BROOKLYN & QUEENS, NY: Gentleman Brawlers, a Brooklyn 6-Piece fronted by the creative duo Matt Walsh and Becca Fox, are psychedelic Afro-soul revivalists known for infusing throwback electronica and acid rock into their funk-based compositions. The ‘Brawlers deliver a live show with plenty of heat, crackling energy, and butt-shaking whomp. While working on the tracks for their next full-length LP (due October 2023), the ‘Brawlers have honed their live show on college campuses and the festival circuit.
Notable performances took place at Brooklyn Bowl (opened for Cimafunk and Grammy award-winning artists Fantastic Negrito and Los Amigos Invisibles), Pier 1 on Manhattan’s Upper West Side for Summer on the Hudson, Dumbo’s Live at the Archway concert series, Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, Westylvania Jazz & Blues Festival (headliner), Daryl’s House, Princeton University’s storied Terrace F. Club, Bethlehem’s Musikfest, WNYC’s The Greene Space, The McKittrick Hotel (home of Sleep No More), Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory, and recently an in-studio appearance on WBEZ Chicago (home of NPR’s Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me and This American Life).
Adventurous art-pop experimenters by trade, the band recently expanded their lineup and narrowed their focus to create a live music project dedicated to just one of the sonic ventures hinted on previous recordings—the Lagos-by-way-of-Brooklyn Afrobeat sound of their single My Theory—and began performing in NYC jazz & world music clubs as the Gentleman Brawlers Afrobeat Project.
The band has drawn acclaim in the New York and London music press. They were brought to the attention of the Internet when Veteran BBC music writer Tom Robinson tipped them as a band showing great promise, calling the ‘Brawlers “a virtuoso live band, grooving together like a beautifully engineered machine.”
Formed in 2011, the group consists of Becca Fox (vocals/keys), “Chatty Matty” Walsh (vocals/guitar), Jeremy Warren (drums), Trevor Brown (bass), Oskar Stenmark (trumpet), and Xavier Del Castillo (saxophone). Their first single “I Ain’t No Brian Wilson (I Was Made For These Times)” appeared on Occupy This Album, a musical tribute to the Occupy movement. The following year the band dropped an EP, We Were Made For These Times, on the band’s own Brooklyn Fields imprint. Since then, the band has been a stylish presence on the tour and festival circuit and will release their next full-length LP in October 2023.
