Layers And Frames

Hi everybody and thanks for checking in! My name is Frederic Brewer, I'm the singer-songwriter behind Layers And Frames and I'd like to tell you about myself and my musical vision.

I grew up between two Western countries, the United States and France. While growing up, I primarily identified as a dual citizen, but the French always saw me as an American and vise versa. It was around that time that I got started with and then fell in love with making music.

For college I studied political science and privately developed my voice as a songwriter. Thanks to artistic expression and my studies, I started to intellectualize the mechanisms of our society. These mechanisms, from nationalism to religion, to musical tastes, gender roles and so on, are what I refer to as “layers and frames.” Ultimately I realized they are all transient, yet I had always mistakenly viewed the world through them, causing me to see preconceptions and prejudices where my in fact stood brothers and sisters. I resolved to undo my layers and frames.

When I finished my studies in the US, I moved to China and spent four years there working, traveling, volunteering in the Peace Corps and marrying my wife, Qiling. Between the culture shock and the huge gap in readjusting to the local language and lifestyle, I identified less and less with them. This was ironic considering that the Chinese, even those whom I got to know for over several years, strictly defined me as a foreigner first. I explore these experiences and ideas in my first album, hubu.

Today I am back in the West, currently based in Southern France, but with a eye on the road for extensive touring. My live looping and stubbornly original style has and will continue to stand out from other acts, thus I plan to make new friends and fans primarily through performing.