Music

I'm Brian Joseph Johns, CEO, writer and artist of Shhhh! Digital Media. 

M-Audio KeyRig Software Update

Here is the M-Audio update I promised that I'd host here. This will update your existing KeyRig software to 1.1.0.4 and remove the certification requirement. Downloading this file from here is entirely legal and this is an Official update of the M-Audio software produced by M-Audio.

Download KeyRig_Updater_1_1_0_4v6.exe for Windows

MD5: 1D73AE1FE1483367E2D6B9778A2E3259

Original Music 2018 - 2026

Most of my most recent music can be found on the Shhhh! Digital Media official YouTube site:

https://www.youtube.com/@ShhhhDigitalMedia or more specifically by following the link directly to the What is the sound of Shhhh? Playlist.

The musical pieces (and audiobooks) appearing there are Copyright © 2026 Brian Joseph Johns and shared under the terms of the YouTube Content license (Creative Commons 4.0 - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Original Music 2012 - 2018

The following are original musical compositions by Shhhh! Digital Media (Brian Joseph Johns) in MP3 format.

The following musical pieces (A Lady's Prerogative III: Singularity - Because we're home, Digital Senses (Plucked Counterpoint), Silence Between Notes (Mood Muzak), The Butterfly Dragon II: What Different Eyes See (Main Theme), Just Illusion) are licensed under Creative Commons 4.0 - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

They are freely distributable and may be used in any legal capacity so long as they are presented with attribution to the name of the piece and credited to both Shhhh! Digital Media (c/o Brian Joseph Johns) and include a link back to this site - https://www.shhhhdigital.com, during the credits or from the page or site they appear.

If they aren't already, I will be updating my music online to include a YouTube license for use as background music in other people's videos etc.

You can also check out other content related to Shhhh! Digital Media at my YouTube channel.

The music here may also be freely used by livestreamers, again with the same attribution requirements explained above.


A Lady's Prerogative III: Singularity - Because we're home (written and performed by Brian Joseph Johns)

This is a concept piece I created for the book A Lady's Prerogative III: Singularity. It has lyrics but no vocalist as of yet. I'd try to sing it myself but I think that I'd probably do the song a great injustice in doing so. It is definitely an homage in terms of style to the Beatles during the later part of their musical journey as a band, with various nods to other producers and artists.

I recorded this piece entirely from a live performance on my MIDI keyboard, so it doesn't rely on loops, as wonderful a production tool as they can be. I'm also an old schooler from the pre-MIDI days. So I know MIDI inside and out. I do occasionally use loops as they can greatly speed up the production process, and given the modern pressures upon content producers, I don't see the harm in doing so. 

Somebody has to make the loops, and usually that means a musician or DJ somewhere is putting them together and earning a living doing so.

Beatles-esque Rock Soundtrack


Digital Senses (Plucked Counterpoint) (written and performed by Brian Joseph Johns)

A combination of simple linear melodies layered over top of a syncopated beat. Melodies hand played on top of a few loops.

Electronic, Ambient

Silence Between Notes (Mood Muzak) (written and performed by Brian Joseph Johns)

Ambient, some tracks hand played and others with loops. Peaceful mood with a mildly intense bridge.

Electronic, Ambient


The Butterfly Dragon II: What Different Eyes See (Main Theme) (written and performed by Brian Joseph Johns)

Main theme from The Butterfly Dragon II: What Different Eyes See. Composed note by note on a midi keyboard without any loops. Pentatonic melody and corresponding counterpoint common in much Eastern music to really give it that feel. Like an East Asian tour.

World Music, Soundtrack

Just Illusion (written and performed by Brian Joseph Johns)

No loops. This piece of music was written and is played on a keyboard. Yes, that's right. A MIDI keyboard with a pretty awesome VST acoustic guitar based instrument. There is no (real) guitar in the piece. Its all synthesizer played with a guitar technique. A small string pad and touches of electric piano.

Acoustic, Digital Guitar (There is no real guitar in this song, its a keyboard believe it or not)

Original Music 1990 - 2012

During the early 1990s, I was part of a Toronto rock band called: Standing Room Only (our initial name) and then it was changed to The Act, to coincide with our growing popularity at that time. Like most of us in the band, I still worked a regular gig as a computer programmer, an A/V tech setting up A/V equipment and translation booths for Hotel Conventions and occasionally as a furniture mover. I've been pretty healthy for most of my life, and thankfully I don't have any illnesses or diseases (though I often have people trying to imply that I have hepatitis, and yet I've never had it in my life, and after having had numerous blood tests, my Doctors have confirmed that I'm completely healthy. I just needed to clarify that fact so as to avert having my identity switched with someone else's, and then being labeled in such a way that I'd literally be treated like a pariah. I'd never harass anyone over their health issues, and it doesn't make sense for anyone to burden me with health issues I've never had, especially to give others the impression that I've given other people hepatitis or something of that nature, which I've never done.

