Kathleen Brennan

Brennan was born in Cork, Ireland and grew up in Johnsburg, Illinois.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o4XWlQ4sTTIC&pg=PT199|page=199|title=The Many Lives of Tom Waits

|author= Patrick Humphries|publisher=Omnibus Press|date= 17 Dec 2009|isbn=9780857121257}} Brennan and her husband Tom Waits first met in 1978 on the set of Paradise Alley, where Brennan was a scriptwriter and Waits was making his acting debut.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/oct/29/popandrock1|title=Off beat|last=O'Hagan|first=Interview by Sean|date=October 28, 2006|work=The Guardian|access-date=August 11, 2017|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} They met again during production of the Francis Ford Coppola film One from the Heart.{{Cite book |last=Maher |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fzDBAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22kathleen+brennan%22+songwriting&pg=PT212 |title=Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters |date=2011-11-01 |publisher=Aurum |isbn=978-1-84513-827-1 |language=en}} At the time, Brennan worked at the American Zoetrope studio as a script analyst, while Waits composed the score for One from the Heart.{{cite book |editor1-last=Montandon |editor1-first=Mac |title=Innocent When You Dream: Tom Waits, The Collected Interviews |date=2007 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-0752881263 |page=257 |url=https://archive.org/details/innocentwhenyoud0000unse_q8r9/mode/2up?q=Zoetrope |access-date=4 December 2022 |quote=Waits and Brennan met in 1980. He was in a small office at Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope studios, working on the score for One from the Heart. She was a script editor at Zoetrope. He was listening to Captain Beefheart, Howlin' Wolf, and Ethiopian music. She encouraged him to take more risks in his writing—to, Waits says, "distort the world." After they were married, Waits made Swordfishtrombones.}} According to Waits, they met on New Year's Eve.{{cite book |editor1-last=Montandon |editor1-first=Mac |title=Innocent When You Dream: Tom Waits, The Collected Interviews |date=2007 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-0752881263 |page=341 |url=https://archive.org/details/innocentwhenyoud0000unse_q8r9/page/340/mode/2up?q=341 |quote=He insists that she's the truly creative force in the relationship, the feral influence who challenges his "pragmatic" limitations and stirs intrigue into all their music. ("She has dreams like Hieronymus Bosch . . . She'll start talking in tongues and I'll take it all down.") He says, "she speaks to my subtext, not my context." He claims she has expanded his vision so enormously as an artist that he can hardly bear to listen to any of the music he wrote before they met.}}

Waits dedicated his 1980 song "Jersey Girl" to Brennan,{{Cite book |last1=Margotin |first1=Philippe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2mDfDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22kathleen+brennan%22+songwriting&pg=PT307 |title=Bruce Springsteen: All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track |last2=Guesdon |first2=Jean-Michel |date=2020-10-06 |publisher=Octopus |isbn=978-1-78472-725-3 |language=en}} and they were married later that year in the Always Forever Wedding Chapel.{{cite book |editor1-last=Montandon |editor1-first=Mac |title=Innocent When You Dream: Tom Waits, The Collected Interviews |date=2007 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-0752881263|url=https://archive.org/details/innocentwhenyoud0000unse_q8r9/mode/2up}} After they married, Brennan encouraged Waits to become his own producer.{{Cite news |date=May 5, 2002 |title=MUSIC; A Poet of Outcasts Who's Come Inside: Music |work=The New York Times |via=ProQuest}}

Brennan is generally regarded as the catalyst for Waits' shift towards more experimental sound{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Tom |title=How Tom Waits' wife revolutionised his musical style |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/tom-waits-wife-revolutionised-musical-style/ |access-date=4 December 2022 |work=Far Out |date=February 14, 2022}}{{cite news |last1=Waldburger |first1=Marc |title=The Quietus Looks Back At Tom Waits' illustrious career |url=https://thequietus.com/articles/00220-the-strange-and-frightening-world-of-tom-waits |access-date=4 December 2022 |work=The Quietus |date=July 28, 2008}} beginning with the 1983 album Swordfishtrombones,{{cite web |url= http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/waits-02.php |title=Robert Christgau: Effective but Defective: Tom Waits |author=Robert Christgau |work=robertchristgau.com |date=July 9, 2002 |access-date=March 28, 2013}}{{Cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Kurt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bAtTAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22kathleen+brennan%22+songwriting&pg=PT91 |title=Why Love Will Always Be a Poor Investment: Marriage and Consumer Culture |date=2011-01-01 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-62189-233-5 |language=en}} which Waits produced on a dare from Brennan. Her first co-writing credit appears on Rain Dogs in 1985 for "Hang Down Your Head", and by 1992 she was his main producer and song-writing partner. She introduced Waits to the music of Captain Beefheart.{{cite magazine |url=http://tomwaitslibrary.info/biography/interviews/the-mojo-interview-tom-waits-speaks/ |author=Sylvie Simmons |date=September 2004 |title=The Mojo Interview: Tom Waits Speaks |magazine=Mojo Magazine}} Her work includes co-writing and collaboration on the albums Franks Wild Years (1987),{{cite news |title=Frank's Wild Years - Chicago Creative Team |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/shows/creative.php?showid=8234 |access-date=4 December 2022 |work=BroadwayWorld}}{{cite magazine |last1=Hochman |first1=Steve |title=Frank's Wild Years |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/franks-wild-years-251402/ |access-date=4 December 2022 |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=October 8, 1987}} Alice (2002), and Blood Money (2002), as well as the musicals The Black Rider (1989) and Woyzeck (2000).{{cite news |last1=Major |first1=Michael |title=Tom Waits Releases 'Alice' & 'Blood Money' Re-Issues This Friday |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Tom-Waits-Releases-Alice-Blood-Money-Re-Issues-This-Friday-20221004 |access-date=4 December 2022 |work=BroadwayWorld |date=October 4, 2022}}{{cite news |last1=Yates |first1=Maggie |title=Review: WOYZECK Burns with Tragic Inevitability |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/santa-barbara/article/BWW-Review-WOYZECK-Burns-with-Tragic-Inevitability-20150424 |access-date=4 December 2022 |work=BroadwayWorld |date=April 24, 2015}}

