Birmingham (UK)-based Rebecca is a fully independent artist creating original blues/rock music with her co-songwriter Steve Birkett and releasing it on her own label Mad Hat Records, that manages all aspects of the production chain from creation through recording and manufacture to marketing, promotion, and sales.  Worldwide physical and digital distribution is undertaken by Cargo Records. 

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She usually plays live within a 5-piece band, performing tracks mainly from her studio albums Believe (2016), More Sinner Than Saint (2019) and The Space Between Us (2022) along with new material and one or two classic covers.

Rebecca was voted Female Vocalist and Emerging Artist of the Year at the British Blues Awards 2016 and Female Blues Vocalist of the Year in the FORM UK Blues Awards 2018. 

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She was born and raised in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands of the United Kingdom.  She grew up listening to a variety of different music with early influence from artists that her parents listened to such as Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James.  She first started performing live music when aged 13 and as a teenager wrote and performed her own material.  Some original recordings still exist – a little rough round the edges at times, but the passion and energy come through, along with the power of her voice.  In her teenage years she was very much into rock but over the years she has listened to, performed, and enjoyed a very wide range of music. 

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Whilst her career path took her to Staffordshire University to study Fine Art and Art History and then into full-time work, she continued to perform.  She was always keen to return to writing and recording but needed encouragement to pick up the notebook and guitar once again.

 

This she duly got from several sources and from Mark Viner Stuart of Mat Hat Studios in Coven, near Wolverhampton, whose judgement that she had exceptional talent was based on the hundreds of performers with whom he had worked.  In 2011 she linked up with Steve Birkett, a long-time performer and writer of his own material, who had retired from full-time employment and had both the talent and time to create more original music.  It was a partnership that ‘clicked’, to the intense excitement of those around the pair.  Their core genre was the Blues, but right from the start they stretched their music in several different directions.  Their EP Real Life was crafted in 2012 and released in early 2013 and both the recording and live performances of the tracks received an enthusiastic reception.  2012 was also the year that Rebecca left her full-time job for part-time work as a vocal tutor so that she had more time to work with Steve.  With more input from Mark and a galaxy of musicians, mostly from the area around Rebecca’s new Birmingham base, the album Back to the Start was recorded, hitting the shelves in 2013, once again to acclaim from critics and fans alike. 

 

The next 18 months was a period of changing personalities as Rebecca and Steve worked to find the right ‘fit’ with others both within and around the band and to establish relationships with leading lights in the music scene. The hard work paid off, though, and 2015 was a breakthrough year.  Rick Benton joined the band on keys, bringing his own interpretation to the set and adding new dimensions to tracks like Back to the Start.  Lloyd Daker had established himself on drums bringing an infectious, youthful energy along with a permanently sunny disposition.  Dan Clark, a long-time musical colleague, made the bass role his own with his funky and ‘in-the-pocket’ delivery.  With a settled core to the band, and significant support from outside of it, they started to get noticed and grow their following.  The year started at the Skegness Rock and Blues Festival with a performance on the Introducing Stage, voted by the audience as the best of the day, leading to an appointment on the main stage at the 2016 festival.  Interest in the band and its work grew via notable performances at Blues clubs and festivals, culminating in the ten-gig support slot with the excellent King King that exposed the band to new audiences across the UK.  

 

In their live performances, Rebecca and her band elevated the album tracks to a new level.  The set was interspersed with benchmark cover tracks such as Another Piece Of My Heart but it was mainly about the original songs with leading tracks from the album Back to the Start such as Basement Of My Heart, Messed Up and Laughter From Her Room at the heart of it. And audiences calling for an encore would usually see With A Little Help From My Friends, delivered with a raucous confidence that would make the late Joe Cocker beam. 

 

Which brings us to Believe, the second album, again produced by Mark Viner Stuart and launched in February 2016 at the iconic 100 Club in London.  Of the 12 tracks on the album, at least half of them had been honed through live performances on the road in 2015, so current fans would have been familiar with Never Gonna Learn, Night Train, Sweetness, 1000 Years, It’s That Easy and the thoroughly Bluesy Long Long Time.  Sailing On A Pool Of Tears, Momma’s Got A Gun and Salt Winds each broke new ground, whereas Could Not Say No and Come With Me Baby, having been mainstays of Steve and Rebecca’s acoustic set, got the full band treatment.  With Believe receiving rave reviews and popular acclaim there was one more adjustment to the band when Rebecca took up rhythm guitar for key numbers of the set.  Off stage, Colin Speller, who had been involved in the background for some time, brought his business experience to bear on matters of management and administration.

 

With a strong settled line-up on and off the stage, the band set out to grow its reputation and increase its audience. The outcome was a growing fan base that showed its support by voting Rebecca as Female Vocalist of the Year and Emerging Artist of the Year in the British Blues Awards 2016.  And the band’s live performances were so popular that the 2017 live album BeLive was a necessary response to fan demand.

 

Steve and Rebecca write prolifically and produced lots of new songs in the course of 2016.  Rather than work within the confines of a particular genre, they allowed their work to find its natural place in the scheme of things, which meant that they produced a considerable range of material that included elements Country, Soul, and Rock.  The basis process they follow is that an idea is developed to the point of a full ‘demo’ recording, utilising Steve’s home studio and his skills as a multi-instrumentalist.  These demos are then listened to further by Steve, Rebecca, band members, management, and others whose feedback is sought.

