Biography

RNIE is black. RNIE is gay. RNIE (pronounced “Ernie”) is the musical moniker of Lamont Brown. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Brown would go on to spend his childhood moving around the Northern VA area with his father until later settling in NC with his mother in 2007. There, his interest in music began to spark. The remainder of his high school years were spent searching for music through skate videos and internet dives. Brown began to find his musical identity. Picking up bass the summer of 2011, he joined his first band early the next year. Diving head first into the Charlotte, NC music scene and the world of DIY, Brown’s love of music continued to evolve into an interest for recording. Buying a small interface he began to track in his bedroom bringing together the EP ‘Figi Afterglow’ in Jan 2015. Pulling from alternative, post punk, and indie ideals the band’s sound began to take shape. RNIE would begin to expand its sound by bringing delayed pitch bent guitars and entrancing loops into the mix. December 2018 all of these sounds found their home on the band’s debut LP ‘Citrus’. Continuing to grow the band’s discography Brown began to push his love of tones further as he wrote small pockets of music during his time living in NYC. The songs were mixed after Brown’s move to Philadelphia in 2020 and released as an EP ‘PONCHO’. “A specific sound is never in mind, just the goal of making music that is satisfying at the end of the day,” as Brown weaves the discography of his life.