MICHAEL HAVES
producer composer musician
I have been lucky to create and perform music across various alternative genres my whole life and i genuinely love helping artists and bands with realizing their vision in music and sound.
I also truly enjoyed scoring lots of music for great directors and actors for theater plays, dance pieces, TV and movies.
Accompanying my sound journey i have also reveled in writing the lyrics to a lot of music in german and english.
Since my early youth i happily neglected school to make music, playing different instruments in many bands. At the same time starting my recording experience on a four-track tape deck, sequencing with a Korg M1.
The late 90s saw me moving to Berlin to study double bass, becoming part of the vibrant Berlin jazz scene with a bunch of long time friends. Our band Olaf Ton was retrospectively recognized as a catalyst of the special Berlin breed of jazz in the early 2000's by the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt, which in 2019 also hosted an exhibition on our late follow up project Brigade Futur lll.
From the 2000s onward, my focus shifted towards songwriting and production, by founding the alternative pop band Super700, touring for nearly a decade with seven amazing humans and musicians.
Next to Europe we played shows in Mexico, Canada, China and the US, where we were invited by Nick Harcourt playing live at the legendary Radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic in LA.
Later on my musical language enriched itself by creating vivid aural worlds, from electronic soundtracks up to classical compositions for over 30 theater plays, some movies, tv shows and radio plays.
In the early 2010s I lived in Kosovo for 3 years, collaborating with a multitude of local artists, broadening my views with their different paths to art.
In sum i must have also spent several years working in Switzerland over time.
Operating from my studio, THE COP SHOP, in the heart of Prenzlauer Berg, i've been focusing on writing and producing for theater plays and projects like the German Jazz Price nominated Brigade Futur III and the Swiss National Jazz Youth Orchestra (jugendjazzorchester.ch), together with my long-time collaborator, Benjamin Weidekamp.
I continue to produce, mix, and master music for other artists especially when they challenge me to renew my language like the upcoming album of singer and performer Pari Eskandari.
I have contributed to various projects by artists like Bruckner, Julia Marcell or remixes for bands like SEEED.