Unique EDM artist Michael Brun has just released his latest single, "Jupiter", and he met with me and spoke about his career and the great accomplishments he's had at such a young age of 24.
Born in the capital of Haiti, Port-Au-Prince, Brun received a full scholarship to study in America. Originally a pre-med student, music became his passion, particularly the electronica genre. What makes Brun a unique artist is how much of Haitian culture and music he includes in EDM. Take the song he created with the young students at the Audio Institute in Haiti, "Wherever I Go". The song has garnered much praise, especially from those in the Haitian community, and it contains elements of Calypso music and Zouk, a particular genre of music from the French West Indies.
Brun says his new single "Jupiter", featuring Roy English, is a representation of a relationship. Everyone takes their own experience from music, including his music, and he wants people to understand that. For him, "Jupiter" is an expression of his own emotions. Besides being a great song to dance and vibe to, it contains the elements of jumping into a new relationship and the first steps to real feelings developing for someone. It contains elements of both a love song, something that Haitians do well, and contemporary EDM.
Though he started his career with house electronica, Brun is creating a more multi-cultural form of EDM. He was motivated to forge his own path and direction and find new ways to introduce the culture of Haiti. Mixing Haitian culture with electronica music is his way of "paying his respects" to his homeland, Brun says. He also feels that the melding of Haitian music with EDM is another form of the natural progression of the genre that is occurring; it is both accessible and is causing the genre to stand out. According to Brun, the way EDM artists move the art forward is through incorporating personal and diverse influences in the music.
The recent hurricane affecting Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean has created controversial and inaccurate reports about the condition of Haitian people, and Brun had something to say about it. He says with situations like Hurricane Matthew, it is important not to sensationalize. Side comments is not pertinent reporting. Haitians and other people should be and are wary about the representation of their culture and the conditions of the people from American media, as a result. He has worked with artists who are not from Haiti while in Haiti, and he says that they always come away from the experience changed because they notice there is a unique energy about the land and culture. There is something magical about the island of Haiti. Brun doesn't want people to forget that in place of negative and biased reporting.
Brun has an amazing giving side as well. For one of his more recent concerts, he took all proceeds to create scholarships for Haitian students to study music. For Brun, education led him to music and he wants to create the same for other young musicians so they can create as well. Judging from the single he created at the Audio Institute, he has having enormous success, as the Audio Institute is one of the artists featured on the record label he founded, Kid Coconut.
Besides "Wherever I Go" and "Jupiter", Brun created the single for the "All I Ever Wanted" for the Netflix original film XOXO. He is currently working with a lot of artists, and of course, bridging genres. He is working to establish a future tour festival in Haiti as well. Michael Brun represents a true musical bridging of the gap, and though he may not be studying pre-med, he is healing with his music. Both Brun and his single "Jupiter" show promise for the future of EDM and multi-cultural music. His body of work can be heard on SoundCloud here.
