Pronounced ‘Bryce’, 27-year-old Londoner Brijs’ musical ventures place him apart from all those riding the conventional rehearse-gig-record-gig carousel. Sure, he’s walked those boards too, having played bass on stage and in the studio for Will Joseph Cook prior to the latter signing for Atlantic Records. But it’s his solo compositions, whether written for the screen or the wider pop market, which have been earning him acclaim.

Brijs’ debut EP, Friends, went straight into Spotify’s star-making Fresh Finds playlist, while another early demo, Thunder, was plucked by Strongbow for the cider giant’s 2016 commercials. Then there are Brijs’ film scores, his soundtracks including the 2016 short, We Love Moses, which recently won Best British Short at the London Critics Circle Film Awards, The Dinard British Film Festival and the Iris Prize Festival.

As for influences and inspirations, Brijs says he’s moved on from the downbeat and somewhat aloof indie-pop scene he once aspired to. “Over the past couple of years I’ve come to appreciate the heart on the sleeve approach — to embrace the cliché that was somehow more acceptable in the past,” he declares, citing a soundscape somewhere between indie pop and psych pop, featuring big hooks, led by guitar riffs, classic synths and drum machines. Specific touchstones encompass some Seventies and Eighties greats – Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Springsteen, Paul Simon — alongside more contemporary acts ranging from The Shins, Tame Impala and Arcade Fire through to Father John Misty, Phoenix, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and beyond. With a debut album on its way and plenty more screen ventures to come, Brijs continues to make waves as a versatile musician, composer and producer, broadening the nation’s sonic architecture via whatever format presents itself.

Following a frenetic writing period in 2017, Big & The Fat broke out with their first shows across London last year, and it was quickly apparent that this is a band that writes their own rules on ‘cool’. ‘Fruit / Crack Crack’ will be their first dish served up this year, through the newly formed We Can Do It Records this March.

The first appetiser ‘Crack Crack’ is a wonderfully sleazy, sexy, bugged out recipe from the London four-piece, a heady mix of Krautrock-inspired beats, distressed guitars, beaten down vocals, and a simmering, pulsing bass.

It’s at once claustrophobic and sinister, pent up and seductive, crawling with a 5am drugged up feel, and is the perfect introduction to a band you’re going to be hearing a lot about in 2018. Frankly, music never tasted so good.

LIVE

07 Apr – LONDON – Lock Tavern (Single launch party)

18 May – LONDON – The Monarch