SonReal is the moniker of Canadian singer, songwriter, rapper and visual artist Aaron Hoffman. The multi-artist’s musical and creative journey began as a young rapper based in Vernon, BC playing nearly empty bars to friends. Undeterred, he moved to Vancouver and the now infamous 1851 House, where he found himself immersed with creatives — friends with dreams just as big as his, in lanes all their own. An aspiring DJ. An aspiring videographer and filmmaker. An aspiring music industry executive. All under one roof, and all realizing they had complementary skills and ambitions. It was here that the SonReal project truly came to life, supported by friends and partners who still ride together to this day. What grew from there was one of the most unique collective projects to emerge from the Canadian underground in some time.

His previous project, The Aaron LP, is the culmination of this creative journey to align the artist persona of SonReal with the songwriter and person, Aaron Hoffman. First and foremost, the album is a collection of honest songs. Co-produced in LA by Trevor Muzzy, the songs are lush, deliberate and expansive. Whether its folk-tinged acoustic ballads like the album opener “Fearless” and “1000 Highways”, the soul-infused tracks “Healing” (ft. Jessie Reyez) and “Quit”, or the intensely personal joints “Voicemail” and “Ted”, every song is a deeply relatable look into the person behind the music – Aaron Hoffman. Of course, he still has bars as evidenced by tracks like “Parachute”, “Dive Bar” and the album closer “Back To You” — but those bars now support a broader, more ambitious creative endeavour.

SonReal, recently released a video for his current single “Bananas,” the track is off his forthcoming release. due out in 2021.

SonReal on “Bannanas”:

“All I remember with creating Bananas was absolutely loosing my mind in the studio. I did like 5 verses on that song just because the beat slapped so hard. It’s one of those records you want to perform live as soon as it’s recorded”