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Brendan Maclean; a self promoting, social networking, broadcasting, writing and blogging singer and songwriter. Rude, uncouth, funny, opinionated and intelligent

I've been watching the rise of Brendan Maclean (or at least following him on twitter) with some interest since his indignant outbusts against the Jagermeister Independent Music Awards last year. After we announced the nominees for the awards he was the most vocal cyber-critic. His response ("if you have achieved success then you should not be considered independent") was well argued but certainly not what we believe. AIR is about the empowerment of small businesses and indpendent artists in the music industry. To disqualify them once they had achieved success is exactly what we weren't going to do.

Brendan has a gift of self promotion. He's one of our favourite tweeters, consistently politically incorrect, always with the cock jokes and always with comments littered with sarcasm. At the same time his empathy and connection with other people is tangible. It's clear the guy has both a wicked streak and a good heart. A compelling dude. I've never been keen on his Ukulele driven Lady Gaga covers on youtube... but there's a certain charm about his own dramatic pop originals.

Whether there's a place for his brand of indie-pop music on Australian radio is yet to be seen. It isn't the indie rock, the pub rock, the bangin dance, blues and roots or inoffensive folk balladry that dominates our airwaves. It doesn't have record label backing. It is 100% Independent. It is interesting in its structure, big in its hooks, building in its intensity before crescendoing to a rather stirring polyphonic jelly fight. Despite ourselves, we really, really like it.