Brendan Maclean

Brendan Maclean is an Australian ARIA award nominated musician and film actor.

In 2007 Maclean began independently releasing music under his own name with the song "Airport People". The song, which featured the nineteen year old accompanying himself on piano, went on to win both the Australian National Youth Week Industry award and The People's Choice award for Songwriting in 2008. His first release, a homemade demo titled Prose from Pluto, came out in 2008 and included the above song. It no longer appears to be in print or online.

Maclean's debut studio EP, White Canvas was released on iTunes in March 2010. Despite not officially charting, the film clip for its first single "Practically Wasted" won nine awards in the 2011 Queensland New Film Awards. The follow up single, "Cold and Happy", was selected as Channel V's Ripe Clip of The Week and placed 8th in Rage's Top 10 videos of 2011.

In January 2014 he released his third EP, Population, produced by Paul Mac. The record gained traction with the song's video for the single, "Stupid", being featured by BuzzFeed coupled with a successful crowd funding campaign which earned over AU$20,000. In May 2014, "Stupid" was featured as the Weather on Welcome to Night Vale, in episode 47, "Company Picnic," soon after this Maclean was signed to the Universal Music Publishing Group as a songwriter.

May 2015 saw the release of Maclean's fourth independently-released EP, entitled Thought I'd Cry for You Forever. The EP features an original spoken word piece from author Neil Gaiman. It was released exclusively through Bandcamp.

Brendan's fifth EP funbang1 was released on 24 July 2016 featuring the singles Tectonic, Free To Love and House of Air. All three singles were co-written by former Cobra Starship member Alex Suarez. It also features Amanda Palmer in the dance-schtick track "On The Door." A remixed version of the Amanda Palmer collaboration was released featuring cameos from Ben Folds, Sarah Silverman, Eugene Mirman and Reggie Watts.

In 2016 Maclean was nominated for an ARIA Award for his work with Marcia Hines and Joe Accaria on the Velvet Original Cast Soundtrack.

Before turning his career to music, Maclean appeared in multiple commercial campaigns for Coca-Cola, Wii and Virgin Mobile. As a child he was a dancer in the music video for "Crazy About Your Smile" by Nikki Webster and made multiple cameos on ABC shows such as The Chaser and Laid by Marieke Hardy.

In 2013 Maclean was cast as "Klipspringer" in the Baz Luhrmann adaptation of The Great Gatsby. He is also credited as Peter in the 2014 film Tracks starring Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver.

2015 saw Maclean star alongside Marcia Hines in the original cabaret, Velvet. It premiered at the Adelaide Fringe Festival to critical acclaim, The Australian giving it 5 starsVelvet's The 2015 tour included The Edinburgh Fringe, The Adelaide Fringe, Brisbane Festival and a stand-alone season at The Sydney Opera House. Brendan left the role at the end of 2016 after being cast as a leading character in ABC's upcoming series F*cking Adelaide.

From 2007 to 2013, Maclean broadcast weekly for youth station Triple J. Maclean began presenting in 2007 after an interview with Zan Rowe which celebrated the stations unsigned artist competition, Unearthed. Maclean had posted many music reviews as a "SuperUser" under the pseudonym "Murdoch". He presented across many programs Mid-dawns, Weekend Lunch, Weekend Breakfast, Super Request and Summer House Party. Brendan left the station in 2013 to focus on his music career.

Maclean also hosted ABC's rage on Saturday, 26 September 2015 with Marcia Hines.

Demo

• Prose from Pluto (2008)

EPs

• White Canvas (2010)
• Population (2014)
• Thought I'd Cry for You Forever (2015)
• For Him with Love (2015)
• Funbang1 (2016) No. 89 AUS

Singles

• "Practically Wasted" (2010)
• "Cold & Happy" (2011)
• "OnlyOnly" (2012)
• "Beat Me to It" (2012)
• "Stupid" (2013)
• "Winner" (2013)
• "Only Boyfriend" (2014)
• "The Feeling Again" (2015)
• "Tectonic" (2015)
• "Hugs Not Drugs (Or Both)" (2016)
• "Free to Love" (2016)

Cast albums & Guest Vocals

• Velvet (Original Cast Album - 2015)
• Paul Mac feat. Brendan Maclean & Nathan Hudson - F.A.Q (Holiday From Me - 2015)
• Brendan Maclean feat. Amanda Palmer - On The Door (funbang1 - 2016)

• "CHART WATCH #375". auspOp. 2 July 2016. Retrieved 2 July 2016.