Posted Reaction by PublMe bot in PublMe

Beats, BAYO and the OP-1: How Michaël Brun makes music that bridges culturesThis weekend on 28 June, Brooklyn-based producer and DJ Michaël Brun will be bringing his beloved BAYO show to his local venue — the Barclays Center. It’s a far cry from the event’s roots: a modest show with audiences as small as two dozen around the US and Caribbean, to a sold-out arena of 19,000. The biggest show of his life might be on his doorstep now, but the journey to this point, naturally, hasn’t been so short.
Brun moved to Indiana from Haiti 18 years ago to enrol in military school, later moving to North Carolina as a pre-med student. With serious aspirations to become a doctor, he’d only considered music as a hobby outside of school. That’s until his 2011 bootleg remix of Angus & Julius Stone’s Big Jetplane picked up traction on the practically now-vintage Hype Machine blog. He soon worked on music with Dirty South and EDM giant Hardwell, which catapulted him into the EDM scene. He’s since worked with Calvin Harris, Alicia Keys, J Balvin and Victoria Monét, and has played at festivals including EDC, Ultra, Tomorrowland, and Coachella.
“The actual experience of going to an electronic music show was always a spectacle,” says Brun. “The spectacle of a performance is such a major part of the show, which differentiates it from traditional bands. And I felt like in Haiti, everything was organic, personal and very improvisational, which was the opposite of EDM. So I just wanted to create my version of both: warm, welcoming, fun, safe, all the good things. That’s where the cultural differences were helpful. I don’t think I would have found this balance with BAYO if I hadn’t spent half my life in Haiti and the other half playing shows around the rest of the world. I’m just super grateful,” says Brun.
While preparing for BAYO’s biggest outing yet, Brun is still churning out music. The recently-released Elevate is a summer anthem made alongside collaborator Shiraze, with hints of amapiano, Caribbean rhythms and warm vocals. Often starting with stripped-down voice notes, Brun’s workflow spans continents and hotel rooms, powered by a laptop and OP-1 Field.

