In this interview feature, we get to know the most radicalist up and coming stars on the planet.

On August 31^st 2017, Bruno Major completed an ambitious project to write, record, produce and release one song every month for a whole year, which you can now hear (and purchase) in full as A Song For Every Moon. Throughout the year, Major’s style has evolved from the hymnal ‘Wouldn’t Mean A Thing’ through to precious rumination ‘On Our Own’, exploring new production techniques, putting his creative flair up against the wire and allowing his thoughts and emotions to flow free. As we discuss in the interview below, the London singer-songwriter moved from a background of jazz musicianship, inspired by the founders and following artists of the American Songbook tradition. His aim has been to bring that old school style into the present, with expert production from collaborator Phairo. Here at TMR, we’ve picked up on many of the tracks from the record, including ‘The First Thing You See’, ‘Easily’, ‘Just The Same’, ‘Fair-Weather Friend’, ‘Places We Won’t Walk’, ‘Cold Blood’ and finale ‘On Our Own’.

Although it was only a few months back that the A Song For Every Moon project reached its end, Major is already looking forward, “writing next project or album or whatever it’s going to be called,” which promises to be a widely influenced and soul-filled soundscape, if his hints are anything to go by. The British talent also recently announced a tour of US and Canada through February and March 2018. It looks like there’s no slowing down anytime soon for Bruno Major, although perhaps the intensity will be paired back.

Before we all move ahead into the new year, let’s take a moment to look back with illuminations from the singer-songwriter himself.

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TMR: You’ve just completed A Song For Every Moon, your year-long project. Has the end come as a relief or are you already wondering how to fill your time?

It was a huge relief, actually. I reached the end of my tether in April, I had a small freak out and then I had to completely change my lifestyle - stop going out and start going to the gym and meditating. By the time I got to the end of it, I was running on fumes, but it was also kind of scary, because I’d become so institutionalised over the year with this regime. I didn't really know what to do with myself. Luckily, I’ve had plenty to do with the album going out and I’ve announced a tour, going to rehearsals for that, writing the next project or album or whatever it’s going to be called.

TMR: Do you think that regime is something you’ll be taking forward? Did it improve your songwriting or was it simply necessary at the time?

I don’t know if I could do it again. It was really intense for me and really intense for my manager as well. I would deliver the song a week before the end of the month and he’d have three days to take it to Spotify and get it on the Internet, so he suffered a little bit with it too. I don’t think it would be a good idea for us to do it again… but, at the same time, it really inspired me to up my work rate. There was real pressure, because whatever happened, at the end of the month, I had to put the song out. I liked that, actually.

TMR: When you put out ‘Wouldn’t Mean A Thing’, did you already intend to start the one-song-a-month project or was it an idea after the first release?

No, we had decided that already. If you look at the artwork, each song had a little pizza slice that made up the whole album cover. I had decided a couple of months before hand that we were going to do it.

TMR: You spoke a little bit about having a “freak out” around April, did it also coincide with a song you found to be most challenging?

Yeah, it was ‘Fair-Weather Friend’. I didn’t write every song in the month itself, probably about half of them and I had quite a few songs in a catalogue of things I hadn’t released yet. Weirdly enough, it was the older songs that I found the hardest to record. ‘Fair-Weather Friend’ was something I’d had for a while and I recorded it a few times. When it got to April, I went into the studio to start recording it and we got halfway through the month and I just hated what I had done! I thought, “there’s no way I can release it,” so I swept the whole thing and we started all over again. Luckily, we ended up with something that I was really proud of, but it was pretty close. I thought I’d screwed up and thought that maybe I would not release anything that month, but it just about came together in the end.

TMR: You’ve managed to have quite a different sound for each song, even though it’s consistent all the way through. Do you think that was helped by writing and recording them month-on-month?

Well, thanks! I worked with a co-producer called Phairo, he’s amazing, and we really tried to do something different with each song. I think that was a conscious decision, I think it was the natural development of the sound, because we were recording over a period of a year. At the end of the project, I think naturally we’d learnt a lot and developed the sound and refined it. Listening back to ‘Wouldn’t Mean A Thing’, I think it sounds kind of crappy, but I quite like that, you know what I mean?

TMR: Because you can hear the development of the recording process?

Yeah, exactly!



TMR: I suppose that’s what you’ve taken away from the process of recording, writing and producing, but it’s also been quite a personal journey for you with the amount of emotions you explore within the project. Did you learn anything about yourself throughout it?

