Creed Bratton is an American actor, musician, and former member of The Grass
Roots. He is more recently known for playing a fictional version of himself
on The Office on NBC. Background and education
He was born William Charles Schneider in Los Angeles, and he grew up in
Coarsegold, California, a small town near Yosemite National Park. His
grandparents, mother, and father were musicians, and he took a liking to music
at a very early age. At 13, he received his first guitar from a Sears mail order
catalog. He became a professional musician during his high school and
college years. Musical career
= Early years= He decided to try life as a traveling
musician and made his way on a global excursion, during which he changed his
name to Creed Bratton. He traveled through Europe, Africa, and the Middle
East. He played guitar at a large folk festival in Israel, appearing with his
group the Young Californians. Fellow American and guitarist Warren Entner
witnessed Bratton's performance and asked him to give him a call when he got
back to the United States. In 1966, they formed a partnership and recruited the
remaining members needed for their group, the 13th Floor. Bratton played
lead guitar, Rick Coonce played drums, Entner played rhythm guitar, and Kenny
Fukomoto played bass. They recorded a demo and sent it to Dunhill, a new
record company headed by Lou Adler. = The Grass Roots=
Producers/songwriters P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri heard the demo and liked it.
They needed new band members for a folk rock group that they had created in
1965. The 13th Floor lost its bass player to the draft during this time,
and quickly recruited Rob Grill, changing its name to The Grass Roots for
prior name recognition. The group went straight to the top 10 with their first
recording, "Let's Live for Today" in 1967. The group continued in its
hit-making vein and toured the United States. Iconic hit songs such as
"Midnight Confessions" cemented the group's standing as major contributors
to the rock music scene. The Grass Roots had top songwriters
offering their best songs to them and wrote many songs themselves. On its
major songs, music on the recordings was played by LA studio musicians known as
The Wrecking Crew. Bratton co-wrote "Beatin' Round the Bush", "No Exit", and
"Hot Bright Lights", and self-composed "Dinner for Eight" and "House of Stone".
Bratton played with the group on its first four albums: Let's Live for Today,
Feelings, Golden Grass, and Lovin' Things. Three albums charted and Golden
Grass received a gold record certification. He took part in the first
ten singles released, eight of which charted; Midnight Confessions received a
gold record certification. The Grass Roots played at the Fantasy
Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival on Sunday June 11, 1967, in the "summer
of love" as its top ten hit "Let's Live For Today" was hitting the airwaves.
This music festival occurred before the Monterey Pop Festival, but did not have
a movie to document it for the ages. On Sunday October 27, 1968, the group
played at the San Francisco Pop Festival and then played at the Los Angeles Pop
Festival and Miami Pop Festival in December of that year as its top-ten hit
"Midnight Confessions" was hitting the airwaves.
In April 1969, Bratton became frustrated by Dunhill's refusal to allow the band
to write its own songs and play the instruments on its records. After a
disastrous appearance at the Fillmore West in April 1969, Bratton was asked to
leave the band. = Solo years=
In 2001 and 2002, Bratton released three albums showcasing his solo recordings
since the 1960s with the assistance of Peter White. In 2007, he presented an
induction award to The Wrecking Crew at the Musicians' Hall of Fame. In 2008, he
released another album of new music with producer Jon Tiven. In 2010, Bratton
released another new album titled "Bounce Back" with producer Dave Way. In
2011, Bratton released an album of greatest hits from his first three solo
albums titled "Demo". In 2010 & 2012, Bratton performed live at the SXSW
festival. In 2013, Bratton released an original work in three acts, as an audio
biography, titled 'Tell Me About It'. Songs ranged from recently written to
pieces he had written decades ago. Bratton cites that he listens to lots of
jazz and classical music. On January 18, 2014, Bratton joined his
friend Zachary Scot Johnson for a duet for the 500th consecutive day of
thesongadayproject on YouTube. The video was recorded in Bratton's home. The
video has received over 300, 000 views. Acting career
Bratton began to pursue an acting career in 1979. He has appeared in films such
as Mask and Heart Like a Wheel. He was a cast member on NBC's Emmy and SAG award
winning The Office. In 2008, he appeared in a short film with Kyle Gass titled
Just One Of The Gynos, which won an award for best short film at the 2008
Malibu International Film Festival. He appeared in the feature film Labor Pains
in 2009. His recent film projects are The Ghastly Love of Johnny X, written,
produced and directed by Paul Bunnell, I Am Ben, written, produced and directed
by Mathew Brady and Gaelan Connell and Terri produced by David Guy Levy. Terri
was selected by the Sundance Film Festival 2011 to appear in the US
dramatic competition. It was one of only 16 films selected from 1,102 submissions
to the US dramatic category. In 2012, he appeared as special guest star in Staged
with Brandon Olive who appeared with him in Just One Of The Gynos. Bratton's
latest film project is Saving Lincoln a biography set in the civil war period.
It is produced by Horatio C. Kemeny and written and directed by Salvador Litvak.
Filmography Discography
= Singles= ++ - Gold Record - RIAA Certification
+++ - Composed by Italian superstar Lucio Battisti)
= Albums= ++ - Gold Record - RIAA Certification
References External links
Creed Bratton at the Internet Movie Database
Creed Bratton at AllMovie The-GrassRoots.com - Official Site
Creed Bratton at MySpace Creed at AMG
Interview with Creed Bratton, Rocker Magazine 2013, about new record, finale
of The Office Interview with Creed Bratton, Submerge
Magazine 2015, about his career as an actor and musician