Franc Aledia

Franc Aledia wrote and recorded “Save Me Tonight” a decade ago, but it’s fitting the song about struggling with depression was released in 2021. The current single from the Columbus-based musician is featured on a collaborative album from producer Michael James and has a powerful music video from Dayton-based filmmaker Allen Farst.

“When the pandemic hit, Michael was kind of bored, so he decided to put together all of these different recordings he’d done throughout the years,” Aledia said. “We started recording this song in 2010, but I re-recorded the vocals during the pandemic, and it took on a different feeling because everybody was going through the isolation and the depression. It was like nothing we’d ever imagined so all of these emotions were coming back.”

Aledia particularly reflected on the pandemic’s emotional toll.

“It was pretty depressing times because you couldn’t see your parents,” he said. “You didn’t get to spend holidays with anybody. It was really kind of a bummer, and you can hear it in my voice. The timbre is different, the approach is different, and I was able to capture that emotion. This song, even though it was written 10 years before the pandemic hit, was almost like it was meant for it.”

For a visual representation of that isolated feeling, Aledia turned to Farst, the director of the award-winning film, “Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man.” Farst has a diverse resume that includes television commercials, corporate productions, live sports and promotional clips for musicians like blues rocker Eric Jerardi.

“We actually shot the video in three days in July, in and around Dayton,” Aledia said. “It was crazy. It was shot, edited, colored and ready to go in less than a week. Allen is such a great director, and the video does an amazing job of capturing the song’s emotion. When I went back and watched it, I was like, ‘Man, this is heavy. This might be a little too heavy.’”

Aledia admits his anxiety eased after he started reading positive feedback online and receiving personal messages and phone calls.

“Some of the responses I’ve received have been amazing,” he said. “It has meant so much to people I never guessed were going through some things. It’s very cool to hear that kind of input and response. Watching the video also helped me realize some things I didn’t know I was dealing with. I was so caught up in the whole process, so when I sat back and watched the video, it had the same effect on me as it did on everybody else.”

Artist info: francaledia.com. - Dayton Daily News

INDIANAPOLIS May 3, 2007 – For years, Indianapolis 500 champion Kenny Brack has entertained race fans all over the world with his unique guitar playing and interpretations of songs. Working with Indianapolis Motor Speedway to honor old friend A.J. Foyt, Brack wrote a witty tribute to his former Indy 500 winning team owner entitled “Legend of the Speedway.” The song is on the highly anticipated CD “Bräck , greatest hits volume 1” being released today on brackmusic.com. The CD will be sold at the Speedway gift stores throughout May.

“Writing it came easy to me,” said Brack, who actually wrote the song in 2003, four years after he won Indy with Foyt. “Come on,” he laughed, “is there any easier character to write about? I’m just surprised no one has written a song about him before.”

“I always knew Kenny could play the guitar, but after hearing this song, I found out he can write too,” said Indy’s first four-time winner. “I thought the song was funny and different, just like Kenny. I really appreciate that he wrote a song about me but I don’t know about that part about fitting in the race car. Wait till I see him at the Speedway! To be truthful, I think the world of him, and not just because we had a lot of success together. I respect him. He’s good people…and he’s one helluva a race driver.”

The CD will also feature the songs that Brack and singer/songwriter Franc Aledia wrote, recorded and produced over the last two and a half years--songs that captured life with and without racing.

Along with the release of the CD, Brack and Niche Productions partner Allen Farst created a music video for the “Legend of the Speedway” which can be viewed on brackmusic.com. It will be featured at the Speedway during May as part of the celebration surrounding Foyt’s 50th anniversary in Indy car racing. The music video will be played on 35 Jumbo Tron displays, six times a day, at the historic speedway. It can also be seen on the front page of IndyCar.com, the official website of IndyCar racing.

