Matt McBriar, one half of successful Northern Irish dance music duo Bicep, has announced he is receiving treatment for a “large and pretty rare” brain tumour.
McBriar, 38, detailed his illness and treatment in an Instagram post, explaining he had begun to experience fatigue and headaches towards the end of 2023, with resultant scans showing a craniopharyngioma tumour on his pituitary gland.
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“The good news is firstly, it’s almost certainly not cancerous and secondly, I’ve caught it in the earlier stages of damage,” he wrote. “I’d been very lucky to get those initial blood tests followed by an MRI. Had it been much longer I might’ve lost some eyesight and a load of other problems due to the size and position of the tumour pressing on my optic nerves.”
He had surgery on Friday 9 August. Bicep had been due to perform at Boardmasters festival in Newquay over the weekend, but cancelled that set, citing “unforeseen personal circumstances” at the time.
McBriar said the operation “went well” and that he would be in recovery for six to eight weeks, followed by “a long road of aftercare”. He thanked NHS staff, calling them “amazing, kind and empathetic”.
McBriar’s partner in Bicep, Andy Ferguson, will continue to perform as Bicep solo in the interim, including a set at Creamfields festival, which takes place on 22-25 August.
Playing a thickly atmospheric form of breakbeat-driven techno, Bicep have become icons to a generation of young ravers thanks to their melodic production and visually arresting live sets.
They started out in Belfast as DJs and music bloggers focused on disco and house, before moving into production. They released their self-titled debut album in 2017, featuring the hit track Glue, followed by Isles in 2021, which reached No 2 in the UK album chart. The album earned them two nominations at the 2021 Brit awards, for British group and breakthrough artist.
More recently they have launched an audiovisual project called Chroma, which spans newly released singles and a hybrid live set blending DJing and live performance.
At Glastonbury this year, a Chroma set proved so popular that it had to be cancelled due to overcrowding. The duo also delivered a popular set at Coachella festival earlier this year.