We catch up with the Haitian producer to unpack his studio rituals, tech essentials, and the creative philosophy behind his sound.
You’ve got to tell me more about BAYO — what am I missing out on here?
“So, if you translate BAYO from Haitian Creole, it means ‘to give’ and ‘to give it to them’. And the idea for that was always how rich Haiti’s culture is, and how little people know about it. The initial version of the show was basically taking everything from the music side, things that I worked on that I thought were really special, and putting it into the context of the show.
“We’ve had over 100 artists over the past nine years, and you never know who’s gonna show up; there are bands, DJs, there’s me and my guests that I bring out. It’s a full surprise lineup for the entire night, and we have a lot of cool elements — dance, food, videos, everything. And it’s just, it’s like you’re getting transported into the ideal day in Haiti at the beach, with your favourite music that you haven’t heard yet. So that’s like the whole premise of it. And I encourage, if you’re in New York, to come to it, but also, I think we do it across different parts of the world, so I hope everybody gets a chance to experience it.”
What does your schedule look like right now, with BAYO and planned music releases?
“There’s gonna be a couple more shows [after the Barclays Center], so I’m still prepping that and just making sure that the experience of the shows continues to feel really special. On the music side, I’m always working on a lot, but Elevate is the 12th single I’ve released with Astralwerks, and it now feels like a collection of songs that I’m really proud of. I’ll probably end up making a compilation of them so everyone can hear them in context.
“I’m just learning from every past thing I did. I really am excited to continue developing what I’ve built with BAYO into the music side of things.”
You’ve collaborated with some serious talent — how do these partnerships generally form?
“Generally, a lot of my collaborators are friends. So in the case of Shiraze and Elevate, we met at a dinner in Harlem and became friends and made Soweto [in 2018]. And we play so much FIFA [laughs], like, we’ve hung out in life a lot. It makes the actual process of making music always feel just a hang and there’s not too much pressure or expectation. That’s the best way to create.”
When you’re moving from the couch into the studio, how does that first idea come up? Are you starting with a beat or a melody—what’s the foundation?
“Yeah, for us, specifically, Shiraze and me, almost everything we’ve ever done has started with drums and a chord progression. We get that set and then build off of it. But I’ve done songs with a lot of different people in different ways. Sometimes it’s with an acoustic guitar, and then we build up production later. Sometimes it’s an already completed thought, an acapella, and then I’ll build from that. Sometimes, I have a beat that’s fully fleshed out, and I’m like, ‘Yo, what do you think of this?’ So I’ve worked in all kinds of different ways, but it’s fun to build in the room with another artist. I think there’s something magical about it.”
Michaël Brun in his studio. Image: Xander @stf.productions
What kind of setup are you working with to make sure you can get into making a track quickly when inspiration hits?
“So, for vocals, there’s this amazing Colombian producer called Mosty. He has this vocal chain with all stock [Ableton Live] plugins. And it’s so good; I’ve been using that as my starting point for vocals recently. For space, Valhalla is my go-to — VintageVerb is just so versatile across the board. So I use that on everything from vocals to drums to synths and everything in between.
“My process recently, too, is working more with audio. I just try to print MIDI to audio as fast as possible, to commit and then get crazy with it later. I don’t like keeping it so open [with MIDI], I think working with audio takes away the minutia, and keeps the vibe and the energy as a whole. But now that’s pretty much it, anything audio, whether it’s a sample, a one-shot, that’s how I build out the track. That’s what I’ve been using recently. Oh, and Teenage Engineering — I use the OP-1 Field a lot.
Is the OP-1 Field helpful just when you’re making beats on the road or when you’re in the studio, too?
“Yeah, I think it’s the size for me. The thing that’s so appealing about the Field in particular is—like, I had the original OP-1 as well, but I barely used it; I always felt like I couldn’t integrate it into my setup properly. But I was really committed! I thought, ‘This thing is so unique, maybe there’s something I’m not understanding.’ And I got the Field, and I was blown away. It’s so amazing sonically; it’s so lush. I use it as my keyboard, as synthesizer, as a drum machine, and as a MIDI controller. I basically use it as an extension of my laptop.
“I use my phone a lot for voice notes as well. The voice notes help me get the organic side. And then the laptop plus Ableton Live — that’s everything else that you could ever want, right? So it feels, it feels like a good combo between those three things.”
Michaël Brun in his studio. Image: Xander @stf.productions
It sounds like you’re able to lay down your ideas pretty quickly. Do you have any rituals or techniques to stay creative in the studio and on the road?
“Yeah, something passive is just accepting that, if I make stuff, some of it’s gonna be bad, some of it’s gonna be good, right? It’s about allowing that to happen. I think the ritual of just accepting whatever life is gonna throw at you, even outside of music, is very important, but in the context of music, it’s saying, ‘today I got nothing, but it’s fine. I’m not gonna be hard on myself. There’s always tomorrow, and I’ll try again.’ That allows me to create with a level of passion and in a very consistent way.”
With your music and BAYO, you’re kind of bridging Haitian culture with global electronic music — how intentional is that?
“To me, it’s all related. When I work with some bigger artists, I’m using techniques I learned from the more regional-specific projects to make those mainstream things feel different. And I learned that, with the general mainstream structure, the hook and simplicity are super important, so I try to remember that on the smaller projects, so they feed each other in a lot of ways. And I’m really grateful that I get to make stuff that constantly is inspiring. And it’s from, like you mentioned, some really big artists in the world, to upcoming artists that are incredibly talented, that you just haven’t heard about yet. That’s really exciting to me as a producer, as a listener, and I think it makes my music more enriching.”
The post Beats, BAYO and the OP-1: How Michaël Brun makes music that bridges cultures appeared first on MusicTech.

Michael Brun breaks down BAYO, his arena show celebrating Haitian culture, plus the tools, mindset and collabs behind his global sound.