Sorry about the lack of updates folks, I’ve been super busy with touring, recording and bringing up a newborn baby!
The artwork for our new single by Mutartis Boswell
Due to current events, Greyum and I have decided to move forward our Keepers Brew first single release from our new album.
Physical media will still be a while, however all pre-orders taken, will include a free digital download of our first new single in a while....'BATTLESTAR SCIATICA'
Artwork by Mutartis Boswell and a b-side remix of ‘Toad Licker’ by Adam Goodlet/Re:Creation and KB’s very own Greyum May!
Here's the links to pay as much (or as little) as you like for a digital copy and a super reasonable price for the physical release 🙂
I had an excellent time in Belgium and Amsterdam with Keepers Brew. Two very different but equally enjoyable shows in an old church and at the Q-Factory with my fretless brethren. So good to finally some of my fellow fretless devotees and hear their approach to playing this unique instrument.
Live shot from Holy Space, Lokeren, Belgium.
Then the following weekend was a trip to Liverpool to play at the home of The Beatles, The Cavern Club. It certainly is something special to play their songs in the venue they are famous for.
Finally the new Dlugokecki single “X10” is out now, with yours truly as the pirate guitarist. Watch the video to find out more!
Next up is Anthropos Festival with Keepers Brew, shows with The Mo Woods Band then a mini UK tour with KB before heading back into the studio.
Here's a link to the article (click here) and for those of you who cant speak dutch it says:
"On Saturday 11 May the festival will be closed by Keepers Brew with the fretless guitarist Stu Brewer. This group is difficult to describe. Call it dark jazz, or perhaps electronic, industrial psychedelic music."
Love the fact that they cant describe us either! Thanks Emiel for doing the interview and if you’re in Amsterdam on May 11th come and see the fretless fun!
Well, aren’t I an idiot! While trimming some sticky residue off the back of one of my pedals I slipped and sliced open my hand with a Stanley knife. A trip to hospital and 7 stitches later all is back together again although I’m off guitar for at least a week to give it chance to heal.
Seriously though if I had gone any deeper or the cut been horizontal that could’ve been the end of my guitar playing career. Also I was lucky that the blade was sharp leaving a nice clean straight cut. Fingers crossed everything knits together well and I’ll be back playing in no time!
Also it gives me an awesome name for a solo album/song - “Frakenhand”.
To cure/compound my guitar playing woes I’ll be off to the Guitar Show this coming weekend. Pop by the Vigier/HTD booth and say hi if you’re there and make sure you catch the amazing Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal in action. Ron has been one of my main influences so I cant wait to see him up close on his Doublefoot guitar.
January has only just hit us and there’s already lots of things to look forward to.
Tomorrow (Sunday 13th) Keepers Brew has the first in a series of streaming concerts beamed direct to your homes. If its cold outside, you don’t want to get dressed but crave some live music have a watch in your dressing gown and let me know what you think. It starts at 9pm on the Keepers Brew facebook page so set yourself a reminder.
Also on the 19th, Dlugokecki release their next single “Lightyears” with yours truly on guitar. I managed to squeeze some fretless onto this slice of pop, see if you’re earholes can spot it when it’s released.
To Support the single release we’ll be doing a series of dates in February, starting with a gig at The Stage Door in Southampton on the 1st.
Happy new year and let me know about your musical adventures in 2019!
Where did 2018 go! It flew by in a whirlwind of concerts, sessions, teaching and music adventures of all kinds. I’ve had tons of gigs with Keepers Brew, Paramore Or Less, Dlugokecki and The Mo Woods Band across the length and breadth of the country and have been busy writing and playing on lots of new releases. That’s not to mention all my amazing students achieving awesome musical things this past 12 months.
In gear news I’ve loving my two new axes, my Vigier Surfreter and Excalibur Custom Rock Art and went all ethnic but adding to the world instrument collection and buying a bouzouki while in Greece.
However my best creation of the year has to be my son Beowulf aka Wulf, born on December 20th. With his sisters Wyn and Will I’m expecting an awesome power trio, I’d call them WWW.
2019 is shaping up to absolutely huge. I’ve already got gigs booked in Amsterdam, New York, Czech Republic and across the UK. Also have some tasty masterclasses and clinics lined up so keep posted for those.
