I was born in Martinique, French Antilles, and grew up in Burundi, Africa. I started poetry at the age of nine.
I started singing in a Bahá'í choir when I was fifteen.
I starting giging with a future Netflix actor: I was a bassist playing in jazz and folk rock bands when I moved to Montreal, Canada at eighteen.
I joined punk rock bands in Quebec City when I was twenty-two. The metal band Tereza had some success in the Province of Quebec. We toured around, playing in bars, festivals, Music Halls and clubs. In 1998, we were finalists of the Polliwog Contest for Musique Plus in Montreal. We opened for a legendary metal band Voivod and several other great rock bands from Canada and France.
At the same time, I belonged to a techno duo called Cristal Path. We used to play in raves and clubs still in French Canada. Our single 'Our time will come' was discovered by a German DJ on internet who played the hit in clubs in Manneheim and at the main tent of the Berlin Love Parade 1998 that attracted eight hundred thousand techno fans all across the world.
I then decided to take a break of music and concentrate my efforts on poetry.
I moved back to Bujumbura, Burundi where I evolved in literature. When I was 32, my audio CD of recited poetry landed in the hands of a famous journalist there. I was invited to talk on major radios, then was broadcasted on Okapi Congo RDC for twenty-two million listeners.
I went back to Canada where I was first published in a famous underground review. I then influenced a French writer (Wikipedia) Claire Delanoy to write Letter to a Young Writer. I also inspired a French Canadian novelist Named Catherine Mavrikakis who wrote the book The Last Days of Smokey Nelson.
In 2011, I directed and wrote a multi-media show at the French Cultural Center of Bujumbura. I was going back and forth between Canada and Africa.
In 2014, Tereza was included in the Canadian Museum of Music for a while. The band is also included in three prestigious metal encyclopedias.
This year, I am distributed for now by Ditto UK, the company that propelled Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith to stardom. The EP that I'm releasing with the single Solomon's Judgement were cowritten between the guitarist Franco-québécois Reno Sensal and myself. I sing on every track except for the Last Chance, the County song on the EP. I wrote the lyrics and hired a singer from Nashville TN who sang on the track.
The collaboration between Reno and I is called the Truthseeker and sometimes I call myself Jay Sunny for fun. Today I'm a solo artist named Jalal Sunstrum, that's my real name.
The songs Solomon's Judgement and O'Shires Tale are on iHeartRadio all across North America, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. I'm also on Boomplay, Nigeria and some of my poems in French and in English are audio published by Anghami UAE.