Instruments
Bands
- Freeground- Guitar, Lead Vocals
- Rock Steady- Guitar, Vocals (March 2009-)
Biography
Clay Breiland plays guitar like he grew up on the Delta, or maybe beneath Tin Pan Alley, or in Kingston, Jamaica. But he actually grew up in Thunder Bay, absorbing his fathers record collection and his mother's artistry, on the shore of Lake Superior. His voice is soulful and full of yearning. He can get inside a song like Al Green and Jimmy Cliff can, but with the raw edge of an Elvis Costello. And he writes songs. A rare talent.
From Clay Breiland's myspace site:
I grew up shouting at far away landmasses in hopes to hear my voice returned. This practice improved my understanding of reflection in wave physics. Combined with running, I also diciphered the doplar effect, and recorded it on several occasions for study, eventually learning to discern it with the naked ear in the voices of retreating confidences and suspicious peers. Sometimes I was also quiet. It was during these meditations that I discovered my ability to turn myself into water, moss, nitrogen gas molecules, and compost. The latter of these was my favorite, as I had a decompositional-eye-view of death, and from this learned the valuable lesson of separating spirituality from religion. One day, a conversation with another of my selves prompted me to believe that I was likely an authentic being talking to thin air. I then took up my first instrument. By 13 years old I was perfectly capable of blowing my own horn with force and precision, but I have since lost the desire to do so; and with it, the belief that no one is listening when I choose not to speak. What did you expect? A life story?
Clay's influences:
elvis costello, neitzsche, bob dylan, stephen hawking, nintendo, miriam makeba, muddy, miriam makeba, my grade school janitor, miles davis, billy holiday, leonard cohen's poetry, richard linklater, stevie ray vaughn, salvidor dali, advertising, george carlin, school yard bullies, my first lover, the omnipotence of darkness during nights in the country, the possible absence of god.