Brian DeRemer has had quite a year. Back in December 2010, City Pages reported on the decidedly grinch-like Christmas Eve break-in of Eric Lovold’s home studio, which housed various pieces of expensive equipment, instruments, and technology — not the least of which was the hard drive holding the only copy of DeRemer’s recordings for his debut solo album. For DeRemer, the burglary meant more than material costs — it was also the steely loss of valuable time spent away from family on a powerfully personal project. There was never any doubt, though, on DeRemer’s part: This album was his baby, and he would remake it, whatever it took. Fourteen months later, DeRemer can stand confidently, a recovered man, holding Dusty Songs for Children of The Modern Age like the golden miracle material it is.
People always want to put musicians in careful boxes with lots of hyphenated names to demonstrate their multi-genre style, and in that fashion, you could probably call DeRemer an indie folk-rock singer-songwriter. If you were boring, and didn’t really listen to his music, that is. Simply put, DeRemer is in a category all his own.