American/Bermudian reggae singer Colin Patrick Harper, better known by his stage name Collie Buddz, was born in August 1984 in New Orleans, Louisiana and brought up in Bermuda.
Losing his father at the age of four, Harper relied heavily on older brother Matthew as a role model, and it was Matthew who first introduced him to reggae music at the age of 12. "Back then, I just used to plug headphones into the microphone jack of a tape deck. I'd sing into one of the earpieces and record it on cassette," Buddz reveals on his website.
Harper earned an audio engineering degree in Florida, and, with dreams of becoming a music producer, moved to Toronto, Canada, where his brother had relocated some years earlier. He found he was increasingly layering his own vocals for his production work, so decided to go it alone and became Collie Buddz – the name is based on a slang term for cannabis.
Now best known for his single Come Around, Buddz has also performed on Shaggy's 2007 album Intoxication on the track Mad Mad World, appeared in a 2009 remix of Kid Cudi's single Day 'n' Nite single and sang the entrance theme SOS for WWF wrestler Kofi Kingston on WWF The Music Vol. 8.
Buddz also found time to launch his own record label, Harper Digital, and tour the globe - he was a featured act with Rebelution, Matisyahu and Zion I on the Good Vibes tour in 2013 and has played to sell-out crowds at major music festivals including Lollapalooza, Boomtown, Summer Jam and the California Roots Festival. All this on top of creating a new radio station in Bermuda called Vibe 103 and becoming a father.
Losing his father at the age of four, Harper relied heavily on older brother Matthew as a role model, and it was Matthew who first introduced him to reggae music at the age of 12. "Back then, I just used to plug headphones into the microphone jack of a tape deck. I'd sing into one of the earpieces and record it on cassette," Buddz reveals on his website.
Harper earned an audio engineering degree in Florida, and, with dreams of becoming a music producer, moved to Toronto, Canada, where his brother had relocated some years earlier. He found he was increasingly layering his own vocals for his production work, so decided to go it alone and became Collie Buddz – the name is based on a slang term for cannabis.
Now best known for his single Come Around, Buddz has also performed on Shaggy's 2007 album Intoxication on the track Mad Mad World, appeared in a 2009 remix of Kid Cudi's single Day 'n' Nite single and sang the entrance theme SOS for WWF wrestler Kofi Kingston on WWF The Music Vol. 8.
Buddz also found time to launch his own record label, Harper Digital, and tour the globe - he was a featured act with Rebelution, Matisyahu and Zion I on the Good Vibes tour in 2013 and has played to sell-out crowds at major music festivals including Lollapalooza, Boomtown, Summer Jam and the California Roots Festival. All this on top of creating a new radio station in Bermuda called Vibe 103 and becoming a father.
