| Dan Braun | |
|---|---|
Braun signing copies of the relaunched Creepy and Eerie at the Dark Horse Comics booth at the 2011 New York Comic Con. |
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| Background information | |
| Occupations | Musician, artist, movie producer |
| Notable instruments | |
| Drums | |
Dan Braun (born May 1961) is a musician, composer, writer, editor, art director, and film producer.
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Dan Braun and his twin brother Josh started several punk bands in high school in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, including Platinum Hardcore and Hack Ptooey. Their first real band was called Spinal Root Gang. Other members included Trey Sabatelli, Karen Fish, Janis Krasnow, Madonna Ciccone and their father, Saul Braun. Braun moved to New York City in 1979. Josh followed shortly thereafter, and they started the post-punk/no wave band Circus Mort with Rick Oller and Michael Gira, who later went on to form the Swans.
After recording one EP on Labor Records in 1981, Circus Mort broke up. Braun joined with Gira in the Swans for a short stint in 1982, and was on the album Body to Body, Job to Job (1991). He then went on to play with a myriad of New York bands and musicians including DNA co-founder Robin Crutchfield, performance artist Julia Heyward, and composer Pat Irwin. Dan and Josh then joined The Del-Byzanteens; Dan played drums. Other members of the band were Phil Kline and soon to be film director Jim Jarmusch. They recorded one album, Lies to Live By, and one 45 single, "Draft Riot". Braun also toured and recorded with avant garde/no wave composer Glenn Branca on his Symphony #5. Dan and Josh formed their own band in 1982 called Deep Six with Rick Oller, Trey Sabitelli, and Tony Braun, their younger brother. The band recorded one album, Garage D'or, on Twin Tone/Coyote Records in 1987 and released one single on #1 Records, "Pretty White/Looking for a Reason", in 1993. Braun played with producer Lefferts Brown in a band called Radio Firefight. Braun replaced Jules Baptiste from Red Decade on bass. The line-up was Braun on Vox bass and Lefferts on ARP 2500. The band played only two shows—one at the top floor of Danceteria and the other at the Speed Trials. [1]
While still pursuing his musical career, Braun became a graphic designer–art director in the advertising business. One of his more banal early freelance assignments was a logo for Bed Bath & Beyond. Braun then ran the graphics division of TBWA Worldwide. Successes there include an advertising campaign for Absolut Vodka, for which he sold nine ads. Braun took over the creative duties on the prestigious account. He won several awards that year, including the Art Directors Club Award. Braun worked on the brand for five more years and continued to win awards and help push the ad campaign into new territories, including the internet. He worked on "Absolut DJ", a custom online application that let consumers create "visual music" and interact with musical theorists like DJ Spooky and Coldcut.
In 1998, Braun and two partners launched their own company, Submarine, which was called a "convergence programming studio". The first project was "Absolut Director", a project that let users create their own rescripted movies online. Spike Lee, Mary Harron, and Chris Smith were three of the directors who participated. The site won advertising and web design awards and was written up in the Daily News and USA Today.[2][3][4]
Submarine Entertainment, formed in 2001, expanded the entertainment activities of the company and reunited Braun and Josh as working partners. Submarine Entertainment represents, produces, and develops feature films and documentaries. The company has represented and sold for distribution a long list of successful films, including Man on Wire, Control Room, Soul Power, Kill Your Idols, Shadow Billionaire, Cropsey, Super Size Me, Spellbound, DIG!, Baghead, The Cove, The Eclipse, Bulletproof Salesman, Of All the Things, Tiny Furniture, House of the Devil, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Smash His Camera, LA Mission, Mystery Team, Thundersoul, and Dark Mirror. Variety listed Submarine Entertainment as one of the top film reps in the business.[5][6]
Braun executive-produced the Palm Pictures released film Kill Your Idols in 2006, which won best New York documentary at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. Also seen at the Tribeca Film Festival was Blank City, a film about 1970s expermental and no-wave filmmakers. The film Gravity, about base jumping, was released in 2010, produced in association with Alex Gibney. Braun also produces and created the Instant Talk Show (instanttalkshow.com) with host Nick Scoullar. Braun is currently working on a documentary on free jazz with filmmaker Tom Surgal.[7]
In 2001 Braun, Josh, Craig Haffner, and Rick Brookwell started pursuing the acquisition of the classic horror comic magazine properties Creepy and Eerie. After a protracted seven-year negotiation between Braun and the original publisher, Jim Warren, the group formed New Comic Company to hold the rights to the newly-acquired horror and science fiction library. Braun contacted publisher Mike Richardson at Dark Horse Comics and worked out a partnership/license deal to release hardback compilations of the entire 246-issue run of Creepy and Eerie. The first Creepy Archive #1 was released in 2008. Braun collaborated on the editorial chores with Shawna Gore from Dark Horse. Eerie Archive #1 was released in March 2009. it made #2 on the New York Times Bestsellers list for graphic novels.[8] In 2009, Braun and Gore won the Eisner Award for Best Archival Collection - Comic Books for their work on the Creepy Archives.[9]
In July 2009, an all-new biannual Creepy comic was released, with classic artist Bernie Wrightson and Mad Magazine artist Angelo Torres, who was brought in to illustrate Braun's story "Hell Hound Blues" in issue #1. Modern writers, creators, and artists like Jason Shawn Alexander, Doug Moench, Joe Lansdale, and Joe Harris are contributing to the series. The covers are painted by Goon artist Eric Powell. Braun takes the role of consulting editor on the series. Issues #2 and #3 feature Nick Cuti, Kevin Ferrara, Nathan Fox, and classic pulp cover artist Chuck Pyle.[10][11][12][13]
Creepy development for movies, television, gaming, animation, licensing, and internet is ongoing.[8][14]
Braun writes, records, and produces music under the name "The Dan Braun Experience". The DBExperience had a song included on the soundtrack of the documentary on Jean-Michel Basquiat, titled Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, released in 2010. The song, titled "Dirty Windows", was written in 1987 but not recorded until 2002.