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In late 2016, they were lucky enough to be introduced to Chris Kimsey, who is famous for working with the Rolling Stones and Peter Frampton amongst many others, and in 2017 they engaged Chris to advise on song choice, song structure and recording techniques.  As part of this collaboration, Chris re-mixed Sailing On A Pool Of Tears, which was released as a single in 2017 and added as a bonus track on a second edition of the album Believe. 

The work with Chris led to them focusing on a group of songs that were rockier in feel, albeit still influenced by the blues, including tracks like Stand On My Feet, that had been around for a while, but which were deemed not to fit the theme of the Believe album.  It also led to the creation of further tracks with a close fit to the main candidates.  Through a process of refinement, 20 songs became 15 and then 12 of those were put forward for recording, which was once again done at Mark Viner Stuart’s studio.  Recording and refinement took time but by mid 2018 the final twelve tracks had been recorded and mixed.

 

In 2017, Rebecca was introduced to Tri-Arts Partnership LLP in Los Angeles, USA, the principals of which were long-time career record executives and artist managers.  They were keen to input to the new album and promote Rebecca in the USA and beyond and, having heard the initial mixes, asked for a much bigger, bolder sound.  They introduced Rebecca to Bill Drescher, California-based producer for people like Rick Springfield and The Bangles and who had been involved with music for films, including Titanic, and TV shows, including Stranger Things.  Bill did a re-mix of the album title track, More Sinner Than Saint, and after that, four other tracks. 

 

A combination of availability issues and budget prevented Bill’s further involvement, but Chris Childs (bass player with Thunder) took on the brief of mixing the remaining seven tracks to match Bill’s sonic style.  The resulting album, mastered by Ed Woods, has a consistently bold, film-scape sound that is very different to the previous output.

The album received considerable critical acclaim and the second single – Hurts – was play-listed by Planet Rock Radio UK. 

 

The two years following the release of the album saw some evolution in the band with Vincent John Yarrington joining on bass, Nigel Darvill or Aidan Goldstraw on keys and Neil Ablard on drums.

 

In 2020 Rebecca and Steve released a dark, moody version of Slade’s classic track Mama Weer All Crazee Now that very much reflected the mood of the times, and a new version of Wave Them Goodbye from More Sinner Than Saint in which she duets with Alan Nimmo of King King.

 

In April 2021 Rebecca released Stripped Back, an album containing ten tracks from Believe and More Sinner Than Saint each reimagined and re-presented in a laid-back style, together with two previously unreleased tracks.  The pandemic and the consequent suspension of live music created the opportunity to do the album, a long-term ambition of Steve’s in particular, and it was created and refined under lockdown conditions with individuals making their contributions at home.  Steve plays the bulk of the instrumentation on the album, with the gigging band contributing their parts to the track Hurts.  The album was arranged and produced by Steve and mixed by his son Steve Birkett Jnr.  Even the album artwork was shot remotely by Adam Kennedy and the album sleeve and accompanying merchandise was created by manager Colin Speller, making Stripped Back a fully in-house creation by the Rebecca Downes team.  The music is performed live by Rebecca and Steve with Neil Ablard on percussion.

 

In November 2022, Rebecca released The Space Between Us, ten new songs and one cover.   Taking its lead from the broader canvas of More Sinner Than Saint, The Space Between Us sees Rebecca stretching and pushing her own artistic boundaries even further, while staying true to her blues/rock roots.  The album is a collection of raw, passionate, multi-hued tracks with a very live feel ranging from big, bold blues rock to darker, moodier and atmospheric material that allows Rebecca to deliver her at times very personal lyrics with vocal conviction.  The one cover is a melodically blues rockin’ rendition of Free’s A Little Bit of Love, released as a single in October 2022.

The album was programmed, recorded, produced, and engineered by Steve Birkett with assistance from Steve Birkett Jnr.  Mixing and mastering was by Gavin Monaghan of Magic Garden Studio in Wolverhampton, whose extensive track record includes working with Editors, Scott Matthews, Robert Plant and Paolo Nutini.

Once again, Rebecca’s signature vocal style is to the fore and Steve’s multi-instrumental talents are on display throughout the album, along with important contributions from the gigging band – Neil Ablard (drums), Nigel Darvill (Keys) and Vince Yarrington (Bass).  The collective result is an album that should be played as loud as possible to enjoy the liberating live feel of the tracks.  Other singles from the album are Hold On (Apr 22), The Space Between Us (Feb 23) and Not On My Knees (Jun 23).

Rebecca's final single in 2023 was the Birkett/Downes interpretation of the Melissa Etheridge classic This War Is Over which came out in December in support of an appeal for Dementia UK, a cause close to Rebecca's heart because her mother had been diagnosed with the condition in 2020.  Sadly, her mother passed away in January 2024.

After taking a break from gigging in the summer of 2024 in order to concentrate on song writing and family issues, Rebecca returns to the the stage in October.  Single releases are planned for late 2024 and into 2025 and the first thoughts of a new studio album are starting to form.