Brains on Fire

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  Looking Up and Moving Down…Stairs!

  Posted on September 1st, 2010 by Eric Dodds and currently 2 commenting.

  It’s been a big few weeks at Brains on Fire. We’ve met a handful of great new people, have already heard great stories from people who are reading the book, got a team on the ground getting dirt underneath their fingernails with some Insight work, and Geno got a new tweed jacket in the mail.

  If that’s not enough Firesphere awesome-ness for you, we’ve got another piece of exciting news: Brains on Fire is moving the creative spaces our Pirates work at to the lower deck! You read that right. Things have been getting bigger and better around here, so we’re bringing the whole crew together, re-designing our office arrangement and buckling down for an amazing second-half of 2010.

  To celebrate the twenty-five-foot vertical adjustment, I thought it would be fun to invite you into our little moving adventure - follow my feet through the office as I transport a box downstairs and encounter a few obstacles along the way.

  (PS - No employees, footballs, dolls, chairs, or metal pipes were harmed in the making of this video.)

  Tags: Brains on Fire, Eric Dodds, Eric Whitlock, Firecam, Greg Ramsey, Justin Gammon, moving, photography, Slice of Life, stop motion, zach suggs
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  Firecam and pictures: Brains on Fire in the Recording Studio

  Posted on August 18th, 2010 by Eric Dodds and currently 2 commenting.

  For this year’s FIRE Sessions, Cordell pulled a little surprise out from his sleeve, and that surprise happened to be a full staff performance of David Bowie’s “Changes.” While a few of the pirates here are gifted with beautiful vocals, the rest of us were in need of an auditory guide on stage as we were belting out the 70s chorus. So we headed up to Williamson Evans to fire up a few condenser mics and see how handy the producer was with pitch control in Pro Tools.

  The result? Lots of fun, lots of laughs, and one awesome David Bowie performance.

  Enjoy a few scenes from the making-of:

  Video lovingly cut but the intern, Suggs. Final Cut ain’t so bad, is it?

  

  Need a mic, anyone?

  

  Cramming isn’t just for college, and I think we had a few people who wished they’d studied more before the test.

  

  Justin tickling the ivory.

  

  This studio has the gear and the chops to use it.

  

  We think Ramsey has a secret desire to be a honky-tonk country music star.

  

  Mic’s, headphones, here we go…

  

  Jack looks so confident, and Dodds and Ramsey are trying figure out how the man of steel does it.

  

  Work hard, play hard, and sometimes both.

  

  The magic happening.

  
  

  Tags: behind the scenes, Brains on Fire, FIRE Sessions, Firecam, Pictures, recording studio, singing, Slice of Life
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  Picture Blog: Brains on Fire Through Intern Eyes

  Posted on August 13th, 2010 by Eric Dodds and currently 5 commenting.

  So, we shed a tear when we said goodbye to our last intern, Elizabeth (she was really, really awesome), but we’ve saddled-up a new young-gun and we’re excited that he’s gonna be around this fall. His name is Zach Suggs, and he hails from the mountains of North Carolina. He did a short stint in Fort Collins, Colorado (yes, he spent some quality time at the New Belgium Brewery), but somehow his loaded Subaru wound up in little old Greenville. Aside from being super-smart, Suggs has got some photo (and Photoshop) skills, so we asked him to snap a few pics around the office. Here’s the first batch, but look for more soon.

  

  Suggs’ new place on deck.

  

  You’re child is going to be absolutely gorgeous, Megan!

  

  Yours truly, probably coming back from the coffee pot with some fresh caffeine.

  

  Our good friend Amy Taylor sent us a little package with some goodies.

  

  Is she scared of a monster-ringed man? Is there a secret message written on his palm? And Justin, where in the heck do you find all these crazy monsters?

  

  A packaged arrived in the mail…

  

  What? Brains on Fire hardcover book copies?? Everyone’s in quiet awe.

  

  And celebrate the love story of the Brains on Fire book.

  Tags: Alexis Bass, amy taylor, beth delong, book, Brains on Fire, Brains on Fire Book, Cathy Harrison, culture, Eric Dodds, geno church, Greg Cordell, Greg Ramsey, hard cover, Justin Gammon, Megan Byrd, monster, package, photography, Photos, Pictures, ring, Shannon Kohn, team, toys, zachsuggs
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  What happens when your fans start singing along…

  Posted on August 9th, 2010 by Geno and currently 0 commenting.