There will be new album releases from Keepers Brew and Dlugokecki plus if I can get my arse in gear perhaps a solo/trio release from yours truly.
I’ll be offering HD lessons via Skype in the new year. Come for a chat about the industry, gear, advance your guitar playing or talk about your struggles in music and your mental wellbeing and I’ll distill my wisdom and help you progress in 2019.
Howdy Sonic Adventurers! Thought it was time for a quick update from Studio Brewdio land.
Firstly NAMM was insane. So intense but with some great gear and players on show. Looking forward to going back next year. Thanks for the Vigier peeps for having me and for having my ugly mug on a poster! My two custom Vigier's are still in production, Patrice Vigier doesn't rush his builds and all the better for it and with a bit of luck they should be ready by June.
Keeping on the gear front I'm happy to say I am now an Origin Effects endorsee! I absolutely love their compressors and their newly released Revival drive look like the Swiss army knife of overdriven guitar tones. Cant wait to get my hands on one. Watch this space for reviews and video demo's over the next few weeks.
I've also had a big pedalboard change, swapping to a Temple pedalboard (love the modular design) and added some more Fuzzrocious goodness (Blast Furnace and my custom Feed Me/Grey Stache mashup) and my all time favourite envelope filter, an Emma Discumbobulator v2.
Playing wise its full steam ahead for Keepers Brew duo shows with me neck deep in rehearsals along with plenty of Paramore (Or Less) shows. Also recording of the new Dlugokecki album is nearing completion with live dates imminent. Finally even more session and dep work starting with some funky Mowtown goodness from the Mo Woods Band next week.
My teaching schedule is rammed. My student rock bands bossed it at this terms gigs, I'm really going to miss them when the head off to ACM. Their next gig is Rock The Rooms at the Wedgewood Rooms in June.
I have a couple of Studio Brewdio t-shirts left so message me if you want one and keep checking back for more musical mischief!
We're here! After what seems like endless travelling on planes, trains and automobiles and little to no sleep we're up and ready for NAMM to kick off today.
I'll be posting updates and pics throughout the show but send me a message if you want to say hi, I'll be playing on the Vigier stand at 4pm PT (Midnight in the UK) and let me know if there's anything at the show you want me to check out.
Have you ever wondered what if the cantina Luke and Obi Wan walked into in Mos Eisley was the bar from From Dusk Til Dawn?
Well you have now...
Thank you everyone for making 2017 such an great year musically.
2018 is already jam packed with musical adventures, gear delights and gigs far and wide! A big thank you must go out to Keepers Brew and Greyum, Ben, Vigier Patrice and all the awesome people at Vigier Guitars and Vigier - France and Ryan and Fuzzrocious Pedals, see you next year!
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from myself and everyone involved with Studio Brewdio, especially Sebastiane and the 2 younglings.
Xmas wouldn't be complete without the most festive of things, Star Wars! Enjoy...
Had an excellent evening of psychedelic music last night with Keepers Brew, accompanied by Nodens Ictus at the 1865 in Southampton. It was great to finally use my Vigier in battle and the show went really well (apart from my ebow taking a stage dive and severing the cables halfway through!).
Next up in the festive season is Paramore Or Less next Saturday at the Talking Heads followed by my awesome student bands playing in Portsmouth.
Then to cap it all off there's a certain Star Wars film coming out that I could be a little bit excited for!
Well I've spent the last 24 hours with this wonderful instrument and I am seriously impressed!
I've gone through so many strat type guitars over the years and without exception all of them have been lacking something, whether it be tone at the expense of design or poor workmanship on mass produced guitars.
This Vigier Classic Rock has cured my quest for a single coil tone machine!
I'll do an in-depth review and tone test video over the next few days but the quality, sound and innovation on this fantastic guitar is amazing.
Here's a quick Tone Test on my new Nik Huber Krautster II. This thing is a rock monster and has one of the best volume knob sweeps I have ever heard. The way it cleans up is so musical.
I used my ever trusty Fractal Audio AX8 for the recording, using mainly a CAE 3+SE model with tons of gain to show how the volume tapers off. There's also a little bit of AC30 thrown in for good measure.
