Jonas Brunsnaes, Mzungu Maasai. Born December 1990. Raised in the town of Vejle, Denmark. Moved to Kenya, Africa, with my wife in 2014.

Today we are living with with our 3 kids in Athi River, Kenya.

“He is my guide, because I have a horrible sense of direction. Through my live I have learnt that he always has a plan, so now I let him take the lead, and I will follow – even when I can’t see the final destination.”

I grew up in a christian home, and faith has therefore always been a big part of my upbringing.

Since I was a kid I had an interest in heavy and energetic music. As a teenager this interest only grew stronger. Luckily my parents supported me, and challenged me to find people with the same interest and same Christian foundation. This encouraged me to set up metal music shows in my hometown at the of 15, and through these shows I got to meet Morten, Andreas, Bob Beeman from Sanctuary International, and many others.

As a young teenager I was mainly driven by the energy in the music, in the environment, and from the people of the subculture. But I was too immature to see God’s plan, and how he was actually setting things up and paving a way for me.

Nevertheless, things started moving really fast, and way beyond my own control. Within a few years I was suddenly part of the organizing team behind the Green Light District Festival, spearheaded by Andreas and Bob Beeman.
We established Sanctuary Denmark, and the community kept growing with not only the annual festival, but also single night shows, discipleship groups and annual band retreats (at my parents’ backyard – they still supported all the way through), and in the following years a lot of christian metal bands were formed, among them were Solace the Day, where Andreas and I played together, and subsequently Roselyn, where Morten and I played together. At that point I felt like I had made it, but God had different plans… I just did not know.

In 2009, the night before the 2nd Green Light District Festival, Bob Beeman was together with us, the organizing group, and during our prayer session he prophesied that “members of the Sanctuary Community would be relocating to Africa”. In my head I quickly brushed it off as my focus was on Sanctuary Denmark and the festival that was about to kick off the following morning. There was no way those words could be meant for me.

However, 3 years later, I found myself in Kenya due to a free ticket being available, I met my wife there, and in 2014 we permanently relocated to Kenya, which meant me giving up on music and the whole ministry in Denmark.

Upon arrival in Kenya I remembered Bob Beeman’s prophesy, and realized it had come true. So I was waiting, praying and getting excited for things to happen…. But nothing happened…. Nobody else came….. For 10 years I was in a desert, walking blindly, waiting for God’s directions.

Until At The Mountain!

I am part of At The Mountain because God gave me an invitation to work with him. After 10 years of desert walking and not playing music he suddenly invited me back, and within months he connected all of us.

This is a calling that I am answering.

An opportunity to worship Him, to regain fellowship, disciple ship, and hopefully inspire others to come and join us in His praise!

I come from a background of post rock (Lampshade, Munk, This Will Destroy You, Explosions in the Sky). I spent my teenage years listening to that and playing similar music with friends.

From there I got hooked by the more energetic and chaotic music (Norma Jean, The Chariot, Converge, Refused).

I have also had several years centred around groovy southern style music (Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, He is Legend, Everytime I Die, etc). I basically enjoy music that combines emotions and raw energy.

When living in Denmark and playing drums for Solace the Day (with Andreas Larsen), I heard that Norma Jean were selling their Truth drum kit. I contacted them on Facebook and ended up buying it, airlifting it all the way to Denmark, only to realise the was thing called import duty and VAT (as a teenager I did not plan that well).

However, my parents came to my rescue, we got it sorted out, and I really enjoyed using that kit. It was my main kit during the years of Solace the Day and Roselyn.

I liked how the drums were not put on a rack or even fixed to the bass drum, so I had the freedom to set it up in any way and fashion I liked. As a left-handed drummer it gave me a lot of opportunities, and during the years I experienced with a lot of alternative setup ups – most of them being very minimalistic and allowing for bigger movements to put more energy into the playing style.

As I moved to Kenya I sold the Thruth Drum kit and have not played on acoustic drums since. I currently play on 2 different electric kits, one being from Alesis and the other from Behringer. The electric kits are one of the key elements for At the Mountain’s writing process as it allows me to record the drums straight into the computer and bounce files back and forth between the rest of the group.