In the interest of protecting people, there are cults in this world who attempt to weaponize the golden rule, even using it to justify infecting others with illness or disease if they suspect that you've done the same, or you've been mislabeled as having done so to someone else. Be cautious in this world and its current dynamic.

Here's a list of the members of The Act as far as I can recall, including how our lineup changed over the years:

Founding members:

Early pre-gigging, light gigging days

Chris Ridding (Vocalist, Acoustic Guitar, Piano)

Michael Hazlitt (Lead Guitar, Vocals)

Tom #1 (Drummer)

Brian Joseph Johns (Keyboardist, Vocalist)

Dave Breckells (Drummer)

Unknown Guitarist/Saxophonist (awesome musician that was part of the package deal that came with Dave Breckells)

Regular gigging days:

Chris Ridding (Vocalist, Acoustic Guitar, Piano)

Tom (Lead Guitar, Vocals)

Brian Joseph Johns (Keyboardist, Vocalist)

Andy (Bass Guitar: technically awesome bass player on the skill level of Billy Sheehan)

Tom #1 (early Drummer)

Tom #2 aka Banker Tom (later Drummer)

As Standing Room Only/The Act:

Chris Ridding (Vocalist, Acoustic Guitar, Piano)

Tom (Lead Guitar, Vocals)

Brian Joseph Johns (Keyboardist, Vocalist)

Andy (Bass Guitar: technically awesome bass player on the skill level of Billy Sheehan)

Peter (Bass Guitar: replaced Andy and had a rock solid meter)

Nathan (Bass Guitar: replaced Peter and was good addition)

Tom #2 aka Banker Tom (Drummer)

Blaine (official Drummer of Standing Room Only and The Act)

Founding members of the Standing Room Only/The Act

Chris Ridding

Brian Joseph Johns

Song writing credits:

The song writing process  that occurred during rehearsals was entirely the participation of the entire band, and we did write a few songs that way, including Shattered Dreams and Smile and Look Innocent, which were actually quite popular at that time and great examples of how bands can work together to write music. I wish we had recordings from back then, though our studio recording sessions were with Chris Ridding up until the point of his passing away. I've not heard those recordings since the mid 1990s.

Insane: written by Chris Ridding (lyrics)/Tom Lead Guitar (music). Insane was easily our most popular rock song, and was a very catchy and danceable tune with a hard edge.

Emptiness Subsides: written by Chris Ridding (lyrics)/Brian Joseph Johns (music). Emptiness Subsides was one of many ballad and popular rock songs that Chris and I wrote together. It would have been our hallmark ballad, following up Insane and Smile and Look Innocent as a single.

Chris and I had about ten other songs ready to go before the complications of life and managing a band made things difficult for us keeping the band together. The music business is tough, but being disciplined in any artform is probably the biggest obstacle of all, especially when you're young, and when egos (many of which are either swollen or fragile) are involved. It was a great experience, though in all truth I've been playing music since I was 8 years old.

Mike Hazlitt is a responsible family guy, and as reliable in a band, able to both write music and play covers in any tight squeeze, and always fun to work with. An awesome guy all around.

Tom Lead Guitar was crucial to our edgier rock songs. He was an extraordinary guitar player, especially when throwing out Jimmy Page style riffs, though he never copied any guitarist's style. He had his own melodic leads which I always found to be very inventive. In a way, he had the melodic ear that guitarist Billy Duffy of The Cult was able to grind out melodically positive and uplifting leads, even when the music was more melancholy nor minor. Tom could really come up with some leads that plateaued the final chorus of whatever song we were playing.

Both Tom drummers (#1 and Banker Tom) were good with delivering a solid rhythm section, and when Blaine became part of the Standing Room Only/The Act, he really brought a level of versatility that allowed us to both cover and write some pretty technical music. For instance, we were gigging the song Long Time/Foreplay by Boston even before they did it live. Their older concerts skipped the intro and generally used the studio keyboard and guitar backing tracks as they were perfectionists (especially Tom Schulz) for their live sound, because they were a studio band. 

When we were picking our covers, we'd typically pick songs that featured our capabilities (Rush covers for drums, Led Zeppelin for guitar, Journey for bass and keys, Pink Floyd for a holistic presentation). I suggested we try Long Time/Foreplay after I wrote a transcript of the keyboard part, which was not available anywhere during the 1990s. We practiced it for about a week, and performed it for the first time live at a show that doubled as my twentieth birthday party, and it went over quite well. We included as part of our regular set list from that point forward. We were fortunate to have such technically gifted drummers, each of whom brought their own skill and inventiveness to the fray. 

