Bermudian artists have access to new producing talent, as Devin O'Bannon has set up a studio in Bermuda in addition to his studio in Los Angeles, United States. Mr O'Bannon, the owner of Black Irish Entertainment, is excited to bring “value” and contribute to the “vision of the island”.

Mr O'Bannon recently moved to the island with his Bermudian wife, Samantha O’Bannon, who is a clinical neuropsychologist.

Asked how he started his business, Mr O'Bannon said: “Black Irish Entertainment was developed while I was still in college, around 2008. I've done music almost all my life and knew I wanted to make something serious out of it.

“I was conversing with a mentor, and he asked, ‘Do you have a business? Or anything you can develop your music around, because you will want to create an entity of yourself, a brand of yourself? And I said, ‘No, I don’t. I just do it myself, everybody just knows me as Devin O'Bannon.’

“From there, I was able to sort through some ideas of what I wanted the company to be called, and funnily enough, my sister posted something that said Black Irish, and I liked that; I took it, Black Irish Entertainment, and it works because I'm Irish, I'm black, I'm African American, and it's just who I am and my music is who I am, so that stuck in 2008.

“I have been rocking with it ever since. I have tied the four-leaf clover to it, so now when you see that four-leaf clover, you know Black Irish Entertainment.”

With his degrees in management and marketing from Glendale Community College in Phoenix, Arizona, and from the Composition and Recording Arts programme at Oakwood University, Mr O’Bannon established himself and his business in the music space in LA.

Discussing the relocation to Bermuda, Mr O’Bannon said: “The transition was rough initially; I was working out of headphones at the dinner table on my laptop for the first eight or nine months of being here.

“But having connections here was a big positive, because I was able to meet people, and they were able to open doors for me to create the studio I am in now.

“My father-in-law reached out to me and offered one of the apartments for me to use as a studio. Here, God comes into play; God opened some doors for me to get funding to get everything built and laid out. God worked it out, and I was able to get the studio up and running within four to five months of building.

“Yeah, the transition was rough initially, but I was and can still do many things virtually. I'm starting to build a great relationship with the creative community here in Bermuda.”

Getting through this transition was possible due to Mr O’Bannon’s passion and purpose in creating and collaborating, being consistent, and remaining “prayed up” amid change and uncertainty.

Sharing how his faith impacts how he navigates business and the lessons he has learnt, Mr O’Bannon said: “It's always been intertwined. Hindsight is always 20-20. Through becoming who I am today and the brand becoming what it is, God has always been a part of it, consistently in prayer.

“As an entrepreneur, you have those waves; it's not a consistent, smooth-sailing type of road, so God has consistently been a part of what I’m doing, and it doesn’t necessarily mean I'm just doing gospel music or music for the church. I do music across the scale, but no matter what, He is at the forefront of it all.

“Staying in consistent prayer, like OK, what is my assignment today, Lord? Who do I need to talk to today? What am I creating today? Keep that creativity in mind to serve the artist I am working with.”

His talent for music production has also extended to implanting outreach as an aspect of his business, giving back to the community that he grew up in.

Mr O’Bannon said: “The big opportunity I had in Phoenix, Arizona, was the ability to create their first music and recording arts programme for the juvenile correction facility they have. So, that is giving back to the youth of a community that I grew up in from a young age until I went to Oakwood.

“Being a part of that community can get rough out there in the streets and city, so these younger kids get involved in some rough things, get into trouble, and end up in this correctional facility.

“But one thing that I have learnt is they all love music in some form, so being able to give back to them in that form and utilise that as therapy in a sense, rehabilitation for them to be able to write and record, get these stories and negative things out of their minds, and put that into the music, has been a huge thing.”

He continued, “Believe it or not, it was something that I wasn’t pursuing; God kind of just handed it to me. When that happened I found a passion in that, I found a passion in giving back to youth, the next generation coming up because how I grew up was artist development, mentorships, there was a lot of things that kind of put you in position to do what you love or find ways to use music professionally in the future.

“Now, I don’t think these kids have a lot of options, so being able to open that door for them and seeing the impact on them was huge. I definitely want to do that moving forward, not just in the correctional facility community or judicial system but also in education.

“Just being able to give them a way to use their creativity and an option to know that it’s not just a hobby. It’s an opportunity, it is something that they can pursue and be very successful in, so being able to give them that door to walk through and those opportunities is something I want to continue to do in the future.”

What’s his business’s greatest accomplishment? “I would say the most recent one,” Mr O’Bannon said. “I was a part of a project with a good friend, and that project just got nominated for a Grammy. If it feels weird to say, but it's true, I am officially a Grammy-nominated artist, which is wild.

“That is probably one of the greatest achievements thus far. I'm doing a lot of stuff in film and TV. This summer, we landed a big Walmart placement with an artist of mine in LA. I'm just finding different successes in different pockets.

“I celebrate the wins but always look forward to the next one. I'm moving to the next one. I can’t just sit here and [feel] I’ve made it. No, we did it. That’s a success, a milestone, and we're on to the next one.”

With this success coming while transitioning to Bermuda, Mr O’Bannon's experience shows there can be big wins even when locating to smaller spaces. Showing that when one has “purpose, passion, consistency, and faith”, one can open the “next door God has for them”, no matter the location.

“One of the biggest things I’ve learnt through this process is to stay consistent,” Mr O’Bannon said. “I remember seeing this post; it says when inspiration dies, consistency should continue.

“Creating, sometimes you get those blocks, you get writer’s block, and you don’t feel inspired to create, but consistency gets you to that next motivation.

“That’s one thing I have been living on. In the transition, it was hard; I didn’t have the steady flow of people coming in and out and creativity as I did before; it was kind of like a discouragement in a sense, but staying consistent got me to that next motivation, which got me to that next level.”

He added: “And then staying prayed up. God has created the path for me already, and anyone reading this, He has created the path for you already. So, consistently pray and stay in connection with that source; when you stay in connection with that source, the next door is right there.

“That was one big lesson, honestly, in that transition here. Initially, when I moved here, I thought, ‘oh, there goes the music, there is no way I'm going to find my way back to where I was in LA’. But God was like, we don’t want to get back to where you were, we want to go to the next level, we want to upgrade, we want to move forward.

“So, staying prayed up and God opened doors, He consistently opens doors. So I say that to the next generation, stay consistent, stay prayed up because the next door is right there.”

• Devin O'Bannon can be found on all social platforms as Black Irish Entertainment or @BlackIrish3nt