Brian Castillo

Brian Castillo (born November 22, 1968) is an American musician/producer, and photographer born in Tacoma, Washington. Best known for his work with The Living Jarboe and In Gowan Ring, sometimes in a musician role and sometimes as a producer/engineer. In the 1990s he sometimes recorded under the name pFrenz-C, but he no longer uses the pseudonym.

After moving to Seattle in the early 1990s he was involved in a variety of different groups with no particular style in common: Prayers for the Raven (Seattle’s seminal goth band), Hooo (texture noise), Rosa Luna (i.e. Mazzy Star, Low), Salon Betty (punk-polka-death lounge spearheaded by Betty X), Absinthee (with Gordon Raphael of The Strokes fame & Sky Cries Mary), Faith and Disease (ethereal pop), Euclid (Americana), Purr Bats (disco fluff), Shadow Light (synthy-goth) and several psychedelic performance art groups.

The risqué performances of Salon Betty were often referred to as “The Big Hair Sex Circus” and offered a sharp contrast to Seattle’s “grunge” scene at the time. While working with iMusic they created the internet’s first “interactive paper-doll” and started an early internet reality show in 1996 called “The Surreal World” winning awards for their work.

In the late 1990s Brian began recording and co-producing with Jarboe. Their first collaborative project together was for the compilation on Vhuz music called “Vomit Veritas” and later on Jarboe’s first post-SWANS recording “Anhedoniac”. He has also recorded and appeared on many of Jarboe's compilation contributions and a few of her other albums.

As of 2009, Brian started producing video motion graphics, animation and stop motion work.

Some of Brian’s soundtrack work can be heard on the films “Debbie Does Damnation” by Eric Brummer, “Children of Chernobyl” on PBS, “Scratch Merchants” by Patrick Phillips, and “In Your Blood” by Jeffro Brunk.

Brian continues to compose, record and animate in Olympia, Washington. The first Waterwitch album was released in July 2009 with Elizabeth Hummel. Both Elizabeth and Brian made a small appearance on the new album "Sweet Meat Love and Holy Cult" by Jarboe, her new psycho-hippy project.

Discography

Albums and EPs

External links

• Co-composition with Elizabeth Hummel
• Jarboe's home page
• In Gowan Ring Official site
• produces for E.Hummel
• Purr Bats Official website