Please let me know what you think below in the comments and Like/Subscribe if you want to hear more!
Just had confirmation from the lovely people at Vigier that my first of three Vigier's has left the factory on its way to me.
This one is the "normal" one, an Expert Classic Rock. Three single coils for that retro vibe but with none of the headache's you get with your average Strat. I especially love the inclusion of a locking jack plug socket, what a genius idea and locking tuners to make string changes a breeze.
I'll do an unboxing and demo video as soon as it arrives but in the meantime I get to look at those pictures sent from Lina at the factory.
Finally I've had my other two Vigier orders confirmed. These are the more "out there" ones and will be ready in about 6 months time. I can't wait!
Lots of exciting happens in Studio Brewdio land recently but the most important being I am now a Vigier Guitars artist/endorsee!
I can't wait to start using their amazing guitars on the upcoming Keepers Brew shows and do some clinics and trade shows worldwide.
I've ordered 3 guitars to use. An anti-tobacco burst Expert Classic Rock for those single coil strat moments, a Surfreter fretless which is going to be so much fun to play and the Stu Brewer/Keepers Brew "signature" model, an Excalibur Original in Rock Art red, purple and white finish with floyd rose trem and kill switch for all my widdling needs.
My Expert should be here in the next few weeks with the Surfreter and Excalibur being built for me and should be ready in 6-8 months.
Finally its great to be sharing a guitar luthier with the amazing Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal. Having bought his first album when it came out as a kid I've adored his playing and the humour in his songs, plus we both have cool beards. Now I get to share guitars with him and hopefully play alongside him at NAMM, I better get practising!
I'm happy to announce that I'm working with the awesome people at Positive Grid in doing some video reviews for their gear. I'll also be using them both live, in the studio and giving all the lowdown on how to get the best sound out of their products.
My first video for the Bias Fx software has just been released, take a look below and let me know what you think!
Also stay tuned for my upcoming demo of the Bias Distortion pedal, it's good enough to eat!
What an absolutely hectic few months! I've finished off UK tours, ended the teaching year with an amazing gig from my student bands and been on a lovely holiday to France.
I've got one more festival to play next weekend and then its back to work with a new years teaching, Keepers Brew tour dates on the horizon and some tasty session work in the pipeline so watch this space!
I had a great day today recording video demo's with the one and only Mr Greyum May. We were demoing the rather splendid Bias guitar amp software from Positive Grid.
The official video will be ready soon but before that I thought I'd share this little gem. While having a quick look through the GoPro footage I realised 2 things:
I make the best guitar playing faces ever.
I make even better faces when playing the wrong last note, a semi tone out of all things!
What an insanely hectic few weeks! The gigs in London and Liverpool were fantastic in lovely venues with very appreciative crowds. It was also great to spend some time wandering around Liverpool, seeing the sites and soaking in the musical atmosphere along with a heavy dose of vinyl shopping!
Next up this weekend is a big trek playing in Birmingham and Glasgow. Its going to be a long drive but its always fun playing new places. I've never been to Glasgow so it will be nice to check out somewhere new.
While we've been on tour, Paramore have released their new album "After Laughter" and its certainly divided opinion. Straying wildly from their rock pop punk origins to a more 80's synth pop sound it really is a marmite moment. It's personally grown on me since I first heard it and any new album that has tons of chorused guitar on is ok in my book. We debuted the first single from the album, "Hard Times", at the last few gigs, beating the actual group in playing it live. It's had a great reception from the crowd and I'm sure we'll be adding more new ones to the set as soon as we can.
Anyway, I need to pack for the weekends gigging frivolities, see you on the road!
What a sad loss to the music world today and an untimely reminder of fragile mental health in all its shapes and forms and in all walks of life.
I grew up with the music of Soundgarden, covering their music in college bands and in awe of the technicality they brought to the music table at a time when it wasn't cool to be clever in rock composition. Chris's vocals and song writing chops were always out of this world and Superunknown has always been in my top 10 rock albums of all time. Its with great irony that I bought it only last week on vinyl while touring in Liverpool. Needless to say it has received heavy rotation today.
Rest in peace Mr Cornell, you will be sorely missed. Now can somebody please look after Eddie Vedder!
