Miles Bonny is a record producer, singer-songwriter, trumpeter, and DJ. Originally from New Jersey, Bonny began producing and creating hip hop while living in the midwest in the late 1990s, and founded the hip-hop group SoundsGood with rapper Joe Good in 2000. He has released a number of solo albums, and has collaborated with musicians such as Deep Thinkers, Ces Cru, and Sage Francis. He operates the record label InnateSounds, and in 2010 Bonny won the Pitch Music Award for DJ Hip-Hop in Kansas City. Currently based in New Mexico, Bonny frequently tours as a DJ and performer.
Early life
Miles Bonny was born on November 7, 1980 in New York City, to his parents Anne Grothe and Francis Bonny, a broadway musician. His grandmother, Helen Bonny, was a music therapist. In 1981 Miles Bonny moved to New Jersey, where he grew up in Teaneck and attended Teaneck High School.
Music career
Early years (1999-2004)
Bonny moved to Lawrence, Kansas to attend Kansas Universityin 1999. There he began producing music and started the regional hip hop website Lawrencehiphop.com, which helped bring media attention to the region's hip hop artists. He has also worked on collaborative projects with Approach and iD. During this period an internship with Sub Verse Music led Miles becoming more acquainted with the New York independent hip hop scene, which informed his ability to later start his own label, INnatesounds.
Soundsgood
Additionally, he co-founded the hip-hop group SoundsGood in 2000 with Kansas City-based rapper Joe Good. In the early years of SoundsGood the group was well known in the "house party" scene. After the pair released a 12-song eponymous debut LP in 2002, they released Biscuits & Gravy in 2005. Miles released an instrumental version of Biscuits & Gravy in 2007, after Joe Good had left the hip-hop scene. In 2008, Miles released another SoundsGood LP using material recorded between the band's debut and Biscuits.
Recent years (2005-present)
Miles moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 2005. That year he produced the track "Comin For You" for rap artist Reach, which was chosen by a panel of judges including DJ Premier for Scion's NextUp competition. That same year he received international recognition in Scratch Magazine's Hydrosonic's section. In 2006, Miles released his debut solo project, Smell Smoke? According to The Pitch, the main single from the album, "Miles Gets Open," is a "soulful, jazzy tune, on which Bonny himself plays trumpet, showcases his jazz upbringing in New Jersey, where his father, now a woodworker, used to work nights as a musician across the river in New York City." In 2007 he produced and recorded for musicians such as Reggie B, Deep Thinkers, and John Brewer, all of whom are members of the hip-hop collective Innate Sounds. That year he also made the beat for "Call Me Francois" on Sage Francis' album Human the Death Dance, released on Epitaph Records. He released the "Miles Gets Open" 7" & Closer Love EP in conjunction with the German-based Melting Pot Music in 2007. Miles' next work, Steveland, was released on December 15, 2007, and is a five-song album with Miles singing and playing the horns over a 2002 tribute to Stevie Wonder by indie producer Madlib. In 2010, he won the Pitch Music Award for DJ Hip-Hop in Kansas City. Bonny released Egg Black EP with producer B.Lewis on April 3, 2012, and he was nominated for a 2013 Amadeus Award for his S3 project. He has performed internationally in countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, and Austria.
Personal life
In 2013 Bonny moved to Tres Piedras, New Mexico. His home is solar-paneled and handbuilt using materials such as wood, straw bales, and adobe. Bonny has a separate career as a social worker.
