Massane, the rising Melodic House star, and part of the This Never Happened family, released his second studio 12-track album By The River on August 25th. Not familiar with Massane? Bruno aka Massane is a French producer and guitarist who has been active on the TNH label since his three EP debut Visage 1 (No Return), Visage 2 (Crossroad) and Visage 3 (Not Alone) in 2020. His collaboration with label boss Lane 8, ‘And We Knew It Was Our Time‘, a fan favourite, followed shortly after. These successful releases paved the way for his debut album Another Dawn in 2021. He puts up a spectacular live show, by serenading the crowds with his guitar to compliment the Melodic and Techno House he fills the room with.
EDMTunes had the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with him before attending his sold-out Toronto show, just as he embarks on his album tour. We caught up on his year and spoke more about his touring and brand-new studio album. Check it out below!
How was your previous tour? And how do you expect this upcoming tour to be?
This exact tour is starting today with the release of my new album, I will discover what has changed. I was told the second album is something special regarding touring because people connect again. We don’t know exactly why but I was talking to with other artists and expect it to be special.
I want to talk about the tour that just finished, at the beginning of the year. That was so fast, as I was dealing with finishing my new album at the same time as touring. The few months of tours felt like 2 days, went by in a flash. I was seeing people and at the same time composing music with amazing people. I moved to the US at the same time as I was touring and it was awesome. The people were amazing. Seeing people from the label of TNH for the first time during the last tour including Lane 8 was amazing.
You’re now living in the U.S., and have toured a few times in the U.S. If you have played in Europe, has it been different from the shows in the U.S.?
I haven’t really played in Europe. So my career started in the U.S. thanks to TNH. Since they are big in the U.S. I decided directly to move here and do shows here. I am still open to the European shows. I don’t know when that will happen, it is complicated to be everywhere.
From your first album Another Dawn, to your second album By The River, what has been the difference in production?
I want to speak about the other people I collaborated with for this album first. Because in Another Dawn it was really more introspective. We were just exiting the time of Covid, through which I was alone a lot, composing alone a lot. I liked it, it was my own thoughts. For the second album, there were distinct changes (a few similarities). I had to take time not only to tour but also to compose music.
There were instances in the second album where I did compose music on my own if I was in the South of France, similar to my first one. But it was a lot less than the first time around. For the second album since I had started touring, I connected with people on the dance floor. This inspired some tracks that you can hear are heavily tuned and dance floor oriented. That is definitely influenced by the touring. And you will notice that was not on the first album at all.
I was still into darker music but it came to me a lot easier on the second album. Especially the track with Grigoré ‘Cryo’. There is the French track ‘Dérive’ with Margane where you can see I am trying different stuff with people & making music for the dance floor. These two things are the main difference- more Dance music and collaborations.
What are the top three tracks you have produced so far?
That is a tough one, it’s like choosing your favourite children. Haha. The one with Lane 8, ‘And We Knew It Was Our Time’, was my favourite because I connect with it a lot. I have seen it played in front of so many people, I love it. There is ‘Boreal’ that comes to my mind. Also ‘Never Loved’. Uh, maybe I forget, I need to see my discography. Those are my top 3 as of now!
What is your favourite venue you have played at so far? And what is your dream venue to play at as your career progresses?
There are 2 that come to my mind. First one is Audio in SF. Because it was my first day in the U.S. in my entire life and I played a show to a packed venue. We were going out of Covid and I was the French guy coming, I was wondering, will there be any people there? When I started going on stage it was packed, and it was a sold-out show. You couldn’t fit any more people there even if you tried. I have the vivid memory in my mind and that will never leave me. I also love the afternoon party hosted in Washington DC – Flash Rooftop parties. The atmosphere of those parties, people dancing in the afternoons. It is so great. I opened for Lane 8 at Redocks last year! It was an amazing time and I hope to headline there someday!
Other than EDM music what do you like to listen to? What inspires you to create your own music?
I listen to metal & rock mostly but also pop, and it’s crazy, pop is amazing right now. On my own though it’s rock the majority of the time. I started messing around with guitar when I was younger, so I always created my own music from then on and then directly got into composing. There wasn’t access to music sheets, or classes for me in my earlier days which led to messing around. Once I realized that I understood the power a computer had. It was a wow moment – I could create an entire track without just messing around. That’s when I knew this was my entire life and I wanted to do this. I dedicated all my free time to composing from then on.
What made you decide to move from your alias PhYnee to Massane?
With PhYnee I was experimenting. You could hear it during the ending days, it was almost the Massane sound. I actually messed around with a lot of hip-hop genre then, I was not planning to do anything with that alias. It was for me to show music to my friends and I was trying to make stuff. But I did release through PhYnee on Ben Bohmer’s label. That’s when I discovered my sound and then I had a talk with Lane 8 and it made sense to move to Massane because I knew I had found my sound. It was hard to change but it was worth it. Massane is a forest with a river in the south of France close to where I was born and where I lived. Since I hiked a lot I found it beautiful to connect with nature. That led to Massane.
What is next for Massane? Anything you want to tell your fans reading EDMTunes?
We have my album releasing so the tour linked with it will be insane. I already have new tracks but you will hear all about it through upcoming Lane 8‘s or my own mixtapes. It’s amazing and my computer is full of amazing stuff, but I am letting the album breathe first. Thank you very much this was fun! And can’t wait to show everyone what I have in store for them!
Massane Live in Toronto
I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to dive into the depths with Massane after which I experienced his sold-out show in Toronto. R8YZ and Plainsight Toronto have had a hand in bringing in all the rising stars from TNH. R8YZ set the stage up for Massane with classic melodic House and dance music. A lot of his mixes include Lane 8, Yotto, and Ben Böhmer, and the inspiration continues on.
The crowd was pumped for Massane’s 2-hour live set. The energy was unreal. Everyone sang along and danced to the old and new tunes of his. Classic tunes played that night were ‘Summer’s End‘, ‘And We Knew It Was Our Time‘, ‘Lost at Sea‘, ‘Boreal‘, ‘Closure‘, ‘Wild‘ and the list goes on. The most exciting part of the live set was the guitar, which notched up a million levels of his performance. Of course, the crowd went wild when Bruno played tracks from By The River. Some bangers he played are ‘Cryo’, ‘Away’ and ‘Luna’.
Hearing his By The River tracks live and seeing the crowd groove to it, really put what Massane said in context. This album truly speaks to the crowd and is influenced by the crowd. The evening Toronto experience with Massane was dark, happy and full of great Melodic House and Techno tracks.
Massane will continue his By The River tour through North America this fall. If you haven’t caught him live before, check him out. His tour dates can be found here. Stay tuned to EDMTunes for all your music news!
