Brothers of the Sun

Brothers of the Sun are a Brunanter music group. Founded in 2009, they play mainly reggae, with aspects of Latin music, jazz, blues, soul and even funk.

History
In August 2009, Will Carrere was on holiday in Lovia when he met Jamaican-born Dave King-Johnson. Carrere was aspiring to be a reggae musician, and King-Johnson was a session guitarist with a variety of reggae bands. Together, they decided to form a band. In October 2009, King-Johnson travelled to Brunant, and together with Will Carrere's brother Rico Carrere they formed Brothers of the Sun, with King-Johnson as guitarist, Will Carrere as bassist. In December 2009 they were joined by keyboardist Qasim Abdullamed, and they started to record their debut album. In March 2010, they released an EP, Let the Heart Sing, the songs of which would later appear on their debut album. In June 2010, the Brothers of the Sun's debut album, Caribbean Brunant, was released. It featured a number of guest artists, including a horn section and Lovian keyboardist Leonard Sheraldin, who happened to be in Brunant because of a Hyperbola tour.

Throughout the latter half of 2010 and early 2011, Brothers of the Sun continued to play gigs, mainly in Brunant, though they also played a concert in Gibraltar in November 2010 and one in Malta in February 2011. In June 2011, Brothers of the Sun gained a new member, the American Ryan LaFetta, as a second guitarist/vocalist. From July 2011 onwards to early 2012, Brothers of the Sun went on an international tour, through the Caribbean and eastern North America. In March 2012, they released a live album, The Sun Live, originating from a January 2012 performance in Westpoint in the Southern Arc Islands, a city known for its high Caribbean population.

After the release of the album, however, there was friction in the band, mainly as a result of LaFetta, who was increasingly taking drugs. A split occurred between the Carrere brothers on one side and LaFetta and King-Johnson on the other, with Abdullamed trying to mediate the situation. Eventually, in July 2012, the band's record company intervened, and LaFetta was kicked out of the band. An August 2012 concert of the Brothers of the Sun in Middleton had to be broken up by police after LaFetta, with the aid of a drug-dealing gang, broke into the venue and started a riot. After that disastrous concert, the group went on a small hiatus.

In February 2013, Brothers of the Sun started performing again, joined by David Martinson as a replacement for LaFetta. After touring Brunant until April 2013, they started to record another album. Peace Reggae was released in October 2013. After the release, the band went on a tour of Brunant and the Mediterranean, until February 2014. For the tour, saxophonist Anthony Visser joined the band as a full-time member. Rumouredly, the band then started to work on an album intended to be released in mid-2014 (it is not clear whether this would be a studio or live album), but internal frictions stopped the band from playing again in June 2014. It has been rumoured King-Johnson might leave the band, but the band has not made any statements about this. As of December 2014, Brothers of the Sun have not played live since June 2014. However, in November 2014, the band's record company released a live album, Travelling Band, made up of a variety of out-takes from the band's The Sun Live and Peace Reggae tours.

Discography

 * Let the Heart Sing (EP, 2010)
 * Caribbean Brunant (studio album, 2010)
 * The Sun Live (live album, 2012)
 * Peace Reggae (studio album, 2013)
 * Travelling Band (live album, 2014)