Waits has described Brennan as "a remarkable collaborator.... She's bold, inventive and fearless. That's who you wanna go in the woods with, right? Somebody who finishes your sentences for you."{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070813192345/http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/quotes-kathleen.html Tom Waits Library – Biography – Quotes]}} Waits has also said: "She doesn't like the limelight, but she's an incandescent presence on all songs we work on together."{{cite web|url=http://www.msopr.com/mso/waits-qanda.html|work=www.msopr.com|publisher=Mitch Schneider Organisation |author=Rip Rense|title=A Q&A About Mule Variations|date=Jan 1999}} In 2008, Waits described their collaboration as "one person holds the nail and the other one swings the hammer".{{Cite book |last=Brackett |first=Donald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0aRzCgAAQBAJ&dq=%22kathleen+brennan%22+songwriting&pg=PA79 |title=Dark Mirror: The Pathology of the Singer-Songwriter: The Pathology of the Singer-Songwriter |date=2008-09-30 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-275-99899-8 |pages=79 |language=en}} In 2020, Brennan described Waits' songs as either "grim reapers" or "grand weepers".{{Cite news |last=Waterman |first=Cole |date=November 17, 2020 |title=Between the Grooves: Tom Waits - 'Bone Machine' |work=PopMatters; Evanston |via=ProQuest}}

In 2023, Waits and Brennan oversaw reissues of remastered versions of Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Frank's Wild Years, Bone Machine, and The Black Rider.{{Cite web |date=2023-07-12 |title=Tom Waits Reissuing His Studio Albums From 1983 to 1993 |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/tom-waits-reissuing-his-studio-albums-from-1983-to-1993/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}} The remasters used original master tapes{{Cite web |date=2023-07-14 |title=Tom Waits reissues "The Island Years," five remastered albums |url=https://xpn.org/2023/07/14/tom-waits-the-island-years/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=WXPN {{!}} Vinyl At Heart |language=en}} and were marketed as "The Island Years", because they were originally released on Island Records.{{Cite web |title=The Island Years: Remastered for release on vinyl, CD, and digital |url=http://www.tomwaits.com/news/article/309/The_Island_Years_Remastered_for_release_on_vinyl_CD_and_digital |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Tom Waits |language=en}}

In 2015, Brennan and Waits were honored as part of the This Is Dedicated: Music's Greatest Marriages show by Jarrod Spector and Kelli Barrett.{{cite news |last1=Cohen |first1=Alix |title=Review: Married Broadway Stars Jarrod Spector & Kelli Barrett Rock the Roof Off Feinstein's/54 Below with Celebration of MUSIC's GREATEST MARRIAGES |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/cabaret/article/BWW-Review-Married-Broadway-Stars-Jarrod-Spector-Kelli-Barrett-Rock-the-Roof-Off-Feinsteins54-Below-with-Celebration-of-MUSICs-GREATEST-MARRIAGES-20151022 |access-date=4 December 2022 |work=BroadwayWorld |date=October 22, 2015}}

In 2016, Brennan was honored, along with Waits and John Prine, at The Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Awards from PEN New England.{{cite magazine |title=Tom Waits, Wife Kathleen Brennan and John Prine to Be Honored With Songwriting Award |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/tom-waits-john-prine-song-lyrics-literary-excellence-awards-7511287/#! |access-date=4 December 2022 |magazine=Billboard |via=Associated Press |date=September 19, 2016}}{{cite news |last1=Marcelo |first1=Philip |title=Tom Waits, John Prine, Kathleen Brennan Receive Songwriting Awards |url=https://www.kqed.org/arts/12095101/tom-waits-john-prine-kathleen-brennan-receive-songwriting-awards |access-date=4 December 2022 |work=KQED |agency=Associated Press |date=September 20, 2016}} The event was hosted by the JFK Library; during the event Colum McCann honored the creative partnership of Brennan and Waits, stating, "The world as we have it is their lucky anthem. They fling it open with their lives and a few strings and a voice that was somehow scratched by heaven.".{{Cite web |last=Shanahan |first=Mark |date=September 19, 2016 |title=John Prine, Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan honored for songwriting at star-studded event at JFK library - The Boston Globe |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/names/2016/09/19/johnprine-and-tom-waits-and-wife-kathleen-brennan-celebrated-for-their-song-lyrics/2i3f2NSAWPU8uAb75SV6nO/story.html |access-date=2022-11-28 |website=BostonGlobe.com |language=en-US}}

Brennan and Waits live in northern California and have three children.{{cite web |url= http://www.nndb.com/people/094/000024022/ |title=Tom Waits |work=nndb.com |year=2012 |access-date=March 28, 2013}}

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Category:1955 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Johnsburg, Illinois

Category:American women composers

Category:Record producers from Illinois

Category:Songwriters from Illinois

Category:21st-century American women painters

Category:21st-century American painters

Category:American women record producers