Brian Carpenter is a singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, filmmaker, radio producer, engineer, and actor . He is the founder of Beat Circus, a Boston-based genre-bending ensemble founded in 2002 which spins cabaret, gospel, progressive rock, and Appalachian string music into its own blend of dark, funereal Americana. On January 29, 2008, he released Dreamland on Cuneiform Records, the first part of a "Weird American Gothic" trilogy of albums co-produced by NY producer Martin Bisi.  His second part of the trilogy, a Southern Gothic opus entitled Boy From Black Mountain, followed in September 2009, co-produced with Sean Slade and Bryce Goggin.  Brian is also the founder, composer, arranger, and trumpeter for the Ghost Train Orchestra, a ten-piece jazz orchestra based in New York City. He has performed and/or recorded with Michael Gira, Swans, Marc Ribot, Larkin Grimm, and Roswell Rudd.

He is also the director of two films currently in production, including a feature-length documentary on the life and legacy of Albert Ayler, on which he collaborated with many artists, including guitarist Marc Ribot, avant-garde filmmaker Michael Snow, trombonist Roswell Rudd, and comic strip writer Harvey Pekar. Brian is the creator and host of the "free-form experimental radio show" Free Association, which aired on WFIT (1996-1998) and WZBC (2001-2005).

2010-11 will see Carpenter fronting a new band called The Confessions.  Other current and upcoming projects include the debut album by the Ghost Train Orchestra playing music from late 1920s Chicago and Harlem co-produced with Grammy award-winning producer Danny Blume, the third part of Beat Circus' "Weird American Gothic" trilogy, a film score for animator Lorelei Pepi's cartoon Happy & Gay, and an acting role as Dadaist founder Hugo Ball in acclaimed filmmaker Martha Swetzoff's Perfect, Kind-Hearted Wickedness.

He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts with his wife Caroline and their son Alexander.