Brett Winn may have taken first place in the recent Mormon Times Summer Showcase music contest, but he doesn't intend for his performance at last week's concert to be his last.

The 35-year-old from San Diego performed Aug. 27 at the culminating event of the four-month online music contest and took home the $5,000 first prize for receiving the most user votes. With several unfinished songs in the queue, he hopes to get back to writing and continue singing on stage.

"I really enjoy performing," he said. "I would love to do more things like the contest."

Making his entry, "The Only One" -- which he recorded on his computer in his living room -- available online stretched him a bit, because he wanted it to be perfect before people heard it.



"I was really shy about letting people listen to my music initially because I wanted it to be as good as it could be," he said.

Posting the song, which he describes as a fusion of Latin and alternative genres, on a Web site that receives thousands of hits a day was a beneficial experience for him, he said, as was performing in the Sandy concert with the other Showcase finalists.

"The concert was good for me," he said, and helped "take away some of that hesitation about putting out some of my music for people to hear. ... For me at least, that was a big change. That was a big step forward."

Winn was raised in California and attended BYU, graduating in 1998 with a degree in economics and a minor in music. He currently runs a media company with his brother. He said he was born into a musical family, as all five of his brothers play at least one instrument and sing, as do his parents. Growing up, they performed together in their ward, and Winn's brother Glenn sang backup for him at the Showcase concert.

He had just finished recording "The Only One" when he went to a friend's party and there on the counter was a copy of Mormon Times with an ad for the contest. He'd never entered anything like it before and submitted his song two weeks into the first round of voting.

He had to rally the troops pretty quickly to get enough votes to make it into the second round. He said family played an important supportive role as did the people from around the world who were his fans and voted for him on the Showcase contest Web site.

Winn said he also has a modest following from a series of short podcasts about a wide range of topics that he and his brother write, film and publish on www.whatyououghttoknow.com. Some of their followers are "are just ferociously loyal," and when they heard he was competing in a music contest, they came out to vote.

"They were just incredibly supportive," he said.

Winn said he'd love to make more music, as he values the creative outlet it provides. He said he doesn't always have control over where a song will go, which makes the process interesting. Winn said that from watching his brothers raise their kids, he sees the similarity between writing music and parenting.

"You can guide and you can kind of direct ... you do the best you can to channel this creativity, but the song really is what it is at the end of the day," he said.

One creative aspect of writing that he particularly enjoys is mixing seemingly opposing musical styles together. He has one song he's working on that is a combination of country and electronica, which is a fun blend, he said.

"It sounds weird when you say it that way ... but for me it makes the genre really interesting. It makes the song itself really interesting that there's this influence from two different genres that tend to be very isolated from each other."

The second-place prize of $2,000 went to Nathan Osmond, whose cousin, Brandon, won the first Showcase contest in March. Abby Paulsen, a BYU-Idaho student from Holladay, took third place and $1,000. The other three finalists were Jesse Lacko, Cameron Nichols and Rachel Sonderegger.

E-mail: mfarmer@desnews.com