FP

Bio

The core of the current Freelance Philosophers are Forrest Maher on vocals/lyrics, multi instrumentalist Brian Silver on keyboards and guitars, bass, Jason Hollembeak on drums, and James Kananen on keys. Maher and Silver are originally from Alpena, Michigan, and we’re childhood friends, and Hollembeak from Big Rock, IL. Maher and Hollembeak met in Chicago area and they played and recorded together in Hazel Spoke from 1992- and 1994.

Their last 3 Freelance Philosopher albums were recorded and mixed by James Kananen at Bad Racket Recording Studios Cleveland, Ohio. 

Grammy winning producer Glenn Brown has mastered 2 of their 3 most recent albums, and recorded or mixed and mastered 3 previous albums.

Gold record songwriter and drummer Donny Brown has played and recorded drums on several albums.

Multi-instrumentalist and session player Drew Howard has played and recorded pedal steel, electric guitars, dobro, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, Indian tambura on several albums. 

Session and touring guitarist Jeff Pevar played and recorded guitar on three of songs on their Dare to Dream album. 

Gospel singer Yvette Robinson has contributed vocals to several recordings. 

The albums were recorded, mixed, mastered: 

Glenn Brown Productions, Inc. East Lansing, MI

Elm Street Recording  Lansing, MI 

Blue Sky Audio Productions. Lansing, MI 

Black River Duplication  Detroit, MI 

Opus! Studios  Grand Rapids, MI 

Cottage Productions  Charlotte, MI 

The Farm Studios Watervliet, MI

Reelsounds  Chicago, IL

Chicago Traxx  Chicago, IL

Raxx Traxx  Chicago, IL

7 & 7 Tucson, AZ 

Spank! Chicago, IL

Bad Racket Cleveland, OH

Cuzco, Peru

Additional contributors and musicians appearing on their albums have included Drew Howard, Donny Brown, Jeff Pevar, Michael Carnahan, Matthew Schaffer, Matthew Woolman, John LaCross, Todd Mayberry, Joseph Bastow, Ryan Wert, Glenn Brown, Yvette Robinson, Mike Daniels, Joe Cardenas, Rick Guetschow, Jon Opdyke, Philip Lahaie, Pete Bass, Grupos Latinos (Peru), Jeff Arnold, Michael Somers, Jeff Starr.