It’s hard to stand out in the oversaturated world of EDM producers, but Michael Brun is someone you won’t be able to miss. The Haiti native has been on our house radars for a while, thanks to his Caribbean-flavored releases as well as the remixes for the likes of Alicia Keys and Calvin Harris. "Wherever I Go," the newest offering from the Port-au-Prince-born musician, sees him teaming up with the gifted students of Haitian audio school and might as well become a club anthem of Haiti thanks to its inspiring story and distinctive sound. We’ve caught up with the 23-year-old producer to learn why he left his medical ambitions behind (at least for now), what mash-up kickstarted his career and what’s the difference between Haitian music genres kompa and rara.   

Hey! How are you, where are you and what are you up to right now?

I’m in New York right now. It’s my girlfriend’s birthday so I came here for two days to surprise her. And then I go back to Miami to finish the rest of my EP.

Oh, that’s nice. Did you girlfriend enjoy the surprise?

Yeah, yeah, she’s very happy.

Okay, good. Now let’s go back to the beginning: what’s your story so far?

I was born in Haiti. My parents both really loved music: my mom played the piano and my dad had a band up until he started working at the family business (a hardware store). He gave up the music to do that but I still got a lot of influence from him. Both of them pushed me to learn how to play the instruments (piano, guitar). And they made me listen to all the stuff they were listening to. Then I started DJing, coming up with mash-ups and stuff on this program called VirtualDJ when I was 14-15. In Haiti electronic music was not big then yet, but a good friend of mine exposed me to all of the music because he had older siblings who’ve been listening to all this stuff in college. Eventually I got good enough doing my mash-ups and learned enough about the scene to start producing my own music.

I went to a military school in Indiana when I was 16, then I went to a college in North Carolina doing pre-med. And this whole time my goal in life was to become a pediatrician, I never wanted to do music full-time, ‘cause I didn’t think it was possible. I wanted to give back to Haiti via medicine, ‘cause I was living in a country that doesn’t really have a lot of opportunities for so many people. I knew I was one of the lucky people who got to go to a good school and had a good family, so I wanted to do something for the community.

But going through the med program in North Carolina I was doing music more and more. I posted something online and one of my bootlegs got very popular which led to a bunch of other stuff. Eventually I got a manager and other artists started hitting me up about my music. And I was still at school doing pediatrics with no real plan! My school was very small and told me it was something that never happened to their students before and that they supported my decision to make music. I was on a full scholarship and was worried that if I do music, I’ll lose the scholarship, but they told me not to worry and come back if music doesn’t work out. It was three years ago…

So I guess you never got back, huh?

Yeah, the music’s gotten serious. I still can’t believe it.

But do you still plan to become a doctor one day?

I really would like to, truly. The one thing I realized was that I wanted to become a doctor to help as many people as possible any way I could do it. But now with the audience I have even just in Haiti, the reach that I have is pretty powerful. I know that the more successful that I can become in music, the more people I can impact and inspire.

I’m sure you’ve also read all of these scientific researches on how music helps the patients to recover faster after surgeries, etc. So you can be a DJing pediatrician, you know.

Oh yeah, that was one of the jokes I’ve heard a lot! A lot of the students at my school loved art. I think there’s a link in terms of the way brain works in science and art. It’s very close somehow. And that whole ‘music for recovery’ was one of the things I was looking into because I was very intrigued by it. Music affects your state, you can always tell when people get happy or sad or empowered when they listen to music. Music is kind of a medication.

You’ve mentioned electronic music not being very big in Haiti back then. Is it bigger now?

A year after I’ve started, people started picking up on it, too. There were people who were bringing the electronics to Haiti. So right around that time they’ve started bringing in more DJs. And in 2009 the big DJ who came in was Steve Angello. People were very excited. That really sparked the love for that music and made it grow. Then we had Avicii (I played with him), we just had Nervo and Dirty South (my mentor). It’s a lot bigger now. Even for myself: I’ve been able to play the same big venues as these artists, which hosts about 2,000 people.

You use a lot of Haitian folk in your production. Can you explain what kompa and rara genres sound like?

Kompa is something you dance to with a partner, it’s not solo. It’s a little slower, very romantic music. Rara is very tribal voodoo-influenced party music. It’s based on horns and drums, very raw-sounding. It’s what you’d expect to hear at the voodoo ceremony or a parade.

You’ve mentioned doing ‘terrible mashups’ using VirtualDJ. What was your bravest mash-up then?

When I started doing mash-ups, I thought ‘faster’ meant ‘better’. I loved Axwell remix of ‘2 Million Ways’ and decided to mix it with ‘Waking On The Moon’ by The Police. So I put it together at 150 bpm. People liked it but thought it was too fast. Over time I agreed with them: faster doesn’t always mean better. So it was all about mixing my parents’ favorites with my own discoveries like Axwell.

Let’s talk about your new charity single Wherever I Go. Where did the idea come from?

It wasn’t planned. I’ve been working with The Audio Institute of APJ in Haiti for about 2 years now and last December I went to visit their school to see what they were doing over there. I’m from Port-au-Prince and the school is in Jacmel. The school is a scholarship-based audio and film school and I was very impressed by how talented everyone was there. I decided to come back and make a song with the students. The school loved the idea and we ended up making this record: all of the instruments were recorded live at the school by students and teachers, while my cousin J Perry provided the vocals. I didn’t bring any ideas to the session: everything was born there and we made everything in just one day. This is the song about Haiti but it also helps these students to fulfill their dreams about becoming musicians. I hope this song inspires people to do what they love and that you will hear how many people were involved in the recording.

Considering Haitian music has been influencing the dance world for a while now, can you see it going worldwide thanks to the likes of Diplo and yourself?

That’s absolutely going to happen and I’m happy and proud to be a part of this movement. You can already hear it on the radio: Justin Bieber’s song ‘Sorry’ plays everywhere and it’s dancehall-influenced. It’s extremely exciting to be able to put all of the music I grew up with into my own music knowing that people will understand it. And I think that’s where the house music came from originally: it was a mix of different genres. And people bringing what they know best into this universally-appealing genre of house is really gonna move it forward.

Tell me about your label Kid Coconut. Why did you decide to launch it?

Dirty South basically helped me start my career, got me my manager and signed my first track. It was such an exciting moment that I wanted to do the same for the other people. To foster and develop other artists. No one ever expected a Haitian to be able to do electronic music. Now I want to find a talent that needs audience. I want to find good music and I want to foster music from places that people wouldn’t expect.

You have a tour coming up. What are you most excited about?

I’m just excited about having a real tour. I’ve got some amazing dates in all these amazing cities. I feel so blessed!