Michaël Brun: The Quickest Point to Vibe

We music makers today are spoilt for choice. With so many tools at our disposal, we don't necessarily need anyone else's involvement to make a track sound full and complete. But how much of a good thing is that actually? In our technologically advanced era, do we risk impoverishing our music-making experience when we work entirely alone? Does the prospect of having complete control over every aspect of our compositions come at the price of isolation?

For New York-based DJ and record producer Michaël Brun, growing up in Haiti instilled a deep conviction of music as a collaborative pursuit rather than a solo activity. His early experiences with traditional Haitian instruments played in communal settings have remained a constant reference point – as he blends these influences with his passion for electronic music. Fusing Haitian styles such as kompa and rara with electronic beats has helped Brun define a unique sound and find global recognition.

“One of my favorite Haitian instruments is the Konè”, explains Brun. “It's just a two-octave, single-note horn. It's so simple on its own, but you'll often have multiple people playing one note simultaneously. That's how they create all these complex melodies. But if anybody's not exactly on point, it destroys the melody. I always felt like this was a representation of Haitian culture, because, in this chaotic environment, everybody has to find their way to be in lockstep with others.”

Born to a Haitian father and a Guyanese mother, Brun spent his formative years in a multicultural environment. His lineage also includes French Haitian, Portuguese, Chinese Haitian, and Afro-Haitian ancestry, which further adds to the diversity of his musical influences. 

Despite initially pursuing a career in pediatric medicine, Brun’s fascination with electronic music and DJing soon became a significant aspect of his life. After leaving Haiti to attend Culver Military Academy in Indiana, he earned a full scholarship to Davidson College in North Carolina, where he juggled his pre-med studies with his burgeoning musical endeavors.

“Music was just a hobby. I was uploading tracks to SoundCloud and DJing at school parties without expecting much. In my freshman year of college, a few of my songs went viral on Hype Machine, leading to outreach from labels, managers and other artists. I remember my first big meeting with Glassnote in New York. They introduced me to various artists on their roster, like Donald Glover. Soon after that, I was invited to Ultra Music Festival, where I performed with Dirty South. That was my first experience playing in front of that many people. By that point, I started to realize this could actually be a career.”

Brun's hunch proved right, he’s gone on to receive a Latin Grammy award and signings with labels such as Columbia Records, S2, and Universal Music's imprint Astralwerks. He has collaborated with renowned artists like Alicia Keys, Armin van Buuren, and Calvin Harris, to name a few. His 2018 single “Positivo“ with J. Balvin became the theme for Telemundo's FIFA World Cup coverage. In 2014 he founded his label Kid Coconut, producing notable singles like “Zenith“ and his 2019 debut album “Lokal“. 

Despite his international success, however, Brun has never forgotten his roots, and strives to maintain a strong connection to his heritage. His music skillfully surfs the intersection of his Haitian lineage while blending fresh sounds, creating a rich, innovative fusion that captivates diverse audiences. 

“I think reaching the point where I could genuinely merge these two sounds authentically took my entire life,” he explains. “I began learning about European house and electronic music, then discovered its roots in Chicago, Detroit, and New York, and its connections to disco, Jamaican, and Caribbean music. This journey revealed how interconnected these genres are, with Caribbean pioneers shaping early disco, hip-hop, and house music in the US. Realizing this made me see the deep ties between these sounds and my own Caribbean heritage.”

Kompa and Rara

Among the specific Haitian music styles that influence Brun's work are kompa and rara. Brun describes kompa as the most popular style in the history of Haiti's music. Pioneered by musicians Nemours Jean Baptiste and Weber Sicot in the early 50s, the genre blends electric guitar, vocals, horns, and drumming.

“There is an associated dance with kompa”, Brun explains. “It’s similar to partner dancing like salsa or cumbia. It has become a significant Haitian export, especially influencing contemporary French music. Artists like Aya Nakamura, one the biggest French acts today, have entire discographies influenced by kompa.”

Despite not being his favorite genre initially Brun describes how he’s grown to love kompa over time, especially given its association with the sounds of the seventies and eighties. He notes how, over the years, it has evolved to incorporate more electronic influences, through the use of keyboards and sequenced drum fills. 

“I always heard kompa growing up as a kid,  it's been around for a pretty long time and has become global in its own way. I've produced a lot of kompa influenced stuff now. And then on the other side, there’s rara, which is our parade music.” 

