There’s nothing better than hearing that your favorite artist is releasing new music. Whether it’s an EP full of brand new songs or just a remix on an old track, a new release is almost better than an ice cream bar on a hot music festival day.
Enter your new favorite artist: Bruno Major. He’s been self-producing, writing and releasing his own music just the way it needs to be: one track a month over the last year.
“I watched a documentary on South Park about how they make an episode every week.”
“Well, I made ‘Wouldn’t Mean A Thing,’ the first track from the album. It was really immediately apparent to me that that was the sound for the album and it was so fresh and exciting and I couldn’t wait to put it out,” said Major. “Then, I watched a documentary on South Park about how they make an episode every week. They come in Monday morning and I thought, ‘if they can do an episode every week, that I can do definitely do a song in a month.’ So I decided to do it in real time. Because I didn’t want to wait around for six months or whatever it is to make an album.”
Major released just a couple of tracks before his audience started to spike, streams started to pour in and attention really started to climb. Continuing to release music, Major sparked the interest of dozens of media outlets, fans worldwide and even Sam Smith, who’s asked Major to tour with him in Europe this year.
While he grew up playing music, Major cites that his musical influences are really all over the place.
“And I got into songwriting and I fell in love with Randy Newman, who you probably know as the guy who wrote “You Got a Friend In Me” in Toy Story.”
“Well, I started off as a guitar player so I was really influenced by guitar players like Jimi Hendrix and jazz players like Joe Pass and Django Reinhardt. And I got into songwriting and I fell in love with Randy Newman, who you probably know as the guy who wrote “You Got a Friend In Me” in Toy Story. But he is also one of the greatest, if not the greatest songwriter of all time. Billy Joel, Bob Dylan and then I got into like production like James Blake and Radiohead,” Major said.
Those musical influences have shaped Major’s sound, which he says sounds like, “if Chet Faker was produced by James Blake and D’Angelo was playing keys.”
While Major’s sound sounds like a mishmash and collaboration of a bunch of artists, Major finds that his inspirations are from all over the place.
“I write about all kinds of things. Maybe that it’s a book that I’m reading or maybe it’s something that someone says in a certain poetic way, maybe it’s from an advert on TV,” he said. “Just sometimes they come into my head like emails, there’s no real pattern to it. It’s just the world around you is what inspires me.”
Those inspirations have traveled into a dozen songs, some of which with more than fifteen million listeners. Those songs were created as a solo project, usually with just one collaborator.
He elaborated, “I write everything, but I’ve co-written some of the songs, I co-produced most of the album with my friend Farrah, but I play all of the instruments and I produce it myself, yeah,” said Major.
“It’s not impossible to do everything yourself. I did a few of the songs by myself, like ‘On Our Own’ and ‘Just The Same.’ They were 100 percent me in every way. But a lot of the time, it’s necessary to have someone to bounce off of or even, ‘Is this shit?’ Sometimes they say ‘Yeah, it’s shit.’ and then you actually know.”
“But you don’t get to share your experiences with anyone else and that can sometimes feel like you are on your own…”
While Major has written songs on his own and with a collaborator, he also reflected on the positives and negatives of being a solo artist.
“The rewards and the punishments are greater in both ways. You have complete creative control and you get credit for everything that you do and it’s your work, it’s your baby. And I’m a control freak so I love that sort of thing,” he said.
“But you don’t get to share your experiences with anyone else and that can sometimes feel like you are on your own and you’re really putting yourself, it’s my name and everyone knows that Bruno Major, I have that name when I was 7 years old when I was sitting next to someone in math. That those people will see you putting yourself out there for judgment and that’s a scary thing. But you just have to be brave, I wouldn’t have it any other way to be honest.”
“I’ve never been to any of these places before, never to Chicago or San Francisco or San Diego or Vancouver, Portland, etc.”
Since he won’t have it any other way, Major plans to continue through the end of 2018, touring all over the world.
“I’m going to be touring through the end of the year. We get a week off of this tour, then we go on tour with Sam Smith and then a UK Arena Tour which is going to be mad. Then, I’m doing my own UK tour, then I’m doing some dates around Europe and some festivals.”
He continued, “Then, coming back to America and doing a bunch of dates around here like Bonnaroo, finishing off in Vegas. And then planning on doing Asia and Australia and at some point I have to make a new album.”
In short, Bruno Major’s start and continuation in the music industry continues to bring him success, through unique releases and continuous touring through the year.
“I’ve never been to any of these places before, never to Chicago or San Francisco or San Diego or Vancouver, Portland, etc. and all of these places are new to me. We’ve found full rooms full of fans that like the album and bought tickets, which is mind blowing to me,” reflected Major.
While Major might be busy through this year, touring and finding new inspiration for music, one thing remains the same: “I really like ‘Havana’ by Camila Cabello. It’s such a tune. I think it’s such a classic. I think we’ll be dancing to it still in 20 years,” he laughed.
Read the rest of our feature with Bruno Major here.
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