Michael Brun

Early life and education

Michael Brun was born in 1992 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to a Haitian father and Guyanese mother and also has Chinese ancestry. Growing up in Port-au-Prince, he was exposed to music at an early age, recollecting that "I grew up listening to Caribbean Sextet and Tabou Combo. My dad was in a band called Skandal in the '90s. I'm influenced by everything that comes from home." While still young he also began learning violin and guitar. When he was in his teens, he began using Virtual DJ to make what he called "terrible mashups." In 2008, at age sixteen he began DJing as a hobby.

He also had an early interest in being a doctor, and in his teens would volunteer at local hospitals. He attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana through a scholarship program, with Brun stating in 2014 that "The stuff I learned there about discipline was so important to the way I work now. The schedule was so regimented. I have really kept that whole mentality up until now." He then earned a full scholarship to attend Davidson College in North Carolina, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, Sigma chapter. As a freshman, he began studying towards pre-med as a major, while also working on his music production.

2011: First singles

On June 29, 2011, Brun released the 4-track single Shades of Grey on S2 Records. Primarily styled as progressive house, Brun released "Dawn," on Dutch DJ Hardwell's Revealed Recordings on December 21, 2011. A version re-edited by Hardwell was released through Hardwell Productions as well. Wrote Billboard about the track, it is "an energetic big room number that earned support from top DJs and caught the ear of Australian artist Dirty South." Dirty South signed Michael Brun to his label Phazing Records shortly after, releasing Brun's next single "Rise" as well as many more in upcoming years. Brun also joined Dirty South on tour in Miami.

2012-13: Gravity EP and remixes

In 2012 he continued to work with Dirty South's Phazing Records, releasing "Rift" in conjunction with Dirty South, as well as the track "Synergy" with Special Features.

Brun released his debut Gravity EP in September 2013. The EP reached No. 2 on the Beatport charts, directly underneath Avicii. Also in the fall of 2013 he remixed tracks for artists such as Alicia Keys, Calvin Harris, and Armin van Buuren. In October 2013 he performed at the afterparty for TomorrowWorld, among other gigs.

2014: Touring, Kid Coconut imprint

In March 2014, he became the first Haitian to play at Ultra Music Festival. The Miami New Times wrote that "his main stage set channeled the energy of rara culture through the sound of progressive house." Within the next several months he had also headlined gigs at clubs in New York and Miami such as Pacha. In early August 2014 he performed at the Moonrise Festival in Baltimore. That year he also performed at the Sahara tent at Coachella, and was nominated for World's Best EDM Artist at the World Music Awards.

In July 2014 he was asked to compile a playlist for Billboard Magazine, with Brun selecting EDM and Caribbean music from the catalog of his new record label, Kid Coconut. In August 2014 Brun released the single "Zenith," which was the first release on his new record label Kid Coconut. A month later, the single "Sun In Your Eyes" was also released on Kid Coconut.

2015: "See You Soon", "Tongue Tied July", remixes and Kid Coconut

In June 2015 Michael released "See You Soon" on his own Kid Coconut imprint. The track was chosen as a BPM Breaker on Sirius XM, was included in various key Spotify playlists including EDM 2015, ElectroNOW and Dance Mega Mix, and also received over 1.3 million streams on Spotify in its first seven weeks.

Following "See You Soon", Michael released a collaboration with Roy English entitled "Tongue Tied July" which went into Beta BPM testing on SiriusXM and the track also hit #4 on HypeMachine as well as #1 on the HypeMachine Twitter Chart.

2015 saw Michael Brun stepping up his touring activity with appearances in major clubs including Create (Los Angeles CA), Temple (San Francisco CA), Union Nightclub (Toronto ON), Story (Miami FL) as well as a festival appearance at the Billboard Hot 100 Festival, where he was billed alongside artists such as Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Skrillex, Nicki Minaj, Kygo, Jason Derulo, Lil Wayne and many others.

Kid Coconut continued to stay active in 2015 with releases from Michael Brun himself as well as another artist who goes by the name of Eden Prince. Eden’s track "Mermaid of Bahia" (a re-work of Basement Jaxx’s "Mermaid of Salinas") was released on Friday September 4, 2015.

2016: Michael Brun's year

On January 5, 2016, Michael Brun posted a pic on Twitter saying "2016 I'm ready for you". This was the very first clue he revealed about what surprises Michael's audience was in for. Then, back in January 13, he announced his brand new and his very first artist Tour, called Wherever I Go Tour, in which he added various USA cities to play in. Another huge happening, was when he released his first 100% Haiti-made track. This song, which receives the same name as his Tour, was made with students from Artists for Peace and Justice in Jacmel, Haiti. 100% of the proceeds from purchasing this single, go straightly to this Institute in order to support students. Besides that all, Michael has revealed some sneak peeks via Snapchat from his upcoming EP, which is still being produced and mixed. This and many, many more are reasons why 2016 is Michael Brun's year.

Style and equipment

Michael Brun mixes a variety of electronic dance music genres into his sounds, though he is primarily classified as progressive house. He has also referenced genres native to Haiti as important influences of his sound, for example kompa. Explains Brun, "Kompa is like the Haitian equivalent of salsa, a very dancey romantic music with a touch of zouk. The snare hits on a very specific beat, like ta-kata. All the islands have their trademark dance style, and that's ours." He also incorporates the native style of rara, which the Miami New Times describes as "rally music incorporating infectious rhythms, call and response, and simple, catchy melodies blown through homemade vuvuzelas and tubas."

Personal life

As of late 2013, Brun lived in Miami.