soundCHECK 221 – October 17th 2013

Consider standing on stage, alone, at a foreign music festival. Go on, picture yourself. You are face-to-face with a field-full of expectant German music fans, who have gathered to quaff Pilsener and watch you sing to them. For some humans, such a scenario would stoke genuine dread; the kind of panic attack-inducing fear triggered by finding the wrong kind of over-excited false widow in bed with you. For North Devon-bred Joe Brewer (nom de guerre: One Man Boycott), opening the main stage at Germany’s biggest free outdoor music festival – Wutzrock Festival in Hamburg – was the defining moment of a ferociously busy summer, which started launching a solo career and finished signing a contract with multi-million pound record label Spectra. Not bad for two months work.

“I’m stoked,” state-the-obviouses Brewer while becoming the envy of hobbyist songwriters across North Devon. “So many people said I was crazy heading out alone on such a big scale without having gone solo before, so I’m delighted to get picked up off the back of a tour that nearly didn’t happen at all.”

Brewer’s solo career is in its infancy. Still wiping its snotty nose with its jumper sleeve. Yet this is not the story of a man who has lucked out overnight. Before going solo Brewer spent two years as the bassist in much-loved local outfit Severe:Zero, freighting their hook-laden post-punk with thunderous riffs while accompanying vocalist Luke Bond with harmonies of a pitch that suggested Brewer had his own personal helium hook-up. Before that he performed in North Devon with his brother Ben Brewer in punk-rock trio Halley’s Apparition. Before even that, while still at school, he played in another punk-rock trio called Hollowpoint. Bottom line: the whole signed-after-two-months thing doesn’t quite tell the whole story. Brewer has paid his dues. And he’s not about to get complacent.

“I’m actually still coming to terms with the situation. I took a leap of faith, worked really hard and pulled it off. I guess the only thing that has changed about the way I feel is that all the times I lose confidence or doubt myself, I’ve got that little voice at the back of my mind that says ‘yeah but you got signed after two months, you must be doing something right!’ I know it’s a cliché but there’s no doubt in my mind that the hard work starts here.”

Listen to One Man Boycott’s blistering, bouncy, heartfelt EP at joebrewer.bandcamp.com.

North Devon should be proud.

CONTACT: Got a gig coming up? New band video? Had a rubbish week? jharper[at]northdevonjournal.co.uk | @testforpulse

soundCHECK 206 – July 4th 2013

I don’t fancy myself at much. That especially applies to being a language pedant. Nobody, nowhere is afforded the right to sound a clarion call for prescribed linguistic tampering. Not even bona fide intellectual heavyweights like Stephen Fry or Will.i.am. Yet there’s a word rife in colloquial discourse that is making stock pub chat readily hateable.

‘Banter.’

Banter, banter, banter. The new foam-brained defence of the tediously derisive; those guffawing imbeciles who mistake wit for witless insult. ‘Calm down mate, it’s just banter.’ As if when chundered with enough gusto this disyllabic noun endows its speaker with carte blanche to spout as many oafishly incendiary remarks as she or he can muster. Well played, humans. Well played.

Surely I am not alone in my hatred of the word; my banter-animus. It would be a lonely struggle if I were. A solo crusade. The kind of solo crusade that allows me to clumsily segue into introducing a new musical proposition named One Man Boycott, who I must do words about on account of his North Devon roots.

One Man Boycott is the new nom de plume of Joe Brewer, whose musical CV includes North Devon bands Hollowpoint, Halley’s Apparition (where he is joined by big brother Ben Brewer) and SevereZero. The breakup of the latter left Brewer bereft of a creative outlet. And creative people need creative outlets like the body needs water. One Man Boycott is the resulting rebellion.

After launching the live incarnation of the new project with his debut show at Shintori in Barnstaple a couple of weeks ago, Brewer is preparing an aural onslaught on lugholes across the UK and Europe. The debut EP is ready for release, he’s designed a bunch of rather fetching One May Boycott tees and has a series of live shows lined up in Hamburg.

Most of what is currently available online are acoustic demos but the track Self Help Puncher gives you an idea of the breakneck, blistering punk-rock that awaits. (Incidentally the If I Survive EP was co-produced and mastered by SevereZero’s Luke Bond and also features a guest appearance from the same band’s virtuosic drums-man Frank Rawle. Musical magnetism is still pulling these boys together.) Ogle the merch, scrutinise the tracks and, if you’re so inclined, pre-order the EP at onemanboycott.com. That is if you can figure out how to work an internet.

Banter.

CONTACT: Here’s the deal: tell me your local gig news and I’ll write about it. jharper[at]northdevonjournal.co.uk | @testforpulse.