We recently connected with Brynne Matuan and have shared our conversation below.

Brynne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I first started making music around the end of 2019 with my iPad mini and my guitar. I had recorded and released a few covers and short comedic demos that got a little bit of attention, and from it I felt a spark inside of me that made me want to put more time into making music. A few months later, at the beginning of 2020, I transitioned into making lo-fi beats to practice basic production and mixing. Since the pandemic started, I had a lot of time to focus more on learning on how to produce and write songs in between online high school classes, to fill in a lot of the lonely days from the pandemic.

This beginning of my journey as a musical artist stemmed on the idea that I should be able to do everything by myself. I thought many of the artists I idolized were completely self-sufficient, and that they were able to put out everything by themselves. So I decided that I would learn how to do everything alone. Plus, I didn’t have anyone to talk to that was as interested in music as I was, so I had no choice but to learn everything alone.

So when I met some people online that had also were interested in making music, I realized that isolating myself was not the best way to improve in creativity. This initial group of friends helped me get better at production, while I was able to teach them some things I had learned while I was making music alone. This initial group grew into a small artist collective as we started networking online, and as I became more open to working with others, I was able to learn much quicker than when I was alone.

In the process of learning my craft of making music, I learned that creativity doesn’t need to be the product of a single person. Although many individuals can create great pieces of art by themselves, it doesn’t mean art needs to be an individual endeavor, and sometimes it can get better when it is collaborative.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an artist, songwriter, guitarist, and producer. While I am a musical artist, I am also the president of an artist collective called Next World.

Next World is a Los Angeles-based artist collective that focuses on people that want to start making music or current artists that want to improve on their artistry. Although we are mainly based in Los Angeles, we connect and create with many artists around the world. We also host small concerts in the LA area to showcase artists and to give them more experience in performing in front of an audience.

This collective was founded in 2021 by the CEO Kai Caden and me, originally consisting of a group of online friends that wanted a place to talk and make music. What sets Next World is our commitment to an authentic community that caters more to the artists rather than making a profit. Our main priority is giving talented artists the opportunities and platform to share their music.

My role in my collective is to recruit and help emerging artists to improve their music. I mainly work with artists online by connecting them to other resources

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When Next World had their most recent concert back in October 2023, we had reserved a venue about two months in advance. We had worked with this venue twice before this, so we were quite sure that we wouldn’t have any problems with them.

The week before of the concert day, we were notified that there were a few issues going on with the venue’s owner. When we had initially heard of this, Kai (our co-founder) and I had concerns about it, and as we heard that the issues started to get worse, we decided to cancel on the venue.

At that point, we had about three or four days before the concert was supposed to happen. We were considering to cancel it altogether, but we had already sold tickets and people were starting to fly from other states just to see the concert. Although we were hesitant, we decided the show must go on, and we spent the next two days trying to find venues. Luckily, we had a whole community to help us out, all trying to see any connection possible to find a venue that would let us in at such short notice.

Two days before the concert was supposed to happen, we had finally secured a proper venue. At this point, neither Kai or I had gotten much sleep, I still had quite a few school assignments to do and Kai was driving everywhere to pick up an artist from the airport and visiting venues. But somehow, we were able to pull it off, and we ended up having one of the most successful concerts yet.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing other people appreciate what I make. When I make music, I intend to make the music for myself, as an expression of my own personal experiences and feelings that I struggle to properly communicate. But when other people listen and tell me that they relate to it or enjoy the music, I feel this sense of acceptance. It’s nice to see other people appreciate something I’ve created, and I think it is what drives a lot of other artists.

As a co-founder of Next World, however, the most rewarding aspect is helping a lot of my artist friends feel that same appreciation. Next World is built on a community of friends, and we are all able to rely on one another, which is what drives me to want to built up any artist in it. It’s natural to want to see friends excel in their craft, and with Next World that is no exception. Being able to help my friends grow and seeing the results of it is one of the most gratifying things I can do outside of being an artist myself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paper.crannes/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7wfJKF2_988VJCYcy1evAg
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6IGkUOoLT0AX9spuYEwnLI?si=YO6DpFAITjayEoNVmMzOdQ

Image Credits
Amauri McPherson Alyssa Aquino Claire Reginaldo Andrew Ngyuen