Peter Broderick is one of those artists who has such a wide range of things he does. At times his music is reminiscent of the more ambient aspects of Aphex Twin; at other times he has kind of a weird version of a Ben Folds vibe going.
But one thing that has never varied is his creativity. I actually became familiar with Broderick through his photography on Flickr (which sadly he doesn’t really keep up with anymore), and discovered his music through that channel. He has made so many different kinds of albums, so I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise that his most recent effort is a semi-interactive multimedia online album called It Starts Hear.
You really have to see this album/site to believe it, and then you’ll wonder why every artist isn’t doing this. There’s just the right amount of interaction – you don’t actually have to do anything, but you’re encouraged to click around and read and watch some videos in addition to listening to the songs. It’s engaging without being too in-your-face, and Broderick comes across as intelligent and funny as well as talented.
It’s also nice to dig into the various parts of the site and discover new things every time, and Broderick encourages feedback by allowing visitors to send him text, videos, photos, or even songs in response. He really seems to love connecting with his audience, and he frequently uses fan feedback to help determine where he goes next in musical terms, so here’s hoping there will be another interactive site-album coming up based on ideas fans have sent him.