Brahyhan Art performs at the recent 'St. Mary Mi Come From' concert at the Gray's Inn Sports Complex, Annotto Bay, St. Mary. - ROGER CHUCK/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
"I am a very serious individual, but with a lot of humour. Its not a facade or anything like that. When I feel happy it will come out, but I am a serious man, very spiritual.
BRAHYHAN ART sings 'get it, get it' on his breakaway single Get It and the singer, after years in the background, is 'getting it' a lot these days.
The attention has been pouring in for Brahyhan Art since the release of the single and accompanying music video, but for the man named Bryan Grant at birth, it is his due, as he has been in music for ages.
Grant grew up in St. Ann, but left for Portmore, St. Catherine, as a teenager. After high school he enrolled in the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, where his plunge into the arts began.
"That's how I actually ended up with the name 'Art', because I was always involved in some form of art. From martial arts, to visual art, to photography, I did it all at one point," he said in a recent interview.
TRAINED GUITARIST
Grant was trained as a guitarist at Edna Manley, but studied Caribbean-Latin-American Jazz music as well. During his tenure there, he was spotted by musician George Miller, who brought him on board the Firehouse Crew band, which then backed Luciano. He toured with them, and later co-founded and then led Bushman's Grassroots Band, with which he toured as well. Outside of that, Brahyhan has freelanced with a few other bands over the years, recording an entire album with the band Abbassani.
While some would be content with the steady income and relative stability of such a musician, Grant felt he needed to take a risk and push forward with his singing.
"I just reverted to where my dream was all along," he explained. "I wanted to become a singer who knew music and not just someone to do it blindly. I did not get a lot of vocal training while at school, but I got training in classical music and jazz as well. Music was just what I wanted to do."
He started with Fiwi Music, but has recently branched out with the Junction File Label.
FOREIGN ARTISTE
"They used to have me as this uptown or foreign artiste. I don't know where they got that from; I am just Brahyhan Art. My music is what people can relate to it ... Entertaining and relaxing music is what I do. It is reggae, but it is universal."
"I am a very serious individual, but with a lot of humour. Its not a facade or anything like that. When I feel happy it will come out, but I am a serious man, very spiritual. I guess that adds up to me being a regular person," he said.
Brahyhan Art said he is enjoying the present vibe he is getting from the public, but for the future, he wants to venture out even further.
"I am trying to get on more overseas shows. The immediate plan is to release the album, for which we are adding material now, but we want to branch out into new markets," he said.
