By: Joshua Atlas

I walk into a corridor of rooms that are just lightly lit. The first room by candle, the second by lava lamp, and the third by a TV; the pause screen of the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom freshly pressed. I say hi to Bruno and am asked to take off my shoes before I walk past the kitchen. Bruno Pruhs is a man of many visions and a true wizard of craft itself. Bruno is not just a filmmaker but a musician, animator, editor, and adventurer; if I were to continue listing, this article would blow past our less than 1000-word requirement. Just last year, he released the first video in his upcoming series, “The Scene,” a living testament to his love of film, music, and adventures. Walking into the 2nd room, I quickly notice a wall lined with guitars, which Bruno has been classically trained in since he was little. In one corner of the room is a midi drum, another a midi keyboard, and the other a workstation where Bruno crafts. This entire room is Bruno’s studio, a place to forge raw creativity into something focused. We mingle a little over the Legend of Zelda. I take a seat on a tiny drum stool, and we begin our discussion.

BP: Should I just tell you what I’m working on?

JA: Yeah, whatever you want to talk about

BP: So I’m working on a YouTube documentary series called The Scene-

JA: Is this all coming from the Rods video?

BP: Yeah, I really loved just making the Rods Video; it was just so much fun making music and going on adventures. I got a lot of really good feedback from the Rod’s video, and I was like shit, dude, this could be something really awesome, so I’m making five more episodes.

JA: I’m guessing that’s where all of those crazy snippets of you training with the Marines Corp. or Running through alleyways of a million people are from?

BP: Yeah. I got a new camera after the Rod’s video and some new gear, and I’ve just been going on crazy adventures throughout the city documenting various communities in New York and around the world, each episode covering a different Scene basically. The first is Rod’s coffee house, the second are these Bronx Luche Libre fighters that’s literally on the block. Fordham students don’t even know about it. It’s literally on Hoffman in this random garage.

JA: That’s insane, how’d you even find out about this?

BP: I just passed the garage with my dad one day hearing the screaming, and then another day me and my band last year, and met this dude named Caveman outside the same place. He thought we were cool, so he took us for a little tour inside the place. But yeah, that’s episode 2.
Episode 3 is called La Hermita, basically about this mountain where all these houses burnt down in Spain, except for at the top where the church, La Hermita, was left standing. So we climbed up this mountain, and when we got to the top, I was with a friend who played the flute, and they just invited us to play at the sermon on top of this mountain.

JA: Did you guys just have the flute and guitar with you while climbing the mountain?

BP: Well, the idea was that I was interviewing this priest in Spain, and we wanted to have his vocals in the background while we climbed the mountain, all while we played music. When we got to the top, they just invited us to play.
Sorry, I get really excited when I talk about the scene. The Scene is not only exploring these unexplored areas and these niche communities, it’s also 50% the music. The whole episode is honestly like a long-ass music video.
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JA: I was gonna say how impressed I was at the Cab Film Festival last year watching The Rod’s video, and then at the end seeing “Music by me” pop up; the amount of effort that takes to make the music alone is just crazy.

BP: Yeah, dude

JA: (As a filmmaker) I’m insanely jealous of it; honestly, you have full creative expression over your entire project, doing video, editing, and music. Always something I’ve wanted to be able to do, I’m just not tuned in on music like that.

BP: You nailed it, the full creative expression aspect. I think that’s what makes the scene so unique. It’s completely original. Unexplored places, Unexplored Communities, Never Seen before footage, and then the music, too. And the music is never just one song. The scene is a narrative; some are more fantasy than others, but its a lot of magical realism, so the stories are accompanied by the music. Sometimes, we even drop the music.

JA: less is more sometimes. I know when I’m animating, there’s scenes where I cut the music to change the atmosphere or stress the importance of a scene.

BP: Yeah, exactly

(Bruno continued to tell me more about the upcoming episodes of the Scene, but I don’t want to spoil too much for anyone interested.)

JA: Have you ever watched How to With John Wilson?

BP: Dude, literally, look, I was literally watching it before you got here.

JA: When I was watching that, I always wondered how he got into those insane scenarios; feel like you do the same shit

BP: I mean, for John Wilson, he just walks around with his camera everywhere, I feel like it’s the same for me. The Scene is kinda like a capstone project; all of these places I’ve slowly discovered in my time in New York all of my artistic progress. It all comes together in the scene.

JA: I’ve gotta ask a music question since we are Relish, but what inspires you musically?

BP: The scene itself inspires me; what I’m thinking now is how I can make music that captures the essence I’m going for.
By the way, there are a lot of areas in Music that I’m completely unskilled in. One of those is electronic music, I’m shit at. Fortunately, this is the music building. Right next door, we have this dude Connor Francis, an extremely talented DJ, and he makes dope techno music, so he’s gonna whip up some tunnel music. Beneath me, we have Jeff Soles, a professional pianist, and recently, hes been helping me with my music since he’s also got a whole studio. And then Up above, we have the rooftop, something that’s been happening lately; the 3 of us have started a band called Rooftop Jams, cus we just go up there and jam on the rooftop, and that’s gonna be huge for the scene.

Realistically, Bruno and I babbled on about The Scene, Creative Direction, Music, and our lives for the next 30 minutes.

The Scene is expected to be released sometime next spring.

Catch Bruno on Instagram and Youtube @brunomoruno