BRIAN MCTERNAN
In today’s world, not many can hold the title of “legendary,” and yet be so underrated to the many who are obsessive over their work. Many of us who (and still do) raved, melted, and connected so deeply with the emo, hardcore, punk, and rock bands really have one major person to thank outside of the artists themselves - and that person is Brian McTernan.
Brian McTernan is a producer + musician based in Maryland, and is well known for the countless of contributions he produced throughout the 1990’s to present, within the hardcore + punk rock music genre. McTernan’s story began when he was 18. He had a passion for music, and a talent to go along with it. He decided to set up shop, opening a recording studio he called, “Salad Days.” Like all legends do, he built up the credibility and talent of his studio, proving to be one of the most frequented studios by the hardcore + punk rock artists. Many bands traveled up, and down, and around the world to Baltimore, Maryland to have a chance to work with McTernan. Bands that include Circa Survive, Thrice, Turnstile, and Hot Water Music just to name a few.
Despite the excitement, and the major elevated status, McTernan began to burn out. For no reason at all, and yet all of the reasons, McTernan decided a change needed to occur. Listening to what he felt to be true, he closed up shop, and sold everything that had essentially become a second home for him.
“Once you start to hit your thirties, you do start to feel a little more susceptible to the idea that maybe I'm supposed to do something else”
Without even fully realizing the nature behind what many would consider “radical” choices, McTernan trusted his gut, and determined he needed to find a slower pace of living. For what, he didn’t know. Until he did.
McTernan landed a job as a construction project manager, and the thread began to unravel. McTernan was being influenced to find himself. For five years he worked a more mundane (albeit busy) position. Throughout the experience, he became cognizant of the amount of emotional struggles he had bottled up + shoved deep down. No longer able to hide from what was relentlessly surfacing up within, he found he could not ignore the inner turmoil, and had to come face to face with his thoughts + feelings: thoughts + feelings that he essentially had been shoving away throughout his life.
Confrontation with the self is one of the more harder things to do in this life. Many will go their entire lives avoiding it, and can potentially find themselves at the end of their road, regretful, and/or full of shame. When we refuse to come face to face with our own thoughts, emotions, feelings, and drives, we become shadows of ourselves, and happiness is rarely just around the corner. Often it is only the strongest who’ll succeed in aligning with their nature, even if it means radical decisions, all made in the name of self-love and respect, and that’s exactly what McTernan did.
He became fully aware that he had been utilizing music + his career to disguise the conflictions that he had been experiencing within. They were now demanding attention, and McTernan was ready to give them just that.
McTernan also began to recognize that while initially used for a form of disguise, there was also a healing aspect to music that was heavily impactful on him. He missed it. So, after much decision, he chose and allowed himself to go back to producing and playing - under one condition: he would have a new approach. An approach that would allow him the space and time to deal with the daily antics life sends to everyone.
He learned to confront his issues while doing what he loved most. Leading him to his current life where McTernan is producing and performing with a new group of mental + hardcore veterans, Be Well.
