Hey kids. Thanks for checking me out. Here I am, no spring chicken with a debut album. Why did it take so long? I don’t know. I’m a bit of a late bloomer I suppose. Well, here’s my story, at least the music part and, to make it shorter, only part of that. If you want to know more, buy my album and all my albums after this one and listen hard.

I’ve been playing with guitars and melodies since I was 12. Yeah, I’ve played in a few bands. Any you’ve heard of? Not a chance. The only important one was the first. We were in high school together in another band (Jazz Ensemble). “Cheese Pleasers” was our side project—a punk-metal outfit started during an impromptu jam session in a Victoria BC hotel parking lot during a jazz festival. I set aside my sax to play an acoustic guitar run through a distortion pedal and bass amp. We were awful but we were loud and didn’t care. Our audience didn’t seem to care either. That “concert” still stands as one of the most liberating experiences in my life. Two years and a dozen name and personnel changes later, we stopped playing and, in true rock and roll fashion, haven’t spoken since. I continued playing sax in college, worshipping the great tenor players: Coltrane, Dexter and Sonny. I had the privilege of studying with local genius Hadley Caliman. But jazz ultimately became “work” to me. You see, I didn’t have the “gift” like Sonny and Hadley. They could just “play.” I had to learn formulas—playing in a melodic minor scale up a half step from the root of the V chord would propel the sound of the tonic and offers a tension/release scenario when you resolve on the I chord blah, blah, blah . . .

Needless to say, I went back to my first love—writing little folk songs that meant something to me. There has never been anything more inspiring to me than writing words with melodies that take me somewhere else, like under the sun with a view when I’m really at cliff’s edge in the dark. So, all these years later, here are nine of the latest ones.

This CD was recorded during a few short sessions spread out over a year. The tracks are mostly first or second takes complete with audible breathing, sniffling, blunders and sporadic bursts of tempo change apparently inherent in my guitar playing. My hope is that they truly represent what I was feeling in my car or on my front porch at the times of their conceptions.

So, here you have it, my debut album. Yeah, all the songs are kinda, sorta, in part about the weather. What can I say? . . . it’s been a hard year.

-- Steve


PRAISE FOR "LIKE THE MOON":

"Bright, melodious arrangements, graceful fingerpicking and an affective voice that resembles Badly Drawn Boy's Damon Gough."
-- Splendid E-Zine

"Like the Moon is a diamond in the rough [with] echoes of Neil Young & REM ..."
-- The Phantom Tollbooth

"An impressive debut album"
-- Left Off The Dial

"Like the moon is bar none the best album I have heard in a long time! Steven R. Brooks is the next big thing to come out of Seattle! It's the second coming of Kurt Cobain! I find myself playing the CD over and over again! It stays in my CD player and I just can't get enough of it!"
-- Dale Yamashita, recording artist, producer (Q Boys, Prisoners of Society, Phat Kid)

"One of the best CD's we've released this year!"
-- Urban Cheese Records

"'Like the Moon' treats the listener with respect, lending itself to--not dictating--your mood."
-- Leslie Kooy, lead singer, The Cocktail Revisionists

"I'm a lyrics guy and Steve's emotionally candid lyrics blew me away. When they're combined with his distinctive guitar playing, the resulting songs are a wake-up call that there's a formidable new creative talent in the world of singer-songwriters. 'Darkness' and 'Sweet Morphine' are masterpieces."
-- Mike Mihalik

"It sounds like The Beatles"
-- Steve's mom