As a boy, Bruns found himself side-stage during concerts at local fairgrounds—watching drummers and fascinated by the inner-workings of the drum set. Bruns had to have drums of his own! He took a job delivering newspapers (coincidentally, for the Vandalia Drummer News), saved his earnings to buy a drum set and began riding public transportation more than 45 minutes each way to a music store in Dayton, Ohio. There, he used his paperboy money to pay for private drum lessons. A few years and countless hours of practice later, Bruns became the first member of his family to attend college, earning a full-tuition music scholarship to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

After hearing Terri Lyne Carrington’s drumming on “Cotton Tail” (Herbie Hancock’s Gershwin’s World), Bruns auditioned and was selected for one of only two available drummer spots in USC’s Master of Jazz Studies program. He packed up his drum kit and his love of jazz and headed off to Los Angeles to study with Carrington and other greats—including Peter Erskine (Weather Report).

Now, he leads a multi-genre group comprised of many talented performers he met at USC. As Bandleader of BRUNS & BACHÉ – featuring vocalist, Kevin Baché – Bruns draws from his first-hand musical experiences in Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago and West Africa, giving an authentic world-flavor to this 9pcs retro-soul band. In addition to drumming, Bruns writes and arranges for the ensemble —which can be heard regularly at top venues in Los Angeles including Catalina, Vibrato, Vitello’s, Jazz at LACMA and Reed Park. In 2017 and 2019, concluded robust multi-city tours in Japan.

As a producer, Bruns specializes in LIVE multi-track recording techniques, where an entire band records together in the studio, without overdubs. Using this method, Bruns has produced nine albums including Live At Catalina (2012) and Cherry Avenue (2015)—which both earned Top-10 status on the Jazz Charts and airtime on hundreds of radio stations throughout the U.S.

Bruns’ versatility and passion for the origins of rhythm has brought depth and heart to the studio for Beck’s Sound & Vision, Game of Thrones (Season 3) and to live performances with Louis Price (The Temptations) and two-time BBC Jazz Award winner, Liane Carroll – just to name a few.

In 2007, Bruns’ “First Take” method on sight-reading rhythmic notation was published by the Percussive Arts Society and in 2017 he was invited to speak at St. Petersburg College in Florida. There, he also joined the annual St. Petersburg Jazz Festival – as a featured performer.

When not recording or on tour, Bruns travels the world, immersing himself in the study of indigenous percussion instruments and gaining creative inspiration for new rhythms, musical combinations and arrangements. In 2007, he hand-picked local Cuban musicians off the streets of Havana—and joined them at the famous Egrem Studio (Buena Vista Social Club) to record a vibrant rendition of “Gandinga, Mondongo, Y Sandunga.”

Bruns holds degrees in Classical Percussion (B.M., Miami University), Jazz Studies (M.M., University of Southern California) and Music Production (M.M., Berklee College of Music). He is a BMI composer, a contributing author to the Percussive Arts Society, and a voting member of the Grammy Awards.