Jerad MacLean &mdash singer, songwriter, guitarist, arranger, producer and performer. His music has been described as adult contemporary and new folk/contemporary folk, yet he can rock equally well with his own brand of high-energy songs. His approach to writing and studio recording have been influenced by artists like James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, Jackson Browne, Shawn Colvin, Joni Mitchell, Mark Cohn, Kenny Loggins, Sting, Don Henley, Paul Simon, The Beatles, and many others.
Jerad was born in Michigan and raised in a small town with 4 brothers on the west central coast of the state. By age 12 he showed a keen interest in folk and popular music. His mother remembered she had an old Washburn guitar stored in his grandmother's attic. Once he got it in his hands, he never stopped singing and playing guitar.
In college, he studied English, literature, writing and art and graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. During his college years, he embraced his love for music and was a member of a popular folk band that played coffee houses and clubs across southern Michigan. After college, he became a founding member of a band that toured the state performing original songs and arrangements of favorites from a wide range of genres. They became an opening act to audiences of 10,000+ for name artists like the Steve Miller Band during their time together.
Eventually, Jerad went solo and started concentrating on his song writing and studio recordings. After touring Michigan as an acoustic solo artist and producing innumerable studio recordings, he moved to California to play and shop his music to publishers and producers. After four years of performing in southern California and the Bay Area, he returned to Michigan to fulfill performing contracts there.
After two years of playing again in his home state, he wrote and produced a series of demos which he took to Los Angeles to pitch to the industry. Also an accomplished graphic designer, he eventually landed in the Bay Area again, where he took a break from the music industry to work as an art director and senior graphic designer for the world's largest international trade association for the semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley.
But his passion always remained with his music. He became inspired by the new acoustic movement and recordings being released by his favorite artists. He left his graphic design career in Silicon Valley and dove headlong into writing and recording what was to be his first self-produced CD entitled "When We Meet Again". This recording project also included songs he wrote during his travels from experiences that influenced his life and muse.
Jerad currently lives in the countryside near Santa Cruz, California, where he is finishing songs he will be including on his next CD project. He travels between Santa Cruz and his other adopted home of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he's been frequenting since 1988. In the summer of 2009 he went back to Santa Fe to film his new video "Moon Over Santa Fe" for the Santa Fe 400th Anniversary, currently being celebrated. For this special occasion, a new remix of that song (from his first CD) will be included on the Moon Over Santa Fe DVD as an additional soundtrack to the video, along with a video version with the original studio recording from his CD "When We Meet Again".
