Brook Munro gives the wine harvest season a sound
California’s Central Coast has become recognized as a prominent wine region with abundant vineyards and wineries. However, San Luis Obispo County produces more than just wine. It’s also a place where artists of varying mediums pursue their passions and goals.
In his debut solo album, Cal Poly alumni and music composer Brook Munro tells the story of a vineyard’s harvest season with 12 instrumental tracks. During the making of the album, titled “Harvest In Twelve Parts,” Munro took an experimental approach to capture the sounds of a winery’s harvest season to tell the story.
For Munro, this album is an accomplishment for him in many ways. It’s the first time that two of his greatest interests have intersected — music and winemaking.
“These two paths were kind of running parallel for a long time,” Munro said. “I always told myself, I’m only gonna play in a band and try to put out records and try to tour as long as I’m passionate about it.
He developed an interest in music at a young age, collecting CDs and playing guitar, inspired by bands such as Blink 182. After graduating from Cal Poly with a degree in agricultural business and a minor in wine and viticulture, Brook was pursuing a career in the wine industry while recording music at the same time.
While playing with his band, The Mighty Fine, in the early 2010s, Munro had no intention of exploring other genres of music outside of rock.
“During all of that time, like writing experimental instrumental music or even like music that would include traditional, like string instruments, like violins, cellos, things like that was not on my radar at all,” Munro said.
Eventually, his band parted ways to focus on the next steps in their lives. For Munro, this meant spending more time with his family, while music became less of a focus point.
“I didn’t have a purpose musically, which was weird for me because I always had some kind of purpose and that purpose changed and evolved,” Munro said. “Sometimes it was more honest than other times, but there was always a direction that I wanted to go in. And it’s the first time musically, like I felt really aimless.”
Looking to find a new route to go with music, Munro looked to another medium of art: filmmaking. Through his favorite film scores and their composers, Munro found a new source of inspiration for his music. He was especially inspired by composers such as Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman who had their starts in rock music before getting into scoring films.
In this step of his musical career, Munro traded the sound of heavy guitars for traditional instruments such as cello, violin and piano as well as experimental sounds created using a synthesizer. After establishing himself as a musical composer for film scores and working on various projects, Munro had the idea of creating a musical representation of the harvest season.
“I thought… what if I could bring harvest to life from that musical sense,” Munro said. “And now we’re converging those two ideas together because it’s all artistic. And so what I set out to do was to literally record the sounds of harvest.”
During the fall of 2021, Munro set out to capture the sounds he wanted to include in his album to tell the story of the harvest season. His original goal was to put the album out in 2022, but a slate of new film projects put it on hold. When he returned to working on it, he set a more solid deadline and timeline for his album, while also giving himself time to create the finished product he wanted.
A local filmmaker, Kyle Plummer, worked with Munro to create a documentary of the process, which he hopes to release in 2024 and submit to the San Luis Obispo Film Festival in April.
Munro independently released “Harvest In 12 Parts” on Oct. 24 on streaming services, and physically on vinyl.
“I put out records on vinyl, with my bands,” Munro said. “I’ve never done it on my own and I’ve never done it without label support. And so that was a real scary thing too, like I’m doing this, I’m doing this on my own and I’m so glad I did because I dictate the rules, I dictate what it is that I want people to see what the price is gonna be, what the expectation is. I’m not letting anyone down other than really myself.”
With the release of his debut album, Munro hopes to inspire others to pursue their own creative endeavors. Regardless of the scale of their ideas and goals.
“I spent too many years of my life in fear of what other people thought about my music,” Munro said. “And at the end of the day it was just time wasted that I could be putting into writing new songs.”
“Harvest in Twelve Parts” is available on streaming services and vinyl copies can also be found locally at Boo Boo Records, Paradise Trading Outpost, Lincoln Market and Deli and Traffic Records.
