Having spent his early 20’s fronting London based heavy rock outfit Burning Beard, John Joseph Brill established himself as a mainstay of the West London music scene. The same musical community that bred The Staves, Laura Marling and Bear’s Den heavily influenced Brill to explore a more confessional, honest form of songwriting and in 2013 he left his former band and the capital and moved to Liverpool. There he honed his craft as a solo artist, immersed in the oeuvre of Leonard Cohen, Jason Molina and Neil Young he began writing and performing, in his unique baritone style, songs about everything from heartbreak to death and friendship.
John Joseph Brill has now released two critically acclaimed Eps, amassing close to 1,000,000 Spotify streams. The first, the Pieces EP, (produced by Andrew Davie of Bear’s Den and Kristoffer Harris) laid a foundation at radio with support coming from Radio 1, 6 Music, Radio 2 and Radio X as well as in Europe. Lead single ‘Muscle and Bone’ featured as Q’s ‘Track of the Week’, Clash’s ‘Track of the Day’ and received widespread blog coverage. ‘False Names’, the second of the two EP’s, continued to build increased support at radio and online and spawned European support slots with Daughter and Bear’s Den, topped off with a sold out headline show at St Pancras Old Church and a support with Carole King at Hyde Park’s British Summer Time.
At home in the UK, John has sold out headline shows in multiple major cities and has supported Richard Hawley, Jenny Lee and Nick Mulvey. All this in addition to key slots at Reading & Leeds, Secret Garden Party and Wilderness as well as packed rooms at 7 Layers and Reeperbahn have made for a very exciting 2016 both in the UK and Europe for the brandy-warm baritone songsmith.
