Category Archives: Extracurricular Activities

Free Tinker Bell 3 sneak-preview screenings nationwide this weekend

In case you’d like to check out this direct-to-DVD movie, TINKER BELL & THE GREAT FAIRY RESCUE, on the big screen…
Once again, Bren and Val have 1 1/2 songs in this film, just like in last year’s TINKER BELL & THE LOST TREASURE: for this year’s film (the third in the Tink series), we wrote [...]

Walking Long Distances to Write Better Songs

Val and I live in greater Los Angeles, California. There are a lot of cars. Cars are, you might say, necessary to the economy and to a life in LA.
Recently, I found myself mysteriously without either a car or a bike. Millie Van Lily, our aging yet functional monstrous van, was on its way to [...]

WC Demo #5: Standing In The Shadow.

This week’s song is about a guy who discovers too late that he’s lost his chance with a girl he used to date. It’s my hope that this song will become part of our live set with Gene singing lead…but in the meantime, this demo has me singing lead and Val playing the role of [...]

WC Demo #4: I Want You For Real

When I was in high school, it became clear to me that I needed to get my hands on a Nintendo Entertainment System. It had the best games available, games that played pretty much exactly the same as they did in the arcades. I finally saved up and bought one, and many hours were wasted [...]

WC Demo #3: Crazy For You.

Take a listen at the link directly below this sentence, and download a copy if you like (and throw the band a little cash).

A couple of years ago, our manager Ben asked us if we might want to submit a spec song for inclusion on the soundtrack (and perhaps in the film) of an upcoming [...]

WC Demo #2: That Technique.

Take a listen at the link directly below this sentence, and download a copy if you like (and throw the band a little cash).

This week, it’s a song intended for a young female singer–maybe late teens, early 20’s–who is trying to maintain a reasonably “nice girl” image, and yet find her own identity. And rock [...]

Softball … and wheelhouse

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the suburbs.  Early April.  The time when every self-respecting suburban dad’s mind turns to … well … softball.

WC Demo #1: Up, Up, and Away.

If you want to simply hear the song, dive right in with the play button beneath this sentence.

If you like it, do us a favor and buy a download in the format of your choice (including FLAC for all you audiofile geeks). The money goes straight to us, not to Apple or Real Networks or [...]

A Val + Bren (+ Joel McNeely) Song at Carnegie Hall Fri Mar 12

We wish we could be there…for the first time ever, one of our songs is going to be performed at Carnegie Hall!
Méav Ni Mhaolchatha will be singing “Where the Sunbeams Play,” a closing-credits song for the movie TINKER BELL AND THE LOST TREASURE that we wrote with brilliant composer and great guy Joel McNeely. Méav [...]

Val & Bren to play Kennedy Center “Broadway: Today & Tomorrow” Series Feb 13, Millennium Stage

Michael Kerker and the fine folks at ASCAP are presenting a week-long series of free performances at Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, and have given Val and Brendan the final one-hour concert slot: Saturday, February 13 at 6 PM. The two of us will be playing a bunch of songs from a bunch of [...]