If you were to list traits and skills of a DIY musician destined for success, what would be on your list? I might argue that strong lyrical and musical sensibility, audio technology mastery, and marketing prowess should be.

Which brings me to Brian Hazard, of the solo act Color Theory.  A little background — Color Theory recently won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the Electronic music category (and is about to go up against other category winners for the Song of the Year award). So clearly, Brian’s got serious songwriting skills.  If you listen to his winning song, “If It’s My Time To Go”, you’ll immediately notice his musicianship and great vocal ability.  He also happens to be an audio mastering engineer, running his own mastering studio at Resonance Mastering.  Furthermore, Brian knows how to leverage online media to successfully promote his own music in a web 2.0 world, and shares his experiences at Passive Promotion.  So check, check, and check.

Once I learned about Brian, I wanted to get to know him better — so I interviewed him.  Check out the Q&A:

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GARAGESPIN: So Brian.  You (Color Theory) recently won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in April.  That’s awesome.  Tell us about the song, and the process that lead to the victory.

BRIAN (COLOR THEORY): The song was originally created in collaboration with my friend Caesar Filori of Wideband Network. I sent him three piano sketches to pick from, and he sent me back a rough demo of his choice. The dark and melancholy character of Caesar’s demo inspired my lyrics. I recorded vocals and he wrapped up the mix.

After a few months, it became clear that neither of us had time to do an album together, but I didn’t want the song to go to waste. He gave me the okay to create a new version of it for my latest album, The Thought Chapter. The original version that Caesar produced is featured on a follow-up EP entitled Second Thoughts.

As for the contest, that was kind of a fluke. I’ve submitted to song contests over the years and got a few honorable mentions, but overall felt they weren’t worth the effort. The deadline for the John Lennon Songwriting Contest came just after I finished the song and was feeling overly optimistic about its chances.

GARAGESPIN: Where do you get your song inspiration?  What hits you first — lyrics, melody, a song title, a piano chord lick?

BRIAN: I usually start from a title. When one hits me, I’ll rough out some stream-of-consciousness prose to make sense of it. Next I’ll flesh out the song structure and melody. Then I’ll mold the useful bits of my garbled prose into a lyric. The production goodies come at the end – typically the hardest part for me. At that point, I just want it to be done. I can only spend so much time finessing automation envelopes.

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