My name is Brady Hurlburt, and I'm an undergraduate student at the University of Arkansas studying electrical engineering and music.
This page is a compilation of most all of my recordings. The plan is to post everything; the hope is that you might stumble across a few things that really affect you.
If you'd like to get a hold of me, you can email me at bradyhurlburt(at)gmail(dot)com .
I don't know how to say this right to make it sound.
It's out of my hands, but still I will say
that I'll buy into your dreams. Can you buy into anything you see in me?
I'll let you look inside, if you promise to try to dream
There's a truth inside that burns in your eyes
and I won't let it go, I can't let you go.
There's a hope in your heart that shines in your smile.
So please take a chance, we have a chance this time.
I should drop this and let it go, but this time I can't because I know
You are once in a lifetime.
Let's build each other's dreams. You gotta believe they could change everything.
Please take a look inside and try and try and try and try to dream.
Before I leave you've got to say
that you'll forget I'm gone
no less, at least, every other day
cause it will be too long
for you to stay awake while I'm awake,
for you to stay awake while I'm awake.
Before I go you've got to say
that you'll forget I'm gone
no more, at most, every other day
cause it will be so long.
And your sun will be down while mine beats down.
Your sun will be down while mine beats down.
So please stay awake while I'm awake.
Please, stay awake while I'm awake.
It'll be so long. So long.
by Nate Kinast, Drew Oglesby, Andrew Moffett and Brady Hurlburt
Click the download link above will download a zipped file with all five songs. You can extract it and throw it into your iTunes or anywhere you keep your music.
Or you can download them one by one by right-clicking on the song titles below and chosing "save link as".
We recorded in Nate's house, the Rockhouse, my parents' basement, Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, and my dorm room on the fifth floor.
Thank you Stella for the use of your Steinway, and thank you fifth floor for not being bothered by my tracking vocals in the middle of the night.
My friends, I hope you find something in these songs that moves you. "Come on, come on, everyone's waiting ..." Here are the songs:
My God, oh God, you saved my life, cause the stuff just wouldn't clot.
You put your hands inside my head and made the bleeding stop.
There was something wrong inside my blood, so it's time to make all new.
I'm so tired, but these bones are ready to start from the start with you.
This must be the cost.
And this I'll count as lost.
It's everything I thought would ease my mind while I can't sleep.
This must be the cost.
And this I'll count as lost.
It's everything I thought would ease my mind, would ease my mind.
This is how a new heart forms: from a little piece of the old one torn.
A brand new beat is born. A brand new beat is born.
You've been living life like it's a sequel,
and you're already bored with the plot,
as if the cast and the score are more money than before,
but the script and the backdrops are stock.
We've got the rest of our lives to regret
all the words that we've said here tonight but I'll bet
in the morning, the morning will find us in bloom.
So come on, come on, come on, let's not be our parents.
Come on, come on, come on, let's follow this through.
Come on, come on, come on, everyone's waiting.
We will rise with the wings of the dawn, when everything's new,
when everything's new.
Ever size up with the summer sun?
Let these words awaken the dawn.
Let us breathe every breath like a breath to be kept.
Let us breathe it all in till it's gone.
We've got the rest of our lives to live out
all these dreams that we've stayed up all night to talk about.
In the morning start hoping to not be too soon.
So come on, come on, come on, let's abandon this darkness.
Come on, come on, come on, let's follow this through.
Come on, come on, come on, everyone's waiting.
We will live like fire and gold when everything's new,
when everything's new.
Music written with Michael Bollenbach and Natalie Hoffmann
How's it gonna be? Cause the dot dot dot is killing me.
Why'd you sit me down just to say "Just breathe"?
Is it not your heart I'm after?
As I unclench my fists, I'm done.
As my knuckles turn pink again, I know I'm done.
Cause for months I've been waking up with my smallest fingers numb,
but now that's all done, that's all done.
Go! Oh, but my arms are so cold,
and I shake and I shake and I shake,
and come down, and come down.
You're scared you'll never come around,
that you just won't come down,
that you'll never shake this off,
'cause you don't know
the songs that David played,
but you want to learn them today.
How can you dream if you can't get to sleep?
If you can't slow your breathing?
If you can't seem to think?
I could help you dream
if I could only help you sleep.
Then you'd find your easy breathing
and you wouldn't have to think.
Maybe nobody ever let you scream,
not for joy or hate or anything.
And now it looks like you'll never chase your dreams,
'cause you just can't cope.
For you I've never done a single thing.
And you could never ask for what you need.
My car? My time? My cash? What shoud I bring
if you just can't cope?
This is a sound you haven't heard inside your head in a long time.
So let it soak into your bones, but it won't raise you from the dead.
But there is a hope for you to find this time.
If you're making a video and would like to use one of these songs without the vocals, email me at bradyhurlburt(at)gmail(dot)com
I used some really cool free software when putting this music together. I created one of the instruments in "King David's Songs" with ZynAddSub, a great open-source synthesizer. For Linux, Mac and Windows.
Also, all the songs were mastered using Jamin, an open-source mastering toolkit that runs on the JACK audio platform. For Linux only, sorry.
"Valley of the Bells" is the last of the Miroirs suite by French impressionist composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937).
Recorded by the fine folks of Arkansas Phi Mu Alpha.
with Drew Oglesby (beatboxist),
Justin Roark (vocals, I think. Maybe just laughing),
and Blake Abbott (very tolerant roommate).
October 2008
My friends all went on the Cru Fall Retreat and left me alone with Nathan's ukulele. Bad idea.
Drew gets back on Sunday and does his thing, we put some of it in reverse, and it's a wrap in a weekend.
Just one song about a girl is ok, right? Saturday, 7:30am, Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.
