Meet Brett Dean

We recently connected with Brett Dean and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brett, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Thank you for asking – I believe that my resilience comes a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic sources. I wish that I could attribute some of it to mere ignorance, but I feel that I’ve always had heaps of imposter syndrome in everything I do and I’m well aware of things that I could do better. My battle with my own mind and mental health is a constant dialogue of things I’m “doing wrong.” My resilience comes from having great models growing up. My mom was a nursing professor and prior to that she was a nurse in a hospital. When she wanted to be a leader she constantly had men telling her that she would never amount to anything. She set out to prove them wrong and to simply do what she loved which was help others and teach people how to help others. My dad also had an unconventional path. He went to school initially for chemistry, but was bitten by the acting and theater bug and changed course. He ended up meeting my mom, planting roots and becoming a funeral director. Yet, his true dream of directing and acting in shows he never gave up on, and he started a successful community theater group. They just named a town theater after him. So, I had resilient parents. I had great role models. I could see the tangible pay off for people that kept after their dreams. In that way, I’m very lucky and I think it has probably saved me a number of times throughout my life.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m Brett T. Dean. I’m a left-handed only child from a rural community within sight of the ‘Sears Tower’ in Chicago. I’m currently a band director at a large high school in suburban Chicago. I am the founder and bandleader of the Shout Section Big Band near Chicago, Illinois. I play trumpet in the band and program the concert material for Shout Section Big Band. Our band is hard to describe, but it has its own personality that really works. Here’s the mix I’d give for us: We’re a 50% traditional big band + 15% having fun with pop music in a swing style band (big band version of Post-Modern Jukebox), 25% revitalizing forgotten masterpieces of the great vocalists and arrangers like Billy May and Nelson Riddle, and 10% commissioning new arrangements to keep the art form moving forward. We’ve currently just started production on a new album with vocalist Tatum Langley from Post-Modern Jukebox. She started singing with our band just before being noticed by Scott Bradlee’s group. We put Tatum front and center in the new album, taking on the role of Peggy Lee or Ella Fitzgerald. But, the thing you can’t deny about classic records or our own recent effort is that the band swings hard and supports the vocalist. You can learn more about our new record at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-shout-section-big-bands-hot-new-album

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Three things that have helped me which jump to mind are, honestly, things that the educational system I work within is *just now* starting to take seriously. Grit is one. I have a healthy amount of grit that keeps me going even when all looks lost. My friends and family know that I will complain, I’ll emote, I’ll be as frustrated as the next person, but I know that I will keep going. The second thing is faith and a perspective of myself within the universe. I don’t think science and spirituality are mutually exclusive. I look to my faith for answers, and perhaps even questions to ask myself. I also realize that whether things ultimately turn out as I hope or not, I am a collection of atoms in an ever-expanding universe. I matter. The things I do matter. But the things which could shut me down and cause me to give up I can put into perspective. Finally, I’ve been blessed to have a good support system of family and friends. It’s not the largest family or friend circle, but I know where I can place my trust.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

I think a lot about perspective as I mentioned a little earlier. I’ve been interested in both science and religion for as long as I have been alive. I’ve always been a bit sad that many people have pitted these two against each other. I feel like they can both offer us some perspective to keep our lives in a positive place. I think about things with a positive growth mindset. I remind myself that, most likely, I am going to reach my goal, but I’m “in the difficult phase” at the moment and I will see things differently when the struggle is over. I also think a great deal about this quote from Steve Jobs: ”When you’re growing up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you’re life is just to live your life inside the world…
Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” He’s right. When I started by forming a Big Band in 2007, it was a ridiculous proposition that I should be “yet the next in line” to try and revitalize a music style that became financially (and some would say, musically) obsolete by the late 1950’s. Yet, I knew I had something to say that could give a new voice to music that people still love, but maybe had forgotten about. I have a theory that Big Band fans are like Star Wars fans: Everyone is one. There’s not much NOT to like. There’s something for everyone. People respond positively to it. There are more similarities. Now, not everyone dresses like a Wookie at conventions, and similarly not everyone starts a Big Band in 2007.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.shoutsection.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shoutsectionbigband/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shoutsection
• Twitter: @shoutsection
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bdean22881
• Other: Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-shout-section-big-bands-hot-new-album

Image Credits

Photos by: https://www.erindrewitz.com; & https://www.instagram.com/wannabestudiophoto/