Haiti's vibrant festival music, rara is traditionally played during street processions in Easter Week. Central to the music are cylindrical bamboo trumpets known as vaksin, complemented by drums, maracas, güiras or güiros, and metal bells. Instruments like alsos, often made from recycled materials such as coffee cans, also play a key role. 

“There's a lot of different drum rhythms that we use in rara”, says Brun. “They are the exact same drum rhythms of West Africa, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. They’re very regional tribal rhythms introduced via the slave trade that arrived in Haiti. You can actually trace back the tribes in Haiti based on the drum rhythm that they play. Rara is our wedding music, it's funeral music. It's always associated with some type of ceremony. And it's carnival, too. So anytime there's a public holiday or some kind of event, rara music spiritually links the musical aspect with the event, bringing the two together. My favorite experience growing up was getting to see a rara band in action after a football game.” 

Perhaps it was an uncanny twist of fate that Brun got the opportunity to channel this vibrant cultural influence into “Positivo“, the aforementioned collaboration with J. Balvin that became an official FIFA World Cup theme song in 2018.

“‘Positivo’ is actually a remix version of my song, ‘Bayo‘,” remembers Brun. “‘Bayo‘ sits right at the intersection of kompa and rara. The ‘Positivo‘ version that I did with J. Balvin features his vocals but with the exact same instrumentation. That was such an amazing experience, just because football is one of the huge things in Haiti growing up, we love it so much.” 

Capturing the Essence of Haitian Instruments 

When recording traditional Haitian instruments like the konè, Brun prefers to challenge the status quo and embrace the raw, unfiltered essence of their sound. While many may strive to capture clean recordings in studios, Brun understands a magic that lies beyond the confines of acoustically treated spaces. Instead, he prefers to capture spontaneous field recordings in the environments these instruments naturally show up; often wielding nothing more than an iPhone.

“To be honest, I feel like the nature of Haitian instruments are so chaotic, the cleaner they are, the worse they sound. So it feels best to capture them in the environment where they sound raw. I tend to lean into the idea that whatever mics we have access to in the moment are what we're going to use, and we're going to build the energy of the track around the recordings we get, as opposed to trying to fit something very raw into a very clean production.”

For Brun, building a track around a raw recording is a balance between selecting the right low-end sounds, while enhancing the initial recording with additional sounds. He explains his method of layering these sounds with complimentary samples to create a cohesive timbre, emphasizing the importance of blending them seamlessly to accentuate existing tones.

“For low-end frequencies, I rely on 808s and subs to ensure a powerful presence on sound systems. For drums and rhythms, I opt for organic sounds like taps, stomps, and hits, captured with the iPhone. These sounds are then layered with specific samples that complement each other. For instance, if a table hit provides the desired mid and high tones, I'll find another sample with more low-end depth, put them into an Effects Rack, compress them, and blend them into one cohesive sound. It's all about enhancing the existing qualities of the raw recording. Attempting to do more or integrate the sounds differently often leads to a disjointed feel. Because, usually a raw recording is not perfectly in tune. It's often going to have interesting harmonics which are going to feel a little bit off relative to a perfectly pitched sample or synth. That's why I prefer to work within the limitations of the raw recordings themselves and simply enhance them.”

Brun notes that Haitian instruments sometimes deviate from western scales, with the craftsmanship of each instrument influencing its tuning. Drawing an analogy to making tones with a glass filled with water, he highlights the subjective nature of tuning, influenced by oral tradition and crafted by ear, resulting in slight fluctuations from standard tuning. Despite these imperfections, Brun expresses appreciation for the humanizing effect it brings to the music, likening it to the impact of hearing passion and authenticity in vocal recordings.

“If a recording doesn't sound real, it's not going to hit you as hard emotionally,” he asserts. “My favorite vocal recordings are the ones where you hear the passion in the person's voice, where you hear a little crack or deviation, or subtle nuances between notes as much as the solid ones. It's the same with recording Haitian instruments. When capturing a player performing five Konès solo, you can hear their breath, the wind from their lips, and the hand squeezing the instrument sections. So you're hearing a little bit of percussive element, you're hearing these different approaches, because with any wind instrument, the way you push the air affects the sound.”

