Brian Kelley is a journalist by trade with experience as a writer and editor for Rider University’s alumni magazine, and now serves as a public affairs coordinator for the New Jersey chapter of a national non-profit organization.
Although not the most talented of musicians, Brian was a member of a synthesizer-based rap/pop act called TMC+The New Generation (think Depeche Mode meets Run DMC, if you dare) that played a few gigs in a couple of clubs at the Jersey Shore back in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Here are some videos to prove it.
However, he left music behind in 1991 and, except for a few creative bursts later in the decade, did not return to the craft until 2004. That was when Apple released the first version of its GarageBand consumer-level music recording application. Brian purchased GarageBand and quickly revisited his musical past by creating modern recordings of songs he had written in his late teens. The writing and recording of new songs soon followed.
Around the same time GarageBand entered his life, Brian also became more involved in blogging, enjoying the freedom of writing whatever he thought about and sharing it with the world.
This led Brian to ponder the impact technology was having on his personal creative processes—and on the arts in general. Those ponderings evolved into the concept at the heart of the Technology and the Arts blog/podcast.
Brian continues to write new songs, including the theme music for the Technology and the Arts podcast. In July 2007, he performed on stage for the first time in about 16 years when he played organ, piano and tambourine for former TMC+The New Generation bandmate, singer-songwriter Christian Beach. Brian has since been recruited to play additional live shows with Christian and played organ on Christian’s cover of “Five Years,” which appears on the “Hero: The Main Man Records Tribute to David Bowie” 2-CD set released in December 2007. In Brian’s younger days, he dabbled in comic book-style drawing and has since done a bit of graphic design work.
Born in Edison, N.J., Brian grew up in Brick Township, N.J. After receiving his associate’s degree in print and broadcast journalism from Ocean County College in Toms River, N.J., he went to Rider University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in journalism (public relations track) in 1997.
Brian resides in New Jersey.
In addition to his role as one of the editors and hosts of Technology & the Arts, Brian is the “curator” of BK’s Tandem with the Random tumblog, which includes the feed from his personal TWR blog.
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