SHORT BIO:
Greenvale Manitou is Cedric Briand's most personable project, and Manitou Studios is the staple LLC name for everything he enterprises in the music industry. An eclectic taste and a love to fuse popular genres with World music is his favorite recipe. Niches are about borders, frontiers... In response, Briand resists mentalities of isolation and enclosure by flirting with many genres, performing as a multi-instrumentalist using live samples and loops, and fueling his curious soul with experimentation, partnerships and occasional transcendence.
LONG BIO:
Organic world percussion, trance-like riffs, loops or beats often serve as a common thread to Greenvale Manitou's music. Because it connects us all. The first music we ever hear is our mother's heartbeat. The drive to stretch the skin of an animal on a carved piece of wood is something all cultures across the world have in common. Drumming together was often key to survival, building communities while keeping predators at bay. As old as fire itself, Briand's music shares that everlasting transcultural vibe of belonging and rebuking, of basic comforts and primal fears. In today's unsettling times, when our tribal impulses are taking a much darker countenance, Greenvale Manitou serves as a reminder to tap into that primitive crux and confront the many social issues that haunt us.
Briand's music journey started as a young teenager, when he was trained by master percussionists from North and Central Africa. Because they were unusual in his music scene, his early performances peaked the interest of many venues and the local Press. His favorite signature still is to play the African djembe or dun dun, but he also likes to incorporate Celtic, Nordic, Latin, Asian or Native American vibes to his drumming. He often approaches his guitar and lyrics as if they were percussion instruments themselves. His poetry complements rhythm with narrative, emotion and symbolism. He draws inspiration from the child within himself, the joys and the traumas, the experience of homelessness and a deep connection with nature and animals, the survival of abuse, exploitation and betrayal, the empathic drive to help (or mentor) those in need, and the non-abiding spirit that asks of him never to fit any box. Constant mobility and adaptability as resistance to stagnation, isolation and singular identity.
As a young adult, Briand served as lead singer and lyricist for French metal band Beyond The Shadows while taking professional voice lessons on the side. He started learning to play the guitar shortly after, so as to be able to compose his own tunes, and left for the US in 2005. While working on his PhD at PennState in the Humanities, he wrote many songs, played with several partners and joined many bands.
After moving to Minnesota in 2016 after graduation, he decided to continue his self-teaching journey. He learned how to play the bass and operate a drum kit so as to be able to multi-track rock songs on his own. After taking online classes on music production, Briand then recorded his first demos and shared them on Soundcloud. During the Covid lockdown, he spent six months turning his basement into a recording studio, after studying the physics of sound treatment. His entire house, which was built in 1949 by St Olaf Orchestra Director Donald Berglund, would soon welcome many bands for practice, house concerts, wine pairing dinners or fundraising events, and was from now on dubbed "Manitou Studios". Shortly after, he approached local tech-savvy studio engineer Jeenti Dutta for partnership. Favoring storytelling and feeling in his play style as well as modern production techniques, Dutta served as both lead guitarist and producer on Greenvale Manitou's first EP, "Born of the Same", which was released on June 8, 2023. Working alongside Dutta's production skills helped Briand escape monolithic labeling and fuse many genres, such as dream pop, psychedelic rock, heavy metal, hip hop, electro, lo-fi trip hop, or soul, together. Dutta soon turned his home studio into an LLC, and while no longer involved in the songwriting, he still served as Briand's studio engineer of choice. He mixed and mastered Greenvale Manitou's second release, the 2-track "Santa Closet", released on December 25, 2023. He did the same for Briand's first single from his upcoming second EP "M.A.G.M.A.", the antifa anthem "Song to the Fascist", symbolically released on Nov 5, 2024. The recording will be made of previously unreleased remastered Demos.
On stage, Briand likes to produce himself as a place-based solo act, or with the help of musician friends. This insures access to a variety of venues, from the most intimate to the most expansive, showcasing a variety of sonic flavors, acoustic, electric, or electronic, paired with the use of samples and loop pedals. Following the split with Dutta, the occasional addition of friends Nolan Perry Arnold at the guitar, keys and accordion, and Berit Johanne Bringsjord at the violin when performing live allowed Briand to add more folk vibes to his catalog, including previously unreleased originals and personalized covers on stage.
After the release of "Song to the Fascist", Briand decided to shelve his EP project and join Minneapolis-based prog metal band The Broken Rule as lead singer and lyricist so as to better confront the political extremist forces at play. Their first self-titled LP was released March 13, 2026. During that period, Briand multiplied partnerships. Two years in a row, he served as main act and sound engineer for the mini-festivals Breizh Fest and La Fête de la Musique, organized by the MSP French Alliance. In Summer 2024, Art Makers, a Northfield-based non-profit arts community that provides opportunities for artists with disabilities to participate in music projects as they choose, approached him. Briand joined in the writing, performing and recording of musicals "Alice's Wonder" and "Askeladden". He joined a few local jams, serving as a percussionist for traditional Nordic band Northern Roots, as a drummer for the Hot Spot Punk Jam, and a multi-instrumentalist for Jam at The Grand.
On top of his writing and performing duties, Briand is also currently trained on music production by Minneapolis metal producer legend Will Maravelas, and is expanding his career creating and coordinating music events, which involves booking and managing bands. On Halloween 2025, after more than 12k views on IG and about 300+ tickets sold, Metal Fest, his very first attempt, was a acclaimed success. This kept him going with further events such as Brave New World, or Celtic Fest, which are now happening on a yearly basis. He often raises money for various causes, especially during Indigenous Peoples Day at Manitou Studios, which have helped causes such as the UNICEF or MIRAC.
Briand is currently working at releasing "M.A.G.M.A."'s second single, "Willard Preacher". The Broken Rule is also releasing a second single, "Connivance", from the recently recorded LP, which will be made available shortly after. He is forming a new band from scratch with guitarist Mark Fier and previous Broken Rule bassist Ezekiel Choffel, with grunge tunes reminiscent of Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters and RHCP. He is still looking for more...