Mastering the Art of the Mixdown

Alongside the musical lineage in Brun's sound is the discernable warmth and depth of his mixdowns, immediately noticeable to any listener.

“That's like, the biggest compliment”, he exclaims. “Because when I started, my mixdowns were so trash. Especially because I didn't go to school for it. With everything I was doing, I was learning on the fly. I had no idea about frequency range. I had no idea about EQing. I didn't understand compression. Every single thing was done by ear. I spent years trying to understand how to make a mix that made sense. I felt like following tutorials online would only lead me to a certain point. Whenever I would try to copy something in a tutorial, it always sounded different and I would lose my mind. I'd ask myself, ‘Why doesn’t this feel right?’ I remember the book that I read early on that started changing my approach from being super technical to just being more open-minded and conversational about things, it was called ‘Mixing with Your Mind’.”

Brun notes how this book taught him to prioritize placement and space, allowing each element room to breathe. This changed his approach to mixing entirely. He went from being a “250 track project guy“ to embracing simplicity and reducing projects to 15-20 tracks, ensuring each element was meaningful and distinct. 

“When I read ‘Mixing with Your Mind,’ it was like, ‘Oh, so it just has to feel right. Like, don't worry about what the levels are saying. Don't worry if it's the exact right frequency. Just worry more about placement, about space, about giving everything a chance to breathe.’ And so over the course of my life, I've learned to reduce to the least amount of elements possible. The fewer elements you have, the easier it is to mix. I’ve learned to think about what I want to highlight in a given part of a song. Is it the vocal? Is it the drums? Is it silence? What is it? Once I've decided, I'll mix things based on that. So, over the years, I think I've found a way of working that lends itself to how I hear. I try to make things sound good to my ear. And then usually, other people like it. Not always, but usually when I reach a point where I feel like the elements are sitting right and I like the way it all feels, then I think others connect with it. After that point, I'll export a simple five-stem mix. I'll do a drum bus. I'll do a music bus. I'll do a bass and vocal bus, and I'll send that to get mastered. I always think that having somebody else to master is better.”

Looping, Warping, Shifting and Pitching

Back when he was still honing his skills as a music maker, Brun mentions how he would create five loops or concepts every single day without fail. Even if it only took him ten minutes, he made sure to open up Live, put something down, and save it. This regular exercise took away the pressure of creating something incredible or life-changing, making the process more akin to journaling; where he would simply jot down whatever idea came to mind.

“Making five loops a day reduced all of the excessive importance. So I was way less worried about the integrity of a thing getting lost. I could step away from it. This way, if a week later I listen back to the idea and it still feels really cool, then I know it actually is really cool.”

A multi-instrumentalist, Brun turns his hand to keys, guitar and bass but speaks modestly, preferring not to describe himself as a proficient player in any of them, at least not compared to his heroes. 

“Because I've worked with the best of the best, I’m not even in the same stratosphere of what they're doing. But I think the beauty of music is that it doesn't have to be perfect to be good. I can play my ideas out the way I imagine them, and then I use Warping to make it better. Sometimes I use Warp if I want to make something very complex and fast, but I can’t play it. So I play it slowly. I play one note at a time, I stitch it together, then I speed it up. And then, not only does it capture what I imagined, but it also sounds very unique, because of the way I cut every single note and make the sequence. It's going to have a feel and a touch that's just me. So even if somebody else tried to do it the exact same way, it would sound different because of how the recording was done. I love using Warp in really creative ways like that.

In addition to Warp, Brun mentions SoundShifter by Waves which he uses for manual pitch adjustments. This tool allows him to achieve a warm, analog feel reminiscent of old synthesizers that required constant tuning. Among his favorite synthesizers is the OP-1 Field by Teenage Engineering, which plays a crucial role in his process. 

“I think that the OP–1 Field is helping me get closer to that instant-commit workflow, where I'm forced to play things in audio and record it into Ableton Live. For one, it’s made me a better player, because I'm playing things way more intentionally. But two, the sound choice of the OP–1 Field, just works well with Ableton Live for some reason. I think it lends itself to the warping and shifting and pitching and all these different things. So it just ends up sounding very warm. It feels very rich. And that workflow has now led to a lot of productions that are, not just my own stuff, but also, things I produce for other artists all around the world. I used that setup on the Ed Sheeran and J. Balvin song that I worked on called ‘Forever My Love’. I will use that on Adekunle Gold in his album. I used it across my entire release schedule last year. I use it on stuff that I worked on with Arcade Fire. I've worked on so many different projects across so many different genres, and that exact same tool set has worked with everything perfectly.” 

