BWW Exclusive: COME FROM AWAY's J. Breckenridge Previews Track from New Album- MONOTONY

Tomorrow, May 28, RED CARD RECORDS releases a new album, Monotony, from J. BRECKENRIDGE, the singer/songwriter and recording artist persona of noted stage and screen performer Josh Breckenridge. Monotony is available to pre-order today!

Breckenridge is known for his standout roles on Broadway and appearances on hit TV shows "The Blacklist" (CBS), "Blue Bloods" (NBC), and "FBI" (CBS). He will be part of the Apple Original Films live filming of the Tony Award-winning international hit musical Come from Away and will rejoin the cast when it returns to Broadway in September.

Breckenridge's passionate original songs - with their taut, expressive arrangements, emotional delivery, and fresh yet familiar melodies - call to mind influences as wide-ranging as the classic R&B of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Smokey Robinson to the current sounds of Bruno Mars, Michael Bublé, and John Legend. Sometimes mellow, often rhythmic, Breckenridge's music is always intelligent, sophisticated, and personal.

Below, he checks in with BroadwayWorld to tell us all about the album and to give us a sneak peek of one of the tracks, "That's The Beauty."

Congrats on doing something so incredible in such a crazy time! Can you talk about where the inspiration came from and how you went about putting it together?

My great friend Tamika Lawrence said to me one day "why aren't you writing?!" I replied "I don't know." The End.

But seriously, encouragement and support from friends and family played a huge part in getting the motivation motor going. The key has always been in the ignition, but until this moment in time I had never cranked the baby up. At the top of the Broadway shutdown I made a choice. I could fill my time with getting that long awaited degree in interior design, or pursue the childhood pipe dream of making a record. The pencil to page decided that for me as in just a couple months into the pandemic I had 15 new songs written! I was inspired, in the flow and incredibly blessed with a chain of events, angels and opportunities that led to a debut album dream come true.

Upon posting some plucked out demos on my ukulele I grabbed the attention of some friends with the music connections and the means and before I knew it I had a producer, musicians (including four of my incredible "Come From Away" Broadway colleagues) a marketing manager, PR, basically a dream team to bring J. Breckenridge to life! Of course we faced plenty of pandemic influenced challenges along the way (recording the bulk of the record remotely in a motorhome in my parents driveway was one), but overall it's been an incredibly blessed and bountiful journey.

I understand that the sound of your music crosses a lot of genres. How do you describe it and how did you find that sound?

Chamber-pop-soul is what we've termed my sound. It's the kind of record y0u're gonna wanna lay back and groove to from top to bottom. I found that with my west coast roots, my theatrical history, and my love for soulful, tight harmonies my music sort of took on its own all-inclusive vibe that speaks truly to who I am as an artist and individual. The live instrumentation and doo wop nature of some of the record also lends to that Chamber-pop-soul description.

Each song was birthed out of this Covid-19 coma we've been in and thus each represents a color or shade of an emotional state lived by me in my own little west side of Harlem Breckenridge bubble.

It's dark, and light and in between. It's a splash of emotional states speckled on the "Monotonous" canvas that Covid provided.

What has been the most rewarding part of putting this album together?

Oh man. There's nothing like putting your own creations out there in the world. I have no children at this point in life so in a way they kinda feel like my babies lol. A body of work released to the masses for all to listen to (and judge)!

Being able to perform and create my OWN stories for once has been absolutely rewarding. As Broadway actor I tell someone else's tale eight times a week. Now listeners get to hear and immerse themselves not only in J. Breckenridge the storyteller, but in his own specific musicalized and intimate truths.

Plus I'd say hearing folks hum your tunes habitually is a pretty mind-blowing and rewarding thing to witness!

Check out "That's the Beauty" below!