She's a heartbreaker but that's something that I've always known.
So why is it that I'm so sad to take her the home?
Such a sweet girl, and smart enought to never be owned...
I wish she weren't so as I'm taking her home.
But if this is not for me it's ok.
If there's nothing else for me it's ok.
So this year has been the toughest ever
but it's school and I really couldn't ask for better.
If I keep it up and get all the appropriate letters
Maybe grad school, and stay there forever.
I hope you have plans,
'Cause I've got schemes.
Maybe one day I'll learn and of you I'll dream.
I hope you have plans,
'Cause all I've got are schemes.
Maybe one day I'll learn and of you I'll dream.
Aren't things beautiful today?
With you two out there on your way?
You see I just figured this would be a good time to say
that he'll be with you as you go.
This place is wrapped with berry and light gold.
But brother, did you think we'd get this old?
And it just keeps happening, or so I'm told.
So come on and sing out.
You know you can't come down.
Not from this, not from this.
So come on and sing out.
You know you can't come down.
That's what I believe
And I would say I'm sad to see you go,
but as it turns out you've moved much closer to home.
So as we grow strong I hope we grow in heart.
We fight the same fight though many miles apart.
And we all need reminded right now from the start
that he'll be with us as we go.
as a part of The Silhouette People
in the form of Nathan Cook and Drew Oglesby
December 2007
This one and the next two were Christmas Break 07/08 projects, and so The Silhouette People was born.
See the metal silhouettes of dudes playing jazz in the picture? That's how we chose our name. It was a very "I love lamp" decision.
Your love is complete.
You give every kind of joy.
And in everything, you promise nothing less than perfect peace.
So with nothing to say, I'll give up my heart
'Cause with you its safe. So I guess just for a start
I'll say, "Your love is complete."
as a part of The Silhouette People
in the form of Nathan Cook and Drew Oglesby
December 2007
This song is a tribute to (ok, "parody of" might be closer to the truth) everyone's favorite country/pop/rock/pop band, Rascal Flatts.
I really shouldn't put the lyrics down there. The chorus intentionally means absolutely nothing.
I wanna work the land, you know that's the best.
Or so I've heard, 'cause I work at express.
I just wanna drive a big 'ole pickup truck,
'cause in my Taurus wagon I feel so stuck.
Oh won't you ride my open range?
Life goes by, it's time to change.
I went to PFI to buy a cowboy hat.
The salesman looked at me and said, "Son, don't know about that."
He said, "Why don't you lose that sweater for a start?"
So I looked him in the eye and said, "Dude, I'm a cowboy at heart!"
as a part of The Silhouette People
in the form of Nathan Cook and Drew Oglesby
December 2007
To contrast the last one...
Will this feel right when I have no place to rest my head?
You are my home, my place to rest instead.
My only one.
The only one I'll trust.
When she says I'm not worth it anymore.
In honesty my trust falls to the floor,
When it's not right there's nothing left in store.
But there's one thing just as perfect as before.
You stay the same,
you'll never change,
and you'll never, never, never fail!
You stay the same.
I got to spend a summer at the Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio. I lived in a cabin in the forest with three other guys, who were really cool.
One day, they came in with a low-grade hallucinogin called salvia, which was legal in Ohio at the time. They bought it at a place called Waterbeds'n Stuff.
One guy came out of his trip proclaiming "the musty stones!" These stones were important beyond expression, but he could not remember why.
Having no microphones in the cabin, I documented this event mostly by singing and playing into a pair of headphones.
I'm not gonna put the lyrics. At one point it's just nonsense words.
Ellipses
as a part of The Polka
with Michael Bollenbach and Natalie Hoffmann
2004-2007
Natalie, Michael and I starting leading worship for our youth group in Jr. High, and after years of that, we played in my basement
for no one but ourselves, my parents upstairs, and one microphone.
I'll rest in you arms. There's no one like you -- you are strong.
In quietness I trust you. You are God.
You long to be gracious to me, but I would have none of it.
You long to show me compassion, renew my strength.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail.
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail.
Thy mercies, how tender, how firm to the end,
Out maker, redeemer, defender and friend.
You are amazing, and I could never live without you.
Amazing to me.
You are amazing, and all I want is to give you glory.
Amazing to me.
We love you becuase you love us.
In Thee do we trust.
So much movement today. I duck I dodge I stay out of the way,
'cause when we move, we fight we hate we walk away.
Far from this I'll stay.
So God take your sun and put it right above my head
and let time stay still
so forever the only shadow is trampled
underneath my feet when you move in me.
Darkness, darkness why are you here?
Look at the stains on the wall - look what you've done!
You've stolen and you've killed
and the proof lies here extinguished on the floor.
And I'm exhausted and I don't know why ... don't lie to me!
Darkness why to you spin? Sit still! Stop screaming!
Oh, you've started spinning again.
Of course I feel bad. Out, out! damn spot!
Oh no, don't pin this on me,
oh, oh, let go of my feet.
You stay still!
Your sweet voice makes me cry,
and your power makes me shake.
The fear of you knocks me to the ground,
but your love for lifts me up again.
You rip my heart out to fill it up with love.
You grab me by the ear to whisper "it's alright."
You drill a hole in my head to give me the thing I need to know
You're a blinding white light, but I still want to see you.
I worry what I look like to other people,
but what's my heart look like to you?
I worry about never letting anybody down,
but how have I served you?
I worry about starting a fight that won't end,
but what about the grudges that you could hold against me?
Then I worry that you won't hear me.
We don't know what we're gonna be
or where we're gonna go.
But we know we'll be alright
'cause we'll be with you.
So do not be afraid, little flock:
he has given us everything we need.
So, let's lose all those fears
that are keeping us from loving him.
We'll be alright.
