Interviews: Taking Control - An Interview with The Brew - Sea of Tranquility - The Web Destination for Progressive Music!

Main Menu

Interviews:

Taking Control - An Interview with The Brew

Posted on Sunday, April 20 2014 @ 04:55:50 CDT by Dean Pedley

Formed back in 2004 and with three albums, a live release and festivals and gigs with heavyweights such as Ozzy, Skynyrd, Jeff Beck and ZZ Top behind them, The Brew (Jason Barwick on vocals/guitar and the father and son rhythm section of Tim and Kurt Smith) have really hit their stride with latest release Control. Dean Pedley caught up with the band ahead of their upcoming UK tour.

Hi guys and welcome to Sea of Tranquility, how are things in The Brew camp today?

Everything's great thank you. We have just currently finished our epic European tour and now ready to kickstart the UK again

Can you take us through a potted history of The Brew story so far…

We've been together since end of 2004 Kurt was 16 and Jason was 15 when it all kicked off, we spent years travelling up and down the M1 playing clubs all over the country, when took the decision to try a different approach and left the UK and started playing shows in the Netherlands and Germany, things happened a lot quicker over there, a few years later we had an opportunity to play the legendary TV show in Germany ROCKPALAST with Joe Bonamassa, and ever since then things have been on the up for playing big shows and a lot of great headline tours across Europe.

A number of clubs across the UK rarely take a chance on bands that play original material unless they are "heritage" acts, has it been difficult to secure the right venues and how do see the live scene here right now?

No it wasn't difficult as we do have a fan base in the UK still and whereas now we have a story to tell of our success abroad and it seems to be carrying across to the UK. like in a lot of places the live scene is getting better I think there's a lot more people going out there way to discover new music which is great for us and shows an improvement from previous years.

The album has gotten some great reviews, how pleased are you with the response so far

It's been great so far! we are all overwhelmed with the great reviews and positive response from the media and we are all genuinely really pleased with the finished product of the record!

Toby Jepson produced the album, how was he to work with and what did he bring to the table so to speak

Toby was great to work with! He was totally on the same wave length as us, we all just sat down and said the brew is a strong live 3 piece power trio with energetic stage performance so let's capture that energy on this album and record completely live and keep it raw!

The direct titles of the songs is a quirky feature, how did this come about?

Well when I (Tim) started to look at the lyrics I was writing I noticed a theme of either looking backwards or forwards or the moment that you stood in within your life. The idea came to me that it would be really good if you could control your life with a remote control! So the idea was born I put the idea to the guys and they loved it also they thought it was a unique idea.

Did Toby share any anecdotes from his days with Little Angels at all…

He did share a few very interesting stories but that's for him to tell other people not us ;-)

How is the rest of 2014 panning out for you – would you been keen on festivals this summer?

Yeah of course! festivals are always good fun for us! We have a lot of great festivals lined up across Europe and we do have a very busy year planned out after the festival season with part 2 of our European tour.

Finally, here we go with the quick fire round…no sitting on the fence with this one…

ZZ Top or Lynryd Skynryd?

ZZ Top

Jeff Beck or Joe Bonamassa?

Jeff Beck

Tea, coffee, wine or beer?

All of them

Clubs or festivals?

Festivals

Grimsby or Germany?

Germany

'Control' UK Tour May 2014
THU 1st - MANCHESTER - Academy 3
FRI 2nd - LONDON - 100 Club
SAT 3rd - HARTLEPOOL - The Belle Vue Club
SUN 4th - NEWCASTLE - Cluny 2
WED 7TH - BILSTON - Robin 2
THU 8TH - CHESTERFIELD - Real TIme Live
FRI 9TH - EDINBURGH -Bannermans
SAT 10TH - BALLYMENA - The Diamond Rock Club
MON 12TH - OXFORD - Bullingdon
TUE 13TH - CARDIFF - The Globe
WED 14th - SOUTHAMPTON - THE BROOK
FRI 16TH - DONCASTER - Dome
SUN 18TH - COCKERMOUTH - Saints Rooms

The Brew are:
Jason Barwick - Guitar & Vocals
Kurtis Smith - Drums
Tim Smith - Bass & Vocals

Official website: www.the-brew.net
Facebook: thebrewofficial
Twitter : TheBrewUK