Katya Quezada | Staff Writer
quezadk@imail.losrios.edu
Brent Bourgeois sits at a table outside of the Espresso Metro coffee shop typing away on his laptop. His hair now shows hints of gray. Someone passing by would never think to get an autograph or a picture.
That’s because most people don’t know the unassuming City College student wrote, produced and performed on five albums, one of which featured the top-40 hit, “I Don’t Mind at All,” and has published two books.
Bourgeois was inspired to become a musician by The Beatles when he was 10 years old, but he did not start by singing. Singing came gradually in the ‘80s as a member of the band Bourgeois Tagg. He began playing the keyboard and one day found himself singing.
The band released two albums, the self-titled, “Bourgeois Tagg” in 1985 and “Yoyo” in 1987 which featured, “I Don’t Mind at All”. Bourgeois eventually moved to Nashville and began a solo career.
“It is the center of Christian music,” Bourgeois says. There he wrote songs for artists such as Jaci Velazquez and became the vice president of A&R while he was
living in Nashville.
Bourgeois moved back to California and announced that he was no longer going to be a part of the music scene. He had lost the passion for it.
“When something fun becomes a job, it isn’t fun anymore and it shouldn’t be like that,” Bourgeois says.
Bourgeois says his party-hard life as a musician was everything they say it is, but the lack of a stable home made life on the road get old.
Bourgeois’ new career as a writer brought him back to City College. He says he couldn’t find a publisher for his book “Left Behind: Jesus in the Age of the American Empire” without academic credentials.
“ I wrote [“Left Behind”] a few years ago to work out in my own mind which corner I stood on at the intersection of politics and theology,”
s a y s B o u rgeois’ Web site. “I did a ton of research, learned how to write a book and came out the other end with a much better idea of where I stand.”
“Left Behind: Jesus in the Age of the American Empire” is available at Amazon.com.
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