Canadian recording artist, producer and DJ Brian Asha has spent several decades moving between various musical scenes, creative disciplines and cultural movements. With smokey vocals and a sound that flows across dance, alternative rock and retro pop, his work reflects a career influenced by both underground music culture and the opportunities of new technology. From the alternative clubs of 80s Toronto to the early days of Canada’s internet scene, Brian has followed a unique creative path, bringing together an interest in music, media and human connection that now informs his latest project.
His musical origins were forged on Toronto’s Queen Street West, where he played in local bands, performed DJ sets at clubs and hosted the Magic Carpet Show on college radio. The city’s alternative scene provided an early platform for his diverse interests but it was during the following decade that Brian became involved in something altogether more expansive. Through his DJ cooperative House of Euphoria, he helped pioneer Canada’s underground rave movement, with the collective receiving attention from CNN as part of the rising cyberpunk culture.
His involvement in early digital work in Montreal also confirmed his status as a Canadian internet pioneer, opening the door to a parallel career in online media. Working under the name E. Brian Johnson, he went on to become a creative director and media producer, eventually taking a startup public on the ASX in 2016.
Music always remained an important part of his identity, even as his professional life developed in other directions and in 2026, drawing on his own recovery and a decade spent counselling young men in the criminal justice system, he founded Mighty IRL, a movement encouraging young men to step away from their screens and reconnect with experiences in the real world. It’s a project that emphasises personal development and positive masculinity, while giving Brian’s music a new sense of purpose.
That context runs directly through Mighty Man, his latest single and a five-track EP built around the guitar work of two-time Juno Award winner Jack De Keyzer. Brian’s relationship with Jack stretches back decades, beginning when he interviewed the guitarist’s band, The Bopcats, for his rockabilly radio show on CIUT. Their paths continued to cross at gigs over the years and last year Brian approached him about contributing to the track which had originally been recorded back in 2013, with Brian taking inspiration from Muddy Waters’ “Hoochie Coochie Man” and Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man.”
Its initial hard electro sound reflected his interest in dance music but sending the recording to Jack introduced an entirely different sound with the guitarist immediately connecting with its blues influence and returning six tracks of guitar work, shifting the song towards a grittier blues rock direction. As a guitarist, vocalist and producer with more than four decades in music, Jack has independently released 12 albums and received two Juno Awards and seven Maple Blues Awards. His playing combines the grit of Chicago blues with the virtuosity of British blues and the late Jeff Healey once described him as the finest blues guitarist in the country.
On “Mighty Man (Jack De Keyzer’s Rock’n’Roll Remix),” that flair gives Brian’s original electronic outing a new sense of movement and sonic impact. “Brian’s demo blew me away. This collaboration has been a trip, and I can’t wait to share it. So much music today is controlled by the algorithm, just like our kids are. This track is about breaking free from that. It’s OK to be proud of who you are, and it’s a lot more fun to lose the screens and live in real life. That’s what rock and roll is all about.” Jack shares.
Brimming with Brian’s expressive vocals, soulful backing vocals and grooving rhythm, “Mighty Man (Jack De Keyzer’s Rock’n’Roll Remix)” rolls with stacks of Jack’s slick guitar work, resulting in an epic jam that’s infectious and highly memorable throughout. The EP also features remixes by Grammy Award-winning producer Philip Larsen, whose work includes collaborations with Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry and Soft Cell.
Commenting on the release, Brian Asha offers, “This song has a raw, visceral power. It’s gritty and joyful, and it celebrates what it means to be a man with positive, fun-loving vibes. Today, everything we experience online has been carefully curated for us. There’s little sense of adventure or danger left. This is an answer to that. It’s about fun, it’s about adventure, it’s about living mighty in real life.”
Listen to Mighty Man (Jack De Keyzer’s Rock’n’Roll Remix) below
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