David Brewis

English musician David Brewis has been making artfully complex yet tuneful indie pop since the mid-2000s, both with his brother, Peter Brewis, in the acclaimed band Field Music and with his solo project School of Language. After building up a prolific catalog with both projects, the musical polymath -- Brewis is a singer, songwriter, producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist -- continued to expand his range on 2023's jazzy chamber folk set, The Soft Struggles, his first album under his own name. Growing up in Sunderland, Brewis and his brother began playing music in their teens and quickly developed an affinity for writing and recording their own music. After forming a few fledgling bands, they launched Field Music in 2004. Architects of brainy, tightly arranged indie rock that took cues from XTC, Steely Dan, Prefab Sprout, Roxy Music, and Prince, Field Music became consistent critical favorites over the ensuing years, releasing acclaimed albums like 2010's Field Music (Measure), 2012's Mercury Prize-nominated Plumb, and 2018's Open Here, all on the Memphis Industries label. Even in the early part of the band's career, David Brewis challenged himself to step out and in 2008 launched the solo side project School of Language. His first album, Sea from Shore, was similar in tone to Field Music, though with stronger elements of new wave and funk. During the next decade, Field Music remained his primary concern, though he paused to release another School of Language set, 2014's Old Fears, and collaborate with artists like Eleanor Friedberger and Slug. A third School of Language album, 45, appeared in 2019, taking aim at American president Donald Trump. After two more Field Music releases, Brewis made his first music as a solo artist under his own name. As a personal challenge, he wrote a set of stripped-down, largely acoustic songs that mixed jazzy folk and chamber pop and which he then arranged with a group of friends. The Soft Struggles was released in 2023 on Daylight Savings, a label he and Peter founded for their non-Field Music projects.
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