Interview – Dean Brody

By: Emily Thomson

Dean Brody is a popular country music artist from Jaffary, BC. Dean has won 7 CCMAs and was named  #1 Most Played Canadian Artist on radio in 2011 and 2012. Over the past couple years, he has gone from opening to selling out shows on his headlining tour.

Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, who are some of your favourite Canadian bands/artists?

DB: Leonard Cohen. Lindi Ortega. Gordon Lightfoot.

What made you decide that music is what you wanted to do?

DB: I was working full time at the local sawmill and I realized that I didn’t want to look back when I was older and wonder “what if”. Because I would have. I always would have wondered about whether I could have cut it in the music industry. I wanted to find out either way.

At what age did you start with music?

DB: At around age twelve

What was the first song you remember learning to sing or play on an instrument?

DB: “Patience” by Guns N Roses

What was it like when they called your name when you won your first CCMA?

DB: Awesome. Freaky. I don’t even remember what I said. It was a great honor because it was for song of the year. I was a songwriter first, so it meant a lot.

How did you come up with the Dean Brody Foundation?

DB: I read a book called “Remember Me, Rescue Me” about child prostitution in Brazil. I contacted the author and over the course of a year he took me throughout Brazil, introducing me to an underworld that broke my heart. Soon after, we started the foundation with along with some Brazilian nationals and opened a project house for girls in a remote town along the BR 116 motorway.

Is there any country artist you’d like to collaborate with if given the chance?

DB: Mindy Smith

These next few questions will help your fans get to know you better, what is your favourite food?

DB: Seafood!

Do you have a favourite childhood memory?

DB: Playing hockey on the pond.

If you had to listen to one album for a year, which album would you listen to?

DB: A year?! Well, probably one of those soundscape records you can buy with gurgling streams and frogs and stuff. If I listened to anyone for a year I think I would lose my mind… But I suppose if was going to lose my mind, I wouldn’t mind going out to any Gordon Lightfoot record.

What is your favourite color?

DB: Blue

Do you have any hidden talents?

DB: I can juggle. Kind of. It’s one of the few remaining things I remember from college!

And lastly, is there anything you’d like to say to your fans?

DB: Thank you for letting me be me, and sing what I write. I get to do something I love for a living because of you!