  
  Last week fate hooked me up with Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air interviewing Brian May of Queen.

  The bulk of the interview was about May’s new book, A Village Lost and Found, a book on stereo photographs and poems from T.R. Williams in the 1850s. May surprised me by making physics and his passion for stereo photographs very engaging.

  Then the conversation turned to Queen… Growing up as a Wayne’s World teen, I’ll admit to many (and I mean many) experiences of singing with my buddies at the top our lungs Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, and many more Queen tunes.

  Brian May explained that it wasn’t always that way… Queen was a band you listened to, and when their fans came to their concerts they listened. He tells Fresh Air host Terry Gross that ironically, that famous “stomp-clap thing” in “We Will Rock You,” wasn’t even included in the original song. May explains that he got the idea after a particularly animated Queen show at Bingley Hall near Birmingham, England.

  “The audience was responding hugely, and they were singing along with everything we did,” he says. “I remember talking to [lead singer] Freddie Mercury about it. And I said, ‘Obviously, we can no longer fight this. This has to be something which is part of our show and we have to embrace it, the fact that people want to participate — and, in fact, everything becomes a two-way process now. And we sort of looked at each other and went, ‘Hmm. How interesting.’ ”

  May continued, “What can you give an audience that they could do while they’re standing there? They can stamp and they can clap and they can sing some kind of chant,” he says. “To me, it was a united thing. It was an expression of strength.”

  How simple, and brilliant. “We Will Rock You” is the most famous song that May wrote. He added that, “My God. Most people don’t even realize that I wrote it. Most people don’t realize that it was written. It’s sort of become one of those things that people think was always there. So in a way, that’s the best compliment you could have for the song.”

  I think there’s a lesson in “We Will Rock You,” guys. Too many times we don’t listen to our fans singing, we want it to be about us. When we keep singing that tune, it will continue to be just about us… next time you’re at a meeting and you don’t know what to do… try a stomp and a clap, you never know what’s going to happen next.

  Tags: Brains on Fire, Brian May, geno church, Queen
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  FIRE Sessions photo roundup

  Posted on August 4th, 2010 by Eric Dodds and currently 7 commenting.

  We’ve shown a few pictures from the FIRE Sessions, but we thought it would be fun to do a photo roundup so you could walk through the whole day. Enjoy!

  

  Uncross your arms and put a smile on that face, Cordell!

  

  A mad dash to get everything in place.

  

  She’s got a voice and she’s not afraid to use it. Well, yeah, she kind of is. But her voice is seriously good.

  

  Megan checking people in - what a lovely smile!

  

  Justin is probably talking about Weirdo Toys. Why not? It’s awesome.

  

  Little early there, Logan? The coffee was really really good.

  

  Doddfather and Steve Knox getting all of the ghosts out of the wires before kickoff.

  

  Our setup for the opening performance.

  

  He’s watching you.

  

  Brains on Fire perform’s David Bowie. Yee haw.

  

  The crescendo.

  

  Geno on fire.

  

  Steve Knox reminding us that his talk is NOT about technology.

  

  This was by far one of the best Q+A sessions we’ve ever seen - 30 minutes of awesome questions. And we had to cut it off. Wait, I’m not supposed to use that phrase…

  

  Elizabeth and Megan leading the line to lunch. Kinda like kindergarten, right?

  

  Pretty sweet place.

  

  Yours truly welcoming everyone back from lunch.

  

  This year we had something we called the Action Council. Basically you get to sit down with a brilliant mind and ask them anything you want. It was really, really cool and there were some wonderful, practical conversations.

  

  Geno listens better this way.

  

  John Moore, drawing on years of rockin’ experience.

  

  Max Lenderman, ladies and gentleman.

  

  Max talked about how you can’t rip-off an experience. Great stuff.

  

  Justin, working on some double exposures. Wait, this is a triple. Dang.

  

  Ok, here’s the double. And a dang cool one.

  

  Behind the scenes, having a good time.

  

  The Jolly Roger, keeping an ever-watchful eye.

  Tags: Brains on Fire, Doddfather, Eric Dodds, FIRE Sessions, Francois Gossieaux, geno church, Greenville, Greg Cordell, Greg Ramsey, Heather Hough, john moore, Justin Gammon, Max Lenderman, Pictures, Shannon Kohn, Slice of Life, South Carolina, Steve Knox