Local musician Breanna Elaine has a new project and could use your help in making it succeed. Breanna has launched a crowdfunding campaign, which is off the Indiegogo platform, to produce a full band recording and make a music video for “Where The Snakes Live”, a song she wrote. She wrote this after her friend, Jeremy Theriault, died of a heroin overdose on April 14, 2022. She is dedicated to raising money and awareness for addiction support. Breanna urges, “We may not have been able to save Jeremy and so many others who have died from this terrible disease, but we can come together now and help others like them get the help they need.”
Please read the article to find out why it’s so important, but the campaign can be found at: indiegogo.com/projects/where-the-snakes-live-project#. Breanna understands that not everyone is in a place right now where they can donate and that’s okay. You can still make a difference by sharing this project with your friends, family, and your connections in the community who can help her get the word out about this project. The more people who know, the better. You can use the hashtags #ForJeremy and #WhereTheSnakesLive when you share. You can also support the project by checking out Breanna’s YouTube and Spotify at “Breanna Elaine” and by visiting her social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok at “Breanna Elaine Music”, and sharing her music. If you prefer to donate directly, please message Breanna through social media.
By Martin VanBuren, Pine Fox Photo
Local musician Breanna Elaine is launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise awareness for addiction support, with 5% of the proceeds going to Turning Point Center in Rutland, and the song and music video set to release on August 17.
Breanna wrote a different song that she sang at his funeral but said, “This is the more uncomfortable, edgy song, like the other side of things. I decided I wanted to use this song to make some sort of a difference. It kind of snowballed. At first I thought I would use the song to make a music video, honor Jeremy, raise awareness about the drug epidemic and start the conversation. That’s all great but I wanted to do something more tangible in the community, so I discovered Turning Point Center in Rutland. I chose to work with them and promote them in partnership with this project.” Turning Point is a non-profit that provides resources and support for people in recovery.
Breanna is donating 5% of the crowdfunding campaign to Turning Point whether the goal is met or not, she made special edition t-shirts and that money goes to Turning Point and she’s helping to promote their annual event, “Stomping out Stigma” which is held on September 14. She’s going to play for the event and bring some fellow musicians to play with her.
The song and music video will be released by August 17 because that’s when Breanna is playing a benefit concert at Merchant’s Hall in Rutland. All proceeds from the concert will go to Turning Point. Stripping the criticism and stigma away from discussions about addiction is one of Breanna’s main motivations behind “Where the snakes live.” She said, “If I can be another advocate and help fight some of the stigma, that would be great. The more I thought about how judgmental people are, the more I wanted to get involved. We’re opening this conversation for people and we’re bringing attention to it because we want to facilitate change.”
The song is like a metaphor with “snakes” being drugs and the possibility of an overdose. Breanna said, “You can only f*ck around so much before you’re inevitably going to die, or overdose, or get bit by the snake. That’s the metaphor. The song opens talking about his funeral and how he overdosed in a bathtub. It’s a very raw, very jarring, uncomfortable song.”
Breanna enlisted the help of local music legend Bow Thayer (7 League Boots, The Benders) to not only play on it but produce it as well. She said, “Now the song has this gritty, haunting feel but with the instruments they added, it has that down-home Vermont Bow Thayer style gritty nature to it but it’s also dynamic. The verses have this jazzy, rounded swing to it and then the chorus is bitey. The song credits go to Breanna Elaine on guitar & vocals, Jeff Berlin on drums, Jakob Breitbach on Fiddle, Bow Thayer on back up vocal, organ, banjo, bass, guitar and as producer and Vincent Freeman of the Underground in Randolph as studio engineer.
Breanna has spent the last month recording at The Woodshed, Bow Thayer’s studio in Vermont. She noted they connected over both having lost friends to overdoses. Breanna admired Thayer’s work prior to the collaboration and knew he was the right producer for the project. She said, “He really got into it. He added vocals and a sh*t ton of instruments. He was running around like a mad scientist, saying “This is great, this is great. I’m very happy. I’d already been thinking of ways to entice Bow into being my mentor. I’m a total Bow Thayer fan girl.”
Breanna Elaine is a full time musician, singer/songwriter based out of Brandon. Her first studio album ‘Seedlings’ was released in January 2023. Breanna’s music is dripping with plenty of earthy folk sounds, but has undertones of rock, bluegrass and even punk. She performs a mix of originals as well as a wide array of covers on both guitar and banjo. Comparisons have included singer/songwriter Jewel, as well as legends Alanis Morissette and Stevie Nicks. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Breanna perform a few times and I can agree with those comparisons. This is a really great thing that Breanna is doing so please support this any way you can.
