School Of Language

David Brewis channels his Field Music background into School of Language, a solo outlet that probes comparable intellectually driven art-rock territory while shifting toward more intimate lyrical themes and layering in taut funk grooves alongside new wave accents. The venture originated amid speculation about Field Music’s possible 2007 split and delivers a modestly bolder, guitar-forward sound that nevertheless preserves the parent band’s taste for Laurel Canyon-style vocal harmonies and complex metric shifts.

School of Language’s first album, Sea from Shore, surfaced in 2008 on Thrill Jockey in the U.S. and Memphis Industries in the U.K. Brewis supported the record with an American tour that spring, performing alongside bassist Doug McCombs of Tortoise and drummer Ryan Rapsys of Euphone. Once the dates concluded he returned to Field Music, which quickly produced the well-regarded Field Music (Measure) in 2010 and Plumb in 2012. Afterward Brewis maintained a demanding slate of outside work—collaborations, production for artists including Maximo Park, silent-film scoring, and remixes—while also joining Eleanor Friedberger’s road band. He still found room to finish School of Language’s second album, Old Fears, released by Memphis Industries in April 2014. In 2019, following Field Music’s praised LPs on Common Time in 2016 and Open Here in 2018, Brewis issued another School of Language set, 45, a pointed and energetic satire centered on Donald Trump’s political ascent.