One of the Belfast artists behind Brit Award-nominated dance music act Bicep is recovering in hospital after revealing he has been treated for a rare brain tumour.
Matthew McBriar, one half of the electronica act that has become one of the biggest in the UK and Irish dance music scene, said he underwent surgery last week and faces a “long road” to full recovery.
The 38-year-old revealed in an Instagram post that he began feeling ill towards the end of last year, and said the tumour was “almost certainly not cancerous”.
McBriar and fellow Belfast DJ/producer Andrew Ferguson were forced to cancel their Bicep gig last weekend at the Boardmasters festival in Cornwall.
Ferguson now plans to continue Bicep shows alone while his producing partner recovers.
McBriar said in his post that he began experiencing “intense localised headaches” and a “weird fatigue” in late 2023, and following and MRI and CT scan in the spring, it was discovered he had a “large and pretty rare Craniopharyngioma tumour on my pituitary gland”.
“The good news is firstly, it’s almost certainly not cancerous and secondly, I’ve caught it in the earlier stages of damage,” he said.
“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 revealed he continued playing gigs ahead of his surgery to “keep my mind busy”.
“The operation went well and I’m currently recovering in hospital,” he said.
“Recovery will be at least 6-8 weeks and a long road of aftercare but I’m feeling incredibly grateful and lucky. I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the amazing consultants, surgeons, doctors and nurses at the NHS who have looked after me and been so amazing, kind and empathetic.”
Bicep rose to prominence following their 2017 self-titled debut album, which made the UK Album Chart top 20, while its lead single Glue was named ‘Track of the Year by the influential DJ Magazine.
Their second album Isles, released in 2021, entered the UK Album Chart at number 2, while it was nominated in the Best Irish Album category of the RTÉ Choice Music Awards.
That same year the pair were nominated in the Best British Group and Breakthrough Artist categories at the Brit Awards.
The duo headlined the AVA festival in Belfast’s Titanic Slipways in May.
