Brainium Sounds Off
Local band Brainium tells stories about playing live (anywhere from bars to parking lots), recording music starting in the 80s (cassette tape) through today (DAW), their eventually-to-be-released stage musical, and more. Self-described (in the song “Our Kind of Town”) as “Two guys in disguise as a pseudointellectual music machine” Brainium is guitarist (and much more) Thom Ciezki and keyboardist (and much less) Gary Schmid. Both (especially Thom) have played in other local bands but only Brainium has endured through the decades. Weird, witty, and rarely dull, hear stories about music-making from local guys who haven’t made it big (yet) but have had a great time getting...nowhere. “Oh, that magic feeling...”
Episodes

14 hours ago
Live drummer vs. drum machine
14 hours ago
14 hours ago
Brainium, as a two-man band, used a drum machine both in recording sessions and live gigs. But we've also played with live drummers. What's the difference?

Friday Apr 11, 2025
Fronting a Band
Friday Apr 11, 2025
Friday Apr 11, 2025
Being on stage looks fun (and it usually is) but someone in the band needs to manage the performance and interact with the crowd. (Even if it's a small one.) The Boys of Brainium discuss what it's like to do the job (not always well) in a local band.

Friday Mar 28, 2025
Playing Live vs. Studio
Friday Mar 28, 2025
Friday Mar 28, 2025
Sometimes bands play live, sometimes in a studio. (And with Brainium, sometimes "live" to tape in a basement with no audience.) What's the difference? Plenty, actually. The Boys of Brainium (especially Thom) discuss their own experiences with playing live vs. the studio.

Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
The Marquis: Brainium's legendary "other" guitar
Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
While Thom's Fender Strat provided almost all of the guitar sounds for Brainium (to date), another guitar shows up now and then played by Gary--the keyboard player who can't really play guitar (or keyboards, but that's another story). It's old and cheap (like Brainium?) but recently had some work done (unlike Brainium) so it seemed like a good time to showcase this obscure instrument.

Friday Feb 28, 2025
Song Origins: Our Kind of Town
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Another in our series discussing the origins of specific Brainium songs. This one might be considered the band's "anthem" as it includes "Brainium" in the lyrics. (It also includes "pseudointellectual" but that's irrelevant.) A snippet from this song is the outro for our podcast episodes. Now you can hear the whole thing!

Friday Feb 14, 2025
Running Sound
Friday Feb 14, 2025
Friday Feb 14, 2025
Big, successful bands have crews of sound people setting everything up and making sure it all sounds good during the performance. Most bands don't have that luxury. Brainium didn't. (Not yet, anyway.) So how do other bands (like Brainium) run their sound?

Friday Jan 31, 2025

Friday Jan 17, 2025
When Things Went Wrong
Friday Jan 17, 2025
Friday Jan 17, 2025
Believe it or not, things don't always go as planned during a gig. Shocking, right? In this episode, the boys of Brainium tell stories of some of their "uh oh" incidents. Unsurprisingly, this episode ran a little long even though we only hit the highlights (or lowlights) at Brainium and non-Brainium gigs.