumentalist Braddigan says, “We could barely keep the ball rolling and then all of a sudden, the doors were opening to bigger and bigger places…but we felt it was still time for us to stop.”
In 2005, Braddigan released his solo album Watchfires, a beautifully crafted album with depth in songwriting and a mostly mellow acoustic vibe. When asked how the recording process compared to recording with Dispatch, Braddigan replied, “When we were working as a band, there were three songwriters, tons of tension, and compromise. You feel like it’s all cons and no pros. All of a sudden, a week into recording Watchfires, I was like ‘Man, I sure miss having some other people here.’ I missed the conversation over which lyrics were exactly right and the tug-of-war over which chord to use, how to jump production of a record – I really started to miss the team…” However, Braddigan also goes on to tell us “I was really happy to be painting on a canvas on my own.” One thing that helps Braddigan paint his vibrant strokes of music is his VOX AC30CC2X.
In October of ’07, Braddigan recorded and released The Captive, his second solo album and judging from what he’s told us, made a logical progression, molding his solo direction into more of a band. “Ray (DeJesus), Tiago (Machado), and I recorded the album together in 12 days…whereas Watchfires was recorded in the course of a whole year. So we made a band record together as opposed to me playing the guitar, the drums, flying someone in to play bass, then singing vocals. It was very much one thing at a time on Watchfires. The Captive is really the first real band record we made together under the name ‘Braddigan.’” This album defiantly unifies three diverse people with one common feeling.
Braddigan lends a lot of his time and efforts to causes that go beyond his music. As was the same with Dispatch, he and his new band are very active with various funds and charities. Love Light and Melody, which he founded, is a non-profit organization dedicated to battling the physical, emotional, and spiritual effects of extreme poverty in Nicaragua’s city landfill. He organized an event called Dia De Luz (Day of Light,) which was held in March of 2007 in a trash dump in Nicaragua that has a community of 1,500 people living there. Bringing together musicians and pro athletes, he birthed something of “a very dirty, dusty Nicaraguan Woodstock to celebrate the life of that community.” He adds, “It was so powerful, man. I’ve never played a more powerful gig in all of my life.” Sounds like a pretty profound experience.
Whether he’s performing live or in the studio, Braddigan chooses the VOX AC30CC2X Custom Classic combo when playing electric guitar. He comments, “You know, a lot of really clear sounding amps are very thin and don’t have a really full body to them. But the AC30CC2X can be absolutely crystal clear and when you need it to have a bit of a bite, there’s a mysterious depth to it. I don’t know of another amp that does that, and why should I try to go and find one when I know the AC30 does?!” You can hear Braddigan’s AC30 on The Captive.
To find out about more about Braddigan, Dispatch, and Love Light and Melody, go to www.braddigan.com, www.dispatchmusic.com, and www.lovelightandmelody.org.
By Bryan Griffiths and Evan O’Brien