Billy Fuller

Billy Fuller brings a distinctive yet versatile touch to all of his projects, whether playing with Beak>, artists ranging from Massive Attack to Robert Plant, or on his own. The Bristol, U.K.-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter is a bassist first and foremost, and his finesse with Motorik grooves and hypnotic rhythms provided the heart as well as the backbone for Beak>'s albums starting with their 2009 self-titled debut. Fuller's work with Plant on albums such as 2005's Mighty Rearranger and with Baxter Dury on albums including 2025's Allbarone -- as well as collaborations with Rachid Taha, Lucrecia Dalt, and many others -- reflected the grounding in folk, jazz, dub, prog, and psych that stretched back to his time with the Bristol group Fuzz Against Junk. With his 2026 debut solo album Fragments, Fuller united these sounds in pieces that were as mysterious and evocative as any of his work with Beak>. Fuller began making music when he was 15, and fell in love with the bass after hearing the Jam's Bruce Foxton as well as the soul and reggae albums his eldest brother played around the house. By the early 2000s, he was playing upright bass with Fuzz Against Junk, a Bristol-based outfit melding free folk, jazz, and rock. The band issued its 2003 self-titled debut album on Invada, the label of Portishead's Geoff Barrow. Gigs with Fuzz Against Junk led to an audition for Robert Plant, and Fuller joined his band the Strange Sensation for 2005's Mighty Rearranger, co-writing several of the album's songs. Fuller continued to play with Fuzz Against Junk on their final album, 2007's Neti Neti, and also appeared on Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara's Soul Science that year. Late in 2008, Fuller formed Beak> with Barrow and keyboardist Matt Williams after jamming at Invada's Christmas party. Recorded in 12 days, BEAK> introduced the trio's beguilingly dense, moody, Krautrock-inspired sound. In 2010, Beak> served as the backing band for Invada labelmate Anika on her self-titled debut album; on his own, Fuller handled bass duties on Massive Attack's Heligoland. The following year, he started a long creative partnership with Baxter Dury, performing on Happy Soup. Along with Beak>'s second album, 2012 saw Fuller work with Barrow and composer Ben Salisbury on Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega-City One. After playing on Rachid Taha's 2013 album Zoom, he reunited with Plant for 2015's lullaby and… the Ceaseless Roar as a member of the Sensational Space Shifters. Beak>'s soundtrack to Couple in a Hole followed in 2016, while 2017 brought collaborations with Plant (Carry Fire), Barrow and Salisbury (the soundtrack to Free Fire), and Dury (Prince of Tears). Released in 2018, Beak>'s third album -- and their first with Will Young -- set Motorik beats aside in favor of experiments with prog rock, pop, and folk. Fuller also branched out with his other projects, teaming up with Excellent Birds' Annie Gardiner on her largely acoustic 2021 solo album Bloodletting and with Bristol producer Claude Cooper on the instrumental hip-hop of 2022's Myriad Sounds. Also in 2022, Fuller, Barrow, and Salisbury collaborated on the soundtrack to the Netflix series Archive 81. Fuller's appearances on the 2023 albums by Dury (I Thought I Was Better Than You) and Billy Nomates (Cacti) preceded the following year's Beak 4. It was Beak>'s final album with Barrow, who left to concentrate on Invada's venture into film production after the band's 2025 tour finished. Along with performing on Lucrecia Dalt's A Danger to Ourselves and Cooper's Friendly Sounds, Vol. 1 that year, Fuller took stock of his archival recordings and compiled the pieces with a cohesive mood on his first solo album. Released in April 2026, Fragments spanned Beak>-like Motoriks as well as electronic experiments and library music-worthy instrumentals. ~ Heather Phares