Field Music's David Brewis announces debut solo album with new single "The Last Day"

"The Last Day" is the first taster of Brewis' debut solo album, and according to Brewis, it "grew from a project with North-East poet Paul Summers and a group of young people who were nearing their school-end exams. As a starting point for the young people, I turned my own last day reminiscing - complete with mild threat and underage drinking - into a song. The initial demo was something of a Velvets-style chug but with Peter’s hard-swung march and an added brass arrangement (with trombones by David Smith and Craig Hissett and saxophones by Pete Fraser) it found a place on this otherwise gentler record."

"Whenever Peter [Brewis] or I release music outside of Field Music we’re asked, “what makes this different from a Field Music record?” Well, my best explanation is that in Field Music it feels like we’re aiming for a synthesis of everything we’re interested in at any one time," Brewis says of his upcoming record. "With each record we add a few more ingredients to the pot and some flavours drift into the background. But when either of us just want to focus on one thing, on one particular palette, that’s when the solo projects and extra-curricular activities come into their own. The Soft Struggles does indeed have a very particular focus and very particular palette."

He concludes, "From our entire combined catalogue, this album is possibly the furthest away from any recognisable “Field Music sound”; the thoroughly-unplugged instrumentation, jazz-inflected songwriting, spontaneous ensemble playing, including dazzling contributions from Sarah Hayes and Faye MacCalman, and lush string arrangements which twist around and punctuate the songs. And perhaps, like the experiments of School of Language or The Week That Was or Frozen By Sight, this album will eventually become part of Field Music’s bubbling stew. Or perhaps not."

Tracklist:

1. Can We Put It In The Diary
2. Surface Noise
3. Tomorrow
4. When You First Meet
5. It Takes a Long Time
6. Start Over
7. Keeping Up With Jessica
8. High Time
9. The Last Day
10. The King of Growing Up