Art Rock, Carnival Rock, Indie Jazz
Billy Brandt’s Carnival Souls is a wild trip through the shadows of the midway—part haunted sideshow, part bluesy backstreet groove. Inspired by the eerie cult classic Carnival of Souls, it spins suspense, rhythm, and a touch of madness into something you can’t shake. A featured single from the upcoming album The Lucky Hustle & The Side Show Shuffle, out this November, with a music video to match. Come one, come all to the Carnival!
Carnival Souls is a Super 8 collage of analog anxiety—fast cuts, blown-out highlights, and shadows that seem to stare back. Shot entirely on donated and self-captured film, it fuses two fading worlds: the crumbling spectacle a 1960 Ringling Bros Circus rehearsal show in Sarasota and the restless pulse of Seattle’s waterfront, where carousel lights blur into club gig chaos.
This piece explores distortion—of memory, media, and meaning. Elephants, dancers, and clowns flicker like ghosts across grainy frames, culminating in the spectral presence of Emmett Kelly’s “Weary Willie,” cigarette in hand—a haunting symbol of cultural exhaustion and media overload.
No AI. Just celluloid, smoke, and the strange beauty of entropy.
Billy Brandt / Carnival Souls
Written By Billy Brandt
Billy Brandt Vocals & Toy Piano
Brian Monroney Guitars , Toy Piano
Alexey Nikolaev Saxophone
Dan Kramlich Piano
Emmanuel del Casal Bass
Mark Ivester Drums
Kelly Ash, Darelle Holden & Tina Hart Backing Vocals
Recorded at Studio X
and Robert Lange Studios
Engineered and Mixed by
Reed Ruddy & Chris Rahm
Mastered by Nyberg Mastering
Videographer & Editing Leo Mayberry
Video source Jane Peck
About Billy Brandt
BILLY BRANDT is a singer, guitarist, and composer whose music has working-class appeal that radiates masculine charm and chutzpah. He has a voice like dark roasted coffee with a hint of cream.
Raised in Hanover, MA, Brandt now lives in the Pacific Northwest. A mainstay on the Seattle music scene, he performs regularly in clubs all around the city. Brandt is a storyteller, both as a singer and composer, somewhat in the tradition of Tom Waits, though with a more refined and nuanced voice.