The Quickest Point to Vibe

“When I work with other artists, what we're looking for is the quickest point to vibe”, says Brun. According to him, a vibe can originate from just one sound or from multiple elements harmonizing together. However, as soon as either he or a collaborator starts humming along, that's the point of vibe and his cue to step back and avoid overworking the composition.

“When collaborating with other artists, the vibe check is everything” he says. “If you start humming, you're likely hearing something already finished in your mind. So, every additional element you introduce may subtly shift it and could even change that vibe. It's a shared, universal experience when artists connect with a certain vibe. So if you experience that yourself, try not to alter things excessively; if possible, refrain from doing so, because there's clearly something special if a song is emerging naturally from what you already have laid down.”

It's not uncommon to find that one special loop that perfectly captures a vibe. Yet, therein lies the paradox; how to transition that perfect loop into a fully-fledged composition? When Brun suggests we “stop” when we reach the point of vibe, is that to be taken literally? Or does it signify a moment to step back, take a break, refresh the mind, and then return with a fresh perspective to consider arrangement options?

“In my experience, there are two sides to this”, he says. “When collaborating with other artists, ‘stop’ means pausing what I do as the producer as soon as the artist starts writing. It's about hearing what they add before arranging anything, building in harmony with their idea. It's like a handshake; you offer your hand, they reciprocate. If you alter the gesture, the connection is lost. The key in creation is ensuring the connection, then figuring out the next step. On the individual side, I like making a lot of loops. I had that daily five-loop idea because I got into that trap so many times where I would make something and love it, but I couldn't figure out how to arrange it. So, I got sick and tired of it. I got sick and tired of myself. It was just like, ‘I'm done with this. I'm quitting, I'm never making music again.’ And then the next day, I was like, ‘You know what? I love it again.’ The arrangements came easier with some distance. Arrangement brain isn't the same as creation brain; it's more about reduction. Most times, you create, step away, then reduce.”

A Word on Collaboration 

Forming successful collaborations has been a cornerstone of Brun’s artistic journey. He believes that through such collaborations, individuals are challenged to grow, as they traverse a full gambit of human emotions. He emphasizes that through collaboration, he has created things he would never have conceived alone. Moreover, he remarks on the enriching impact of these collaborations and the meaningful friendships they have formed.

“The best collaborations make you a better person”, he suggests. “I'm not saying a better producer. I'm not saying a better songwriter or, a better player. It actually makes you a better, richer person. It improves your life.”

Brun regards every person he’s worked with, irrespective of their success or fame, as inspirational. He emphasizes that it doesn't have to be a chart-topping artist; it can simply be someone he admires and wants to work with. Through these experiences, he suggests that we often discover something new about ourselves, because human interactions act “like mirrors”. 

“Maybe you see a little something of yourself in that person, but in a different shade or in a different perspective. Their different worldview can remind you that, no matter how open-minded you are, you still live in a bubble. It's refreshing to step out of your bubble and gain a more comprehensive view of life. It highlights that you are part of a larger whole.” 

Brun confesses that for him, making music is often secondary to the personal growth that comes from collaboration. “Sometimes, a collaboration may not result in music, but it could lead to a great friendship”, he suggests. “Other times, you might create a great song and never see that person again. Both experiences are valuable.”

Going into the second half of 2024, Brun has been busy working on his Haitian-born event series Bayo, which evolved from his label, Kid Coconut. A cultural event featuring music, visual art, dance and food, it has grown significantly since its inception, attracting up to 10,000 people to its New York City editions.

“The focus is on Haitian and Caribbean culture, but it extends beyond that”, Brun says. “We've hosted guest artists from around the world. It's a handcrafted, curated cultural experience where I aim for two things: first, to offer a beautiful experience of Haitian culture, and second, to unite the diaspora, linking different parts of the world and highlighting the similarities we share across music. Bayo originated in Haiti out of a love for the culture and community. To see it get to the size it is now, playing for so many people, is a huge experience and I'm really grateful.”

Keep up with Michaël Brun on Instagram, Facebook and Soundcloud

Text and Interview by Joseph Joyce 

Photography by Brick Thana