Bräck and Niche Productions had three days to shoot, edit and complete the rock video. Recounting the making of the video only adds to the lore surrounding the Speedway and the spirit it embodies.
As Brack stood on the track he once called home he prepared this time not to race but to honor his good friend and former team owner A.J. It had rained for eight days straight at Indy, but on this very special day, the sun appeared to welcome him.

“Look at this day! Even Mother Nature loves A.J,” marveled Brack as he walked down Gasoline Alley towards the set. “It’s like a gift from Heaven, like it’s meant to be,” he told Farst, who directed and edited the video. Brack had only one day to film his part. When the day was done, the rain resumed.

Appearing from the shadows of the grandstands five historic race cars slowly, one by one, were rolled on to the front stretch of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It looked like Indy’s version of a scene from the movie “Field of Dreams” when the angels of baseball history appeared from the cornfield, happy to be back together on the stage they dominated, in a game they loved to play. The five cars with five Indy 500 championships between them stood unusually silent as Kenny and his new band Bräck performed their debut single “Legend of the Speedway.” Spirits stirred as the cameras rolled.

"To have all five of A.J's winning cars on the track was a special day,” said Farst. “The fact that A.J. sent all of his old uniforms and original helmets up for the video was even cooler. We went to put the 1961 helmet on Tyler Walker [playing young A.J.] and dirt came out of it. Everyone felt the pressure from that point on that the video needed to reflect a champion.”

Brack and his new songwriting partner and Bräck lead singer Aledia were finishing up on their long awaited CD when Kenny pulled A.J.’s song out of the drawer and played it for Aledia.

“Kenny trying to imitate a Texas accent in his Swedish accent was it for me. I fell in love with it,” said Aledia, who has written songs appearing on MTV and film soundtracks. They quickly recorded the song and presented it to A.J.’s camp and the IRL IndyCar Series, sanctioning body for the Indy 500. Brack never thought that it would serve as the soundtrack to something as historical as A.J.’s 50th anniversary but who better to immortalize the man behind all the Indy 500 victories in song than the songwriter who won one for him?

“Kenny Brack is a true multi-talent,” said Tony George, owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “He is a talented race car driver, songwriter and musician and he thrives as a coach and mentor of young people. One particular song on the (Brack) CD, “Legend of the Speedway” is a testimony of his strong and unique relationship with A.J. Foyt and his respect for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. As an Indy 500 champion, Kenny ensured his own legendary status.”

- ABC

Miller Lite Carb Day
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Friday, May 25, 3:30 p.m., free to Carb Day ticket holders, $10, all-ages

In what is the last bit of debauchery left at the track since the demise of the turn four snake pit, this year’s Indianapolis 500 Carb Day concert may just be the best one yet. Past years have seen artists as diverse as the B-52s, Collective Soul, the Black Crowes and Cracker playing, but this year’s artist, Kid Rock, fully embodies the party-hardy and get drunk aesthetic that the infield used to be world-famous for.

Kid Rock loves the ladies, and he loves a good party. In turn, he provides a show for any crowd of sun-burnt race fans. His set is heavy on classic rock and Southern boogie, he’s not afraid to bust out a country song or two and his own hits, “Cowboy” and “Bawitdaba,” are a classic blend of Beastie Boy beats and Diamond Dave swagger. Look for a lot of tops coming loose during this show.

Opening is one of the more inspirational Indy car drivers in recent history. After almost losing his life in a 2000 accident, Swede driver Kenny Brack defied all expectations by battling back and racing in the 2005 running. The 1999 Indy 500 champion will be back at the track again this year with his band, Bräck.

Having already had a hand in playing music, he once had a band that included local music luminaries like Smoking Dave Wyatt, Gene Deer and Charlie Bushor. During his recovery, aided by copious amounts of painkillers, Brack turned his attention to his music. He started writing songs and found capable allies in the Columbus, Ohio, band Franc Aledia. The rock racer just released a new album, Greatest Hits Vol. 1, and a cool single and video called “Legends of the Speedway,” a tribute to his idol and mentor A.J. Foyt.

