John Joseph Brill streams False Names EP and chats to Best Fit

Brill's short-player features four moving tracks, sodden with reverb and rich baritone - it's an endlessly emotional release that has the power to send violent shivers up your spine. Coupling potent lyrics with a complex voice, Brill presents an EP that drifts between post-punk, folk, Southern Gothic, and acoustic pop.

Stream False Names below and read our Q&A after.

Could you tell us a bit about how you wrote/recorded the EP?

The EP is a series of stories, all true and all tentatively connected. They're all sort of love songs, about a lover, about close friends and in one case about myself. It was quite a natural record to write, I'd moved up to Liverpool and the new environment gave me a great deal of energy, which in turn led to me churning out songs. We recorded over seven days at Elevator Studios in Liverpool, which is an incredible space, we played a lot of chess, drank a lot of coffee, and ate an ungodly amount of Snyder's Pretzel Pieces.

What was the easiest song to get together? Which was the hardest?

"We Won't Cry" took about five minutes to write and about 10 minutes to record and is my favourite song of mine. It was so instant and organic and honest.

"Kings" is a challenging song, some of the musical ideas in there have been knocking around my brain for years so it was sort of a challenge to piece all those disparate thoughts together in to some some sort of coherent collage. And then I kept fucking up the guitar part in the studio and Tom, the producer, had to send me for a walk!

What's the most important thing you learned from the process?

Don't eat too many Pretzel Pieces.

There are two new(er) tracks on there - "San Spirito" and "We Won't Cry" - can you explain what their about for us?

"Santo Spirito" is the story of one of the best nights of my life, it's about drunkenly roaming the streets of Florence and being wildly in love. "We Won't Cry" is a more difficult one to talk about, it's the closest thing I could write to a prayer I think, a prayer for the strength that comes from knowing that someone loves you and how that can temper almost any kind of darkness.

Are there any moments on the EP you're particularly proud of?

I've never written a song like "False Names" before, I didn't really know I could write songs like "False Names"... the man it's about it is so close to my heart, I was so pleased I could capture him and the significance of our friendship in a song. And from a performance perspective, the vocal at the end of "We Won't Cry"...

What aspect of your music are you complimented on most? How do you feel about that?

It's difficult because I feel like a lot of people only really view me as a piece of meat. They can't see past my abs and guns and winning smile... I'm more than that... y'know? I'm a person with feelings... and lyrics and a kick-ass baritone...

Yeah.. mainly the lyrics, which pleases me.

There are a lot of layers and textures - how is that recreated live?

I am very lucky in that I get to play with a brilliant band. And thankfully they're all on the record! So we use a lot of reverb pedals and some drum pads but we always want the live performance to feel properly live, so we shy away from backing tracks and the like.

What's next for you?

I really need a shower. More coffee. And then I better get on with writing the next record. Also loads of festivals.

What are you looking forward to this summer?

Wilderness Festival should be incredible. I'm also really excited about playing some of the new songs live. Plus the Euros... we shouldn't be starting Rooney.

Brill's False Names EP is released 3 June via Killing Moon.