Biography

Overview

Primary instrument: Guitar (electric, acoustic (steel and nylon string) and midi), Bass guitar

Secondary instruments: Blues (Diatonic) Harmonica , Keyboards, Backing vocals (bass)

The story so far................

Born into a musical family, Simon Brewin was started on the piano at the age of about 2 and was writing music at 7. Fascinated by music, he would listen to his father’s records for hours. He moved onto brass instruments at 8, playing trumpet and then trombone in his local Scout band. At 16 he switched to guitar. He studied classically for a year, then took private lessons with a local session musician and completed the Rock Metal and Intermediate guitar courses at the Guitar Institute in London.

 At 22 he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston for 2 years, on the Performance Studies course, studying jazz and rock styles, theory, sound reinforcement, composition and film scoring. He graduated with the Berklee Certificate having made the Dean's list for excellence every semester.

  On returning to the UK he joined the London rock band “Nomad” as lead guitarist, and then joined the progressive heavy rock trio “Dead Calm”. After a year playing with the improvisational group the Kings Cross Project house band, he started the jazz funk band "Mobius", which performed regularly in London venues.

 His jazz duo “Indigo” grew into one of the most popular duos on the south coast, performing at least twice a week in and around Brighton, and has made two appearances on Southern Counties Radio. He produced and performed on the album “Old, New, Borrowed and Blue”.  He studied keyboards with pianist Terry Seabrook (Cubana Bop).

 He has also played with the Indie rock band “Jonny Wills and the World”, playing keyboards and engineering their album “Paradise Of Song”. Additionally he has worked with the Abba Tribute "Supertroopers", The blues band "The Roadrunners" and the function band "In Yer Face".

 Additionally he has done session work for The Broadway project (Memphis Industries/XL Records) and appeared on the RexRecords release “If I Was Prince”.

 Influences: 

Simon is a big fan of music generally, but a few names stand out. From the beginning: Holst, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Mozart. Early years: Pop bands like Madness, Prince and 70’s disco. Punk bands like the Sex Pistols and the Anti Nowhere League and rock bands Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Billy Idol. Funk and soul: James Brown (of course), Level 42, Funkadelic, The James Taylor quartet, Brand New Heavies, The Blues Brothers, Marvin Gaye and Jamiroquai. Peter Gabriel and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

More specifically guitar: Rock and Blues: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dream Theatre, Eric Johnson, Steve Morse, The Allman brothers band, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Healey, Alber Collins.

More recently: Jazz: John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Lester Young, Ed Calle, Arturo Sandoval, Duke Ellington. Guitarists: Scott Henderson, Allan Holdsworth, John Scofield, Joe Pass, Martin Taylor, Larry Carlton, Jimi Tunnell, Pat Metheny.

Rock/Pop: Scissor Sisters, The Darkness, Coldplay, Linkin Park, Porcupine Tree, Extreme, Eminem etc. etc.