It’ll never be what it once was, but this year’s Carb Day may just be the closest thing to the snake pit chaos that used to rule the month of May.

- NUVO

Indy 500
Former winner to honor Foyt with song at speedway
Tuesday, May 22, 2007 4:41 AM
By Tim May

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Sports on the air
Read what's on the minds of Dispatch sports reporters at dispatch.com/sportsblogs
Two years after racing in the Indianapolis 500 for the last time, 1999 winner Kenny Brack is back, but not in a car. He's on stage.

The Swede and his Worthington-based alternative rock group, Brack, will perform twice in Indianapolis this week in the buildup to the 91st running of "the greatest spectacle in racing." That will include a 30-minute set on the big stage behind the pagoda at Indianapolis Motor Speedway at noon Friday, the final practice before the race on Sunday.

With Brack on lead guitar and Franc Aledia as lead vocalist, they will promote the recent release of their first CD, titled Brack, Greatest Hits, Volume One.

Their hook? It's also the 50th straight year of race participation as a driver or team owner for A.J. Foyt, who fielded the car Brack drove to victory in 1999. Brack wrote a comical but poignant tribute song to Foyt, Legend of the Speedway, the fourth track on the CD.

"It's amazing to me nobody has ever written a song about A.J. before," Brack said. "For me, it was a great way to contribute to what is a great moment in racing, A.J.'s 50th Indy. That's incredible."

Brack went all out, including a video to go with the song. It was shot in one day in April on the front straightaway at Indy, with the background being the cars Foyt drove in 1961, '64, '67 and '77 to become the first four-time winner of the race, along with the car Brack drove to victory in '99.

The video, which has played on the big screens at the speedway all month, can be sampled at www.brackmusic.com.

"The hope is the fans out there will discover the other songs on the CD as well," Brack said.

Brack survived a horrific crash at Texas Motor Speedway while driving for Rahal Letterman Racing in the Indy Racing League finale of 2003. He wrote one of the tracks, Today Forever, while recuperating from surgery at Riverside Hospital in late December of that year. It was a tribute to his daughter, Karma, born at the same time in the same hospital.

"But the other five songs are just rock and roll, and they're pretty good, in my opinion," Brack said.

He and his family moved last year from Upper Arlington to Belgium, where his wife, Anna, works in the diamond industry. Brack travels doing interviews for Swedish television with "successful personalities," he said.

For example, the day before the video shoot in Indy, he did a sit-down with Sex Pistols leader Johnny Rotten in Los Angeles. A month before, he went one-on-one with super-model Victoria Silvstedt.

Plus, he is the manager for promising Swedish race car driver Marcus Ericsson.

"I'm doing a lot of stuff and keeping busy, as you can see," Brack said. "But I really enjoy my music, too, and hopefully this is the first of many CDs to come for us."

tmay@dispatch.com

- The Columbus Dispatch

Music now drives Indy 500 winner


Saturday, February 04, 2006
Tim May , THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Late tonight at the Lazy Chameleon in Powell, an emcee will exhort the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together and give it up for Brack."

Race car driver Kenny Brack?

"No, it’s Brack, the newest kick-butt rock band from Columbus," Kenny Brack said.

It has his name all over it, though, because he’s the driving force behind it. He’s the lead guitarist.

Brack, the 1999 Indianapolis 500 winner and one-time Indy Racing League champion who almost lost his life in a horrific crash in the 2003 season finale, has changed gears. Instead of driving a G Force-Honda at more than 220 mph, he’s bending the strings on a Gibson-Les Paul at megawatt volume.

"You can still crash doing what I’m doing," Brack said, laughing. "But the worst thing that can happen to you is maybe someone will throw a rotten egg."

He just wants folks to lend an ear tonight. He had a group before known as the Sub Woofers, which put its spin on other people’s music while playing charity gigs and such in and around the racing community.

But the group Brack is different. During its one-hour set tonight, it will play mostly original songs, composed by Brack and lead singer Franc Aledia.

