Jan Heirman

Jan Heirman is a Brussels-based drummer, producer and educator with a broad artistic background that actively pushes the boundaries between jazz, electronic music and world traditions.

His musical formation began with classical training, before studying jazz drums at the Ghent Conservatory. That education became the launchpad for his further musical career, both geographically and artistically.

As a founding member of the Ghent hip-hop collective Okkupeerder, he explored early on the cross-pollination between rap, jazz and electronics. With Brussels groove collective M.CHUZI, laureate of the Sound Track contest (2019) and a fixture at venues like AB, Couleur Café and Beursschouwburg, he deepened his engagement with West African grooves and the legacy of Fela Kuti and Ebo Taylor.

Travel is an important part of his musical development. He immersed himself in the rhythmic traditions of Benin, studied with percussion legend Nathoo Lal Solanki in Rajasthan, connected with gnawa musicians in Fez and Tangier, and spent time in La Réunion studying the maloya tradition with the sons of Danyel Waro, one of the most prominent voices in that musical heritage.

Those experiences live on in TROMKLUB, the percussion ensemble he co-founded to bring percussionists from different backgrounds together around a shared rhythmical language.

In MeyanDR, his solo project, he brings all these threads together on his own, uncompromising terms. He produces, composes and performs his music live through drums and electronics: raw soundscapes, hyperactive beats and glitchy textures that form a deeply personal emotional universe. His current album is a collaboration with Iranian vocalist and setar player Shahab Azinmehr, whose melancholic, improvisatory contribution sits at the heart of what MeyanDR searches for.