Hallon Brain started off the back of a covers band called Clover, who had residencies in the Casablanca and Oceania clubs back in 2010, both in Brighton. During her hiatus, the singer Zara was temporarily replaced by Janie Pearce.
Janie and Mikey started gigging in and around Brighton as a jazz/blues/boogie duo, just piano and voice. This led to the formation of a few original songs and the idea to couple Janie’s girlie jazz voice and the sultry blues songs with ferocious Hardcore.
By mid 2011, Mikey had written and recorded six songs for the project. They were all done rather quickly on Garageband using basic programmed drums. By late 2011, Janie had recorded some of the vocals.
In December 2011, Mike teamed up with electronic musician and producer Jean Krieger of amazing electro outfit Baïkanour. Jean being a producer and recording engineer recorded all new drum parts, played by Mikey, as well as Janie’s vocals on four of the tracks. Lots of harmonies, guitar and bass parts were recorded at Jean’s studio as well.
After a half year hiatus, Mikey & Jean brought the tracks back to the studio, along with two others Mikey and Janie had done on their own and put them all through the rigmarole of editing, compressing and re-mixing. The result was a manic attack on the nervous system: An uncompromising wall of demented punk rock with detuned guitars, off-beat rhythms and sweet catchy melodies – and not without that dash of carnival ska.
After a bit of post production and recording a bonus cover song, Mike and Janie finished up the Hallon Brain project in 2014.
The Album: UniSex
Originally an 8 track album entitled ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing if it Ain’t Got Bass’ was released as a free stream and later a download in 2014. A subsequent mini-EP entitled ‘Sexing the Raspberry’ was released as a hand-out featuring the songs ‘Ecstacy’, ‘Ain’t Nobody Else’ and ‘Sad’. Both are now obsolete and have been replaced by a single 10 track album (with one or two bonus tracks depending on your luck) entitled ‘UniSex’. The title was inspired by unisex toilets and wild nights out during university.
Mikey & Janie make the odd appearance, either as a duo or with a full-on Hallon Brain band, yet officially, this project has remained what it started out as: a noise-o-phonic bedroom project.
The album was re-mastered and re-released in October 2018 and is available to stream and download via the Bandcamp page. Even better, you can get a gorgeous, proper DIY digipak CD of the album right here!
standyoursound.com 