"It’s kind of cool from a writing standpoint working with Kenny because he doesn’t adhere to any rules," Aledia said. "He does what he wants to do and it’s helped me think outside the box."

Along with drummer Scott McCann, bass guitarist Jason Short, Shannon Smith on rhythm guitar and Kelsey Smith (no relation to Shannon) on background vocals, the group produced a four-song demo CD at Ma Records in Worthington. Some 100 copies will be passed out tonight.

One of the songs, titled Today Forever, is especially poignant for Brack. The first few riffs came to mind as he plunked his guitar on a late December night in 2003. It had been two months since the crash that almost took his life, he had just undergone another surgery and was in his bed in Riverside Methodist Hospital.

Three floors below, his wife, Anita, was giving birth to their daughter, Karma. It might have been the worst of times for him physically, he said, but it was the best of times in so many other ways.

"Basically, I was doing a lot of strumming because about the only thing I didn’t break in that crash was my arms," Brack said. "Thank God for that."

He also gave thanks for being able to make a comeback as a driver. He subbed for injured Buddy Rice in the Indy 500 last year with his old Rahal Letterman Racing team. Qualifying on the second weekend, Brack had the fastest run in the field, but a mechanical problem knocked him out of the race.

"I sat down after that and took a long, hard look at things, of how I had won Indy, and had won championships, and then I’d had the big crash and worked my way back up from that," Brack said. "It was like a Hollywood script, really, and I felt it was time for me to move on . . . to be able to devote more time to my little girl and other things."

Brack, who will turn 40 on March 21, hasn’t ruled out completely a return to some kind of racing. But at the moment he is deep into his band and his music.

"To explain where it comes from is difficult," Brack said. "It’s like driving a race car fast. You either do it or you don’t. It’s the same with music. Sometimes you come up with good stuff, sometimes you don’t. But you keep trying and good things come."


tmay@dispatch.com

- Columbus Dispatch and Midget Madness

INDIANAPOLIS – They're the ultimate odd couple: the slightly built, yogurt-loving Swede and the portly, Angus steak-eating Texan.

Rock music … country music.

Mild-mannered … temperamental.

But for two years in the late 1990s, Kenny Brack and A.J. Foyt combined to form a perfect storm of car driver and owner.

AdChoices

Brack, the driver, won the Indy Racing League title in 1998, and in 1999 ran off with the Indianapolis 500 to give Foyt, the car owner, his fifth win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Foyt had already secured his place in history when, in 1977, he became the first to win four Indy 500s as a driver).

Brack's calm demeanor and Foyt's legendary propensity for temperamental outbursts – he's been known to toss computers and TVs when in a foul mood – would seem to have been a mismatch of major proportions. But the two describe their relationship in respectful terms and claim they encountered very few problems.

Underneath the differing facades, they discovered they were kindred racing spirits … driven to succeed.

So, when Brack left Foyt's team in 2000 to seek a championship in rival CART, he departed on good terms.

"I didn't want him to leave," Foyt said, "But when he wanted to leave, I didn't hold him back."

Brack never duplicated the success he had with Foyt, and his career effectively ended when he nearly died in a horrific crash at Texas Motor Speedway in 2003. The accident and an agonizing year-and-a-half recovery altered Brack's career arc. With only his arms and hands escaping the accident's fury, he put them to use playing his guitar and getting back to his musical roots (he previously had fronted a band that played at various race venues).

The guitar allowed him to occupy his mind and sort through life's finer points and troubling curves.

Despite a brief but remarkable comeback at the Indianapolis 500 in 2005 – he finished 26th – Brack immersed himself in his music. He hooked up with Franc Aledia to form the rock group Brack, and they began writing music borne out of their experiences – problems with relationships, the emotional birth of Brack's daughter, Karma, while he was in the same hospital recovering from surgery, life's difficult lessons, and affection for a crusty old racing legend named A.J. Foyt.