I did. Before we started the project, I’d been working on releasing an album for a while and I never thought that anything was good enough. It all just got kind of intimidating, the idea of making an album, so by virtue of releasing a song each month, I was forced to let go of whatever it was that I’d made and learn to live with the imperfections. Over-thinking and perfectionism, they’re both the enemies of creativity, and so I think I learnt that I’m too much of a perfectionist and I shouldn’t worry too much about it. Ultimately, I think the songs are what’s most important to me and in a way, I’d kind of be okay with them all being acoustic versions, just me and a guitar or piano. The production done with Phairo is really just how to present a song. Did that answer your questions in any way? I don’t know if it did! [laughs] In conclusion - what have I learnt about myself? I’ve learnt that I’m a perfectionist and that I need to let go and be more in the moment creatively.

TMR: Okay, yeah, that’s a good answer! So, you don’t only songwrite for yourself, but also for other artists, such as SG Lewis and Liv Dawson. How do you go about writing with another artist in mind?

Well, I don’t really write for them as much as write with them, so it depends on who you’re writing with. With SG, he’s a world class producer, so normally he’s at a computer and I’ll make some chords or do some lyrics. It’s more of a collaboration. I really enjoy that side of things. When I write songs for myself, it’s a very personal thing and it’s just me and a piano or guitar, there’s no communication, it’s all silence and everything’s happening inside your own head, so it’s quite nice to be in a studio, bouncing around, laughing and talking.

TMR: Do you listen to much in the way of new music? And has anything stuck with you lately?

Of course! I love the Everything Everything album, I thought that was really cool.



TMR: Yeah, I love them! Did you see them on their recent tour?

No I didn’t. I have to be honest, I was always very impressed with their music, but it never really struck a chord with me until this album. I just thought it was incredible. What else is really good that I like…? Well, it’s not really that new I suppose, but Anderson Paak, I think he’s incredible. Anything that Kendrick Lamar brings out. Randy Newman’s new album; he isn’t necessarily new music, but he has a new album and I think he’s the greatest songwriter of all time. He’s my biggest influence, probably. I had the good fortune to see him at the BBC Mastertapes session and I cried my eyes out!

TMR: Do you have any other early influencers? I noticed in many of your songs, particularly ‘Places We Won’t Walk’, it’s an old soul kind of sound. I wondered whether that linked to anything?

‘Places We Won’t Walk’ is very influenced by Randy Newman, but I was a jazz musician before I was a singer-songwriter and a lot of my music draws upon jazz. Chet Baker, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Evans, Mark Davis - all of the real jazz greats. They were all playing songs from the ‘30s and ‘40s by these old guys sat at grand pianos smoking cigars, at least I imagine they’re smoking cigars. They were likes of Drew van Heusen, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter. That’s where my idea of songwriting came from, that’s how I learnt to write songs, in the style of those guys. So yeah, you're not wrong.

TMR: Do you think that in the future you’ll stay in that songwriting style or are you looking to explore something new?

Yeah, well I always like to explore. I think my music will always be rooted in jazz. I guess what I’m trying to do is bring that style of songwriting into today’s society and today’s music. The production is very inspired by James Blake and Mount Kimbie, plus Hip-Hop artists like Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, J Dilla. It’s actually a very hip-hop based production, with that old school songwriting, and hopefully with a bit of the soulfulness of D’Angelo. I’m aiming for… something! [laughs]

TMR: Well, they’re all great ones to aim for! For my last question, I’d like to come back to a Song For Every Moon. I think it’s important to give a special mention to the final piece, ‘On Our Own’. Did you intend to leave this exploration of life, death, faith and doubt for this project’s finale? Or was it more coincidental?

‘On Our Own’ is one of those songs that I don’t think you could follow with anything. It’s kind of a full stop to me. I think it’s also the song I’m most proud of, it kind of explains my feelings on religion and life and death and my thoughts on existence in the space of a song, and that’s something I’m really proud of. It’s a very personal one for me, because I wrote it when my granny died and her death sparked an existential journey for me, thinking about religion and God. Then there was this crazy thing that happened. The cellist on the record, Naomi, well her father tragically passed away after a battle with cancer. When we recorded the original demo, she sent it to her father, he messaged me to say that it had helped him in some way come to terms with what he was going through. It’s been a very meaningful song. Once that song had been played, I don’t think anything else needed to happen in the collection.



-Hannah Thacker