Dave Breckells is legendary amongst musicians in the local music scene, and it was an honour to be able to perform with him. Top level professional, and a rock solid meter that's better than a digital metronome. Diversely talented and able to play as steady as Ringo, or as complex as Neil Peart.

I had my first official jams when I was 13 years old, using my parent's P.A. equipment and a Wurlitzer electric piano and a Korg 1701 2-oscillator synthesizer, long before MIDI existed. My co-conspirator was guitarist/composer Steve Vitali at that time. I was 13 years old and he was 18 years old and perhaps at that time, the best guitarist I'd ever heard. I seem to recall him being able to whip out Eddie Van Halen leads like they were nothing. He was a really good guitarist back then, and I was just getting started as a keyboardist, though most of what we played were ballads to impress his girlfriend of that time. Stuff like Foreigner's Waiting For A Girl Like You and what not. At 13, I was able to manage that song with only those two keyboards and no MIDI.

Insofar as The Act was concerned, we were fortunate to have people who were easy going and managed to keep the band politics relatively easy going. We always had fun on stage, and probably the thing I remember the most about gigging was learning to dodge the plastic tips on drum sticks, because during a live gig, as a stationary keyboardist, you're hit all the time every time one of the plastic tips breaks off, or if the drum stick breaks. After every gig, I'd have about five or six welts on the back of my neck and head after having been pelted by broken drum sticks and the plastic tips.

People talk about getting nervous performing, but honestly I think we were only nervous our first time. I seem to remember having no problem being on stage, and the rest of the band were pretty active showmen, so we made it a lot of gun. In our later gigs, as keyboard equipment became lighter and easier to throw around, I used to really rock my keyboards, throwing them all over the place as I played, without mucking up my parts.

What's really funny is that I've always been more of a synthesizer and new wave/alternative music fan. I was one of the first people in Canada to have music by The Specials, Visage, the Sex Pistols, Bauhaus, Simple Minds, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxie and the Banshees, The Fixx, Big Country and the Buggles to name a few bands I used to listen to from the old days, around the same time I listened to Supertramp and Rush. I had a co-worker named Doug, from an ice cream store where I used to work who introduced me to the band Tears for Fears (long after I'd already been into the new wave and goth bands I previously mentioned). 

He was a dead ringer for Tom Cruise, so naturally years later when there were all of these people questioning whether or not I was a real new wave and Goth, or if I'd just copied the style of the Doug guy who introduced me to Tears for Fears, I ended up in a situation where a lot of people regarded me as a "fake" or "unauthentic" as is the new attack word of the day. Mostly Tom Cruise obsessed fans, who can be quite toxic as most people know, though that's no fault of his own.

So, to set the record straight, I was into new wave and electronic music long before I'd ever heard Tears for Fears and Ultravox (I recall listening to a lot of Jean Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Boomtown Rats and the Stranglers, Depeche Mode long before I heard Tears for Fears and Ultravox (no disrespect meant to Roland Orzabel or Curt Smith or Midge Ure as we're all old school keyboardists). I had always wanted to play with a new wave band, but fate pushed me towards playing rock music, and I thoroughly enjoyed it and playing in The Act, but quite honestly, I was dying my hair and dressing like a musician from the age of 14. I even got beat up for it a couple of times and knocked out once by a bully in school who slammed my head into a locker because I was wearing eye liner. Years later, someone else tried to steal that history from me, a guitar player who has up until recently been wearing my identity as their own, despite the fact that I am not a guitar player, and despite the fact that I used to dye my hair and wear eye liner, I am a heterosexual male and not transgender and I support LGBTQ2 rights. As I always say, maybe I'm a male lesbian? I'm 6 feet tall by the way, and currently weigh about 175 lbs and am fairly fit despite my age.

The only record of our having been a band is a recording on YouTube from our gig as the opening act for Legendary Metal Queen and more recently a Jazz singer extraordinaire: Lee Aaron at the Purple Onion in Oshawa, a venue that could hold about ten thousand people, one of the last big bar venues from the old days, though I'm very grateful to know that the Phoenix Concert Theatre is still going strong and is just around the corner from Shhhh! Digital Media.

Us as The Act performing our originals: Insane and Emptiness Subsides

This was recorded on video in February of 1992, back when I would have been 23 years old at the time of that gig. Chris is the lead singer, Tom is the guitarist, Peter is the bassist, and Blaine is the drummer. I was the youngest in the band, and I honestly have lost track of everyone from The Act, having found out about Chris' death about two years ago. I often wonder how the other guys are, or even if they're still with us.

If you are out there, I hope that life is treating you well. Just don't go Insane, and when in doubt: Smile and Look Innocent.

Copyright © 2012 - 2026 Brian Joseph Johns