For Fans Of: Omar Apollo, Samm Henshaw, John Newman
Bruno Major aims to fuse the beauty and soul of D’Angelo’s music with John Newman’s intelligent lyricisms, and he’s succeeding with ease.
30-year-old Major was brought up in North London by his guitarist father, who inspired him to pick up the instrument throughout childhood. In his late teens, he discovered the power of jazz, and has since studied the complex genre. Within a couple of years, he was writing for the likes of Liv Dawson and SG Lewis. Not satisfied with just writing for others though, he’d also penned over 400 songs of his own, but it wasn’t until 2016 that he made his debut.
In August that year, he released the intimate and elegant single ‘Wouldn’t Mean A Thing’. It was championed across the board, backed by We Are The Guard and High Clouds, as well as Euphoria, who called it a “soft, romantic effort […] full of genuine emotion and careful lyrics”.
‘Wouldn’t Mean A Thing’ became the first of an insightful series. From this point forward, Major wrote and released a new song every month for a year, which would eventually collate into a collection called A Song For Every Moon. It reflects his changing inspiration over the series as he travels from the blissful futurist soul and skittering beats of his debut, to the pulsing electronica of ‘Cold Blood’, the minimalistic and sub-bass warmth of ‘There’s Little Left’ and the layered harmonies of ‘Second Time’.
Speaking to Billboard about the project, he said “I didn’t really want to wait around a year or six months, whatever it is to make an album – I wanted the album to feel fresh and I feel excited about it.” He continued, saying his muse for this method was none other than the US adult cartoon South Park. “I watched this documentary about South Park. They go in on Monday mornings and they write the whole show, animate, produce it, everything, and it airs on Saturday. They take one day off then on Monday, do the whole thing over again. I was so inspired by that. Every time it comes out, it’s talking about stuff that’s literally happened that week. I thought that I should do that.”
As listeners tuned in to the ambitious monthly endeavour, A Song For Every Moon gathered powerful word-of-mouth momentum, now counting over 250 million streams. DIY called it “a gorgeous, contemplative cut”, while Clash added “In its entirety though, A Song for Every Moon truly does sound like an artist growing and reckoning with their past both personally and professionally.”
Now having toured with Sam Smith across the UK (including multiple sold out shows at London’s O2 Arena) last year, Major is dedicating his 2019 to a different method of releasing music. Now drip feeding his latest singles at a more unpredictable rate, he’s keeping the new fanbase on their toes for the next taste of passionate soul.
In February, he released the slow-burning love song ‘Old Fashioned’. Just missing Valentine’s Day, it speaks of classic loving gestures to show chivalry’s really not dead. To say it’s actually the first song he ever wrote, it’s melody cries prowess and maturity. Next came ‘Nothing’, which was released this month. He played in on the road across North America earlier this year, with the half finished track quickly becoming a crowd favourite, and has continued since its official release. It shows Major at his most stripped-down; just his voice, his beautiful guitar-playing and a drum machine ticking in the background.
Catch these brand new tracks plus many more emotive ballads on the road early next year as he embarks on his next UK tour. Tickets on sale Friday at 10am!
Website – brunomajor.com
Facebook – /MrBrunoMajor
Twitter – @MrBrunoMajor