As riders for the underground, Meiñü should absolutely be on your radar. Pronounced me-in-you, William Hayes shares himself like an open book with the music he produces. With multiple years of experience under his belt, this 140-BPM dark dubstep wizard is sure to win over your eardrums. Located out of Orlando, the gifted artist surrounds himself with like-minded individuals on the quest to making the world a better place. His story and music inspire the love we wish to cultivate here on Earth. Following the release of his debut LP, The Paradigms of Life in Death, Electric Hawk was gifted the opportunity to connect one-on-one with the rising star.
Commence the journey
“The Meiñü project became this parallelism of what we experience here on Earth and that nature has the ability to show us a different type of reality. It’s crazy how this world is such a beautiful place, but sometimes the micro-cultural ecosystems we have aren’t being represented with any sensibility to their well-being. If I look back to growing up, my dad used to take me to Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania. We’d watch hawks, eagles, owls, and other birds of prey congregate and plan out their migratory journeys down south. It was so interesting watching the way that nature would flow. I really wanted to apply this theory to my music and cross it between the change we want to see – easily resolving through proper diplomacy. If we could take accountability of our own truths and replace it with proper balance.”
Carving an early footprint
“I grew up having a very interesting dad. He’s an environmental scientist at Bucknell University. He spends most of his days rebuilding streams and maintaining watershed ecosystems. Shadowing him, I got this kind of detour most people don’t get to see about the world. Throughout my life, I was really fortunate to get to see a couple of things.“
“Number one, how bad humanity treats our planet. But number two, I’ve gotten to see the resilience of nature. I’ve grown to see the beauty of these little mini-ecosystems that fish have. Fish have a whole different world within our own world that is completely oblivious to us. They have these miniature life cycles, and everything gets