Thus was "Legend of the Speedway" born, a boisterous and humorous homage to Foyt – who makes his 50th year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week – and his unmistakable imprint on open wheel racing. Brack and his band (Brack plays guitar, Aledia is lead vocalist) debuted their first album – Greatest Hits, Volume 1 – and the Foyt video (shot in April at Indianapolis Motor Speedway) Wednesday at a downtown Indianapolis nightclub.

A misty-eyed Foyt was the guest of honor.

Brack originally wrote the lyrics for Foyt's song "between airports" in 2003 before his accident. He tossed his effort in a drawer and only later, when he shared it with Aledia, did the song begin to take on a life of its own. Aledia loved Brack's "roast" of his former boss, but suggested they turn it into a humorous celebration of Foyt's career. Aledia added the chorus, and the two tweaked the lyrics (the uncensored version will have to wait until Foyt's 75th anniversary at IMS, Brack insists).

"I don't know what inspired me," Brack said Wednesday during the launch party. "This was easy for me, and I'm not a songwriter."

He won 4 times in all
I'm fast
He's faster than a cannonball …

Brack didn't realize that Foyt's 50th anniversary was coming up this year, so the band had to rush the video into production to have it done before Sunday's Indianapolis 500. They shot the video in two days and spent another 36 hours in post-production. Speedway officials cooperated, supplying Foyt's four winning cars and Brack's winning entry as the backdrop for the band as it taped the video on the track's sun-drenched front straightaway.

"I'm glad we did it," Brack said. "I wanted to celebrate A.J. It was fun. He's a good guy … We had a good relationship."

Yea, back in the day A.J. ran quite the show
If he got blocked up top, I blew by down below
He's his own chief mechanic, engineer and pit crew
You better believe it
Ah this is quite true
Yeah this is quite true …

"I think he did a good job," Foyt admitted Wednesday. "We've been real close friends."

Brack surprised Foyt with the song, having it played for the Texan on Jan 16.

"It was a (72nd) birthday present," Foyt said. "Not that I need any more birthdays."

This is A.J. in my red hotrod machine there cowboy
Mario Andretti he won all those Grand Prixs
Yea, 'cause I was busy racing in the land of the free
Hell I ain't 'fraid you name the play for a high speed runnin', I know I'll beat ya if I could only fit in
Umm … A.J. what a ya mean fit in?
In the car you moron!

"He made us look pretty good," Foyt said of Brack's tenure with his team, which hasn't won a race since 2002. Explaining their success, he added, "Both parties have to do their stuff right and obviously we were a good team."

"We had a lot of good moments and a lot of fun racin'."

Hey, hey A.J. we love you
There'll never be another driver quite like you
Some of us had to find out the hard way
You just don't mess with A.J.
The Legend of the Speedway don't mess around
Hey, hey A.J. we love you
Thank God for A.J.

"I take my hat off to these guys," Foyt said. "They did a good job."

Additional information and clips are available at brackmusic.com


Glen Kemery is a senior editor for Yahoo! Sports. He previously was sports editor and online content manager at The Indianapolis Star. Send Glen a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

- Yahoo! Sports

speedracer.html on line 1


Speed Racer

Kenny Brack is parking his IndyCar and picking up a guitar

by Rachel Mickol

Racecar driving and rock 'n' roll have a lot in common: intense adrenaline rushes, deafening noise and lots of sweat. But when rock stars crash and burn, it usually means a month cleaning up in rehab. When racers crash and burn, the results can be more dangerous and rehab can take years.


"I don't know, isn't music dangerous?" said Kenny Brack, former driver of the No. 15 Pioneer/Miller Lite Honda Dallara IndyCar. "I mean, I did a lot of rehab and I think rock stars do a lot of rehab too, don't they? Maybe different rehab."


Brack didn't spend 28 days "resting" at the sort of luxurious desert retreat that's customary for rockers, but he did spend close to two months in the hospital.


