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Winnipeg's Carl Cyrius has produced about 10 songs for movies and voiced a cartoon character. (MAUREEN SCURFIELD / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

L.A. composer/singer Carl Cyrius, who worked with Luther Vandross on his mega-hit album Dance With My Father, is back home in Winnipeg. He's working quietly on some special projects at his studio at 245 McDermot Ave. in The Exchange.

Cyrius, now 43, says the new electronic world enables him to work wherever he wants and "the same size office in Winnipeg is five times that price in Vancouver and six times that price in L.A."

So, the musician -- raised in Winnipeg as Carl Hibbert -- came home, not only to save some money but also to spend time with his 70-year-old mom.

If you have the right connections, music can be created and sent anywhere online, he says, "and a song can go viral from anywhere."

"It's all connections in L.A.," says Cyrius. "This is how it happened with Luther. From 2003-2005, I apprenticed with Marcus Miller, a great bass player and jazz artist, and Marcus worked wrote and produced for Luther." Cyrius was the assistant producer for songs like She Saw You on that mega-project. He's also created music for films, such as For Lies and Illusion starring Christian Slater and Cuba Gooding Jr. Cyrius is the writer and performer of songs Loverman and Actions Say, in that movie.

In the TV world, he was the voice of cartoon character Winston Honeychurch in the Hurricanes TV series, which ran four years. He also composed music for Sharing Circle, a show about aboriginal issues and spirituality. He also composed the soundtrack for Enter the Black Dragon, which was a hit in the Caribbean, inspired by Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon.

Though Carl "Cyrius" Hibbert, swears he came here to bake cookies with Mom, serious music-creation habits die hard and he recently rented space on the fourth floor of the red-brick Kaye Building, where he works on commercials and new songs for artists and films.

His tiny, away-from-home studio is composed of a guitar, laptop, some snacks and composing material, not to mention his sofa and his bicycle. "Mainly, I got my head down," he says. "Like tonight I'm working on a commercial."

Finally, his guard comes down too, and he brings out his new song, Homeless, which is still getting finishing touches. The lament is poignant, rhythmical with a slight beat box sound, on the subject of feeling out of place because of race.

Cyrius says he is also working on a musical invention.

"I want to revolutionize the music world," he says. "First we had records, then cassettes and CDs. But I am working on a whole new model, the next model. I'd like to get it to a level where I make a lot of money so I can live comfortably, and choose to live poor. I'd like to become independently wealthy and then be a philanthropist," he grins.

THE CLIMB UP: Carl Hibbert, of Jamaican-Canadian parentage, was raised in Winnipeg. He became an award-winning gymnast at an early age, and rode the crest of the break-dancing craze in the '80s as part of the well-known group Breakdown.

"At one point we had three gigs a week in clubs and we were travelling to gigs by van and airplane" he says. Did the Breakdown group get along? "Yes, and I still love them all."

Cyrius studied commerce at the University of Manitoba, but soon took off to Vancouver. "There I got a music degree, where I majored in jazz vocals and minored in classical composition." He also took production engineering, which allowed him to thrive in Vancouver and L.A. while finding his own music projects.

As a young adult, with a head full of braids and a white vest and partly unbuttoned pants, he wowed the girls in a sexy music video called Justify. "OK, mostly people remember the unbuttoned pants in that video," he laughs.

Cyrius, now 43, says he's nothing if not persistent, and that's the key to success in L.A. "I stayed in L.A. and knocked on doors until I finally got a publishing deal with Destiny and worked 10 years there. "I've had about 10 songs in films.

"So, after making most of my dreams and aspirations come true, I'm in Winnipeg doing something I haven't done -- spending some time with my mom. She raised me as a single mom, and I am her only child," he says.

Cyrius says he loves being in Winnipeg riding his bicycle through The Exchange and working in his bird's nest office.

"I used to rent studio time at Video Pool in Artspace at age 15 on Arthur Street. I'm drawn to the area; the art district. It has the most human people -- nice, earthy, kind people. I feel out of place everywhere else, especially in the suburbs."

But not everything is rosy in his old hometown, he adds. Some things haven't changed much, like the subtle racism. "Winnipeg is where I was born and I'll always love it. I just don't like the way I'm treated here sometimes." He says he still feels some of the old prejudice that kept black musicians from getting welcomed into the business here. "They used to say 'we don't think R&B fits the market here' when they really meant they weren't interested in black musicians, and there's still some of that in Winnipeg even after rap became so big."

Maureen Scurfield writes The Insider for the Winnipeg Free Press and keeps an eye out for hidden gems.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 16, 2012 A8