His accident at the IRL IndyCar Series finale at the Texas Motor Speedway in 2003 was one of the worst in the sport's history. Brack's car caught air at 220 mph and collided with a steel pole in the catch fence. He suffered injuries to his sternum, ribs, vertebrae, right femur and both ankles.


Throughout his year and a half of rehabilitation, Brack looked to his guitar and music. He went back to racing in 2005, replacing an injured Buddy Rice in the Indy 500, where Brack set the fastest qualifying speed. Brack was previously the IndyCar Champ of 1998 and the winner of 1999's Indianapolis 500.


The Swedish native and Columbus resident has since taken a hiatus from racing and hopes to focus more attention on his new band, Bräck. "I'm planning to scale down my racing career and concentrate more on other things, one of those things being music," he said.


Brack has joined forces with Franc Aledia, former frontman of the Columbus band As Is. With Brack on lead guitar and Aledia filling in the vocals—and with the help of musicians including drummer Mark Slutsky (Splender), bassist Jimmy Riot (Swimmer) and keyboardist John Deley (Dido)—the duo spent the past year in New York and Ohio recording tracks for Bräck's first full-length release.


Brack and Aledia met in 2004 and hit it off right from the start. "We met just after I got out of the hospital and we started writing music together," Brack said. "The collaboration went really well, so then we started thinking about doing something more with the project."


Brack isn't new to music. At the same time he was learning how to drive a car he was learning how to strum a guitar. Growing up listening to Chuck Berry (most of his Swedish friends were into Abba), Brack tried to emulate Berry's classic riffs.


"Basically, I grew up listening to a lot of good old rock 'n' roll," Brack said. "I also listened to punk rock as well as all kinds of different music. It's not like I was just interested in one thing—it's more like a little bit of everything."


After performing at a Playboy Mansion party, Brack started the band Kenny Brack and the Subwoofers with fellow racecar drivers in 2003. The band covered everything from the Rolling Stones to Janis Joplin.


With Brack's muses flowing from Berry to the Clash and the Ramones and Aledia gaining inspiration from Kiss, Rush and Motown, Bräck the band is a blend of everything under the musical sun.


"Kenny's got a unique European attitude," Aledia said. "Our music ends up being kind of modern because the way I write is just strictly commercial, so mixing with him gives it a different spin. He tends to come out of left field with his range of influences from growing up in Europe, which is a lot different from here. It's a nice marriage."


Brack and Aledia work as a team to come up with lyrics and build complete tracks. Brack has a guitar riff or Aledia writes a melody and the two go from there, Aledia said. "It's always a combined effort."


Although Aledia has played with several musicians over the years, he says working with Brack is one of the best experiences he's had. "It's nice to be able to play with somebody who's not jaded from years of doing this," he said. "It's kind of a cool thing to be involved with somebody who's not really in it to win, but in it to write songs and have a good time. His approach isn't so industry-driven, it's more artistic."


Bräck has yet to land a record deal, major or independent. As of now, the pair is focusing on completing radio-worthy songs. Brack says his band has the leeway to do things on its own terms in regards to recording and studio time.


"We are keeping our options open for the time being," Brack said of the band's future. "It doesn't have to be one certain way—it just needs to be the right way in the end."


Bräck will be making its debut performance in front of a live audience at the Lazy Chameleon on Saturday. Brack and Aledia plan to give out 100 copies of their four-song demo. Joshua Dean will open with an acoustic set, followed by Bräck (accompanied by former As Is members Scott McCann, Shannon Smith and Jason Short) and closing with an As Is reunion performance.


Brack hopes fans who recognize him from the racetrack will appreciate his burgeoning music career. "I hope people can relate to some of our lyrics and I hope they have a damn good time," he said. "It's going to be one hell of a rock show."




Bräck takes the stage at the Lazy Chameleon in Powell on Saturday, February 4. For show info dial 792-8393 or click to lazychameleon.com.


February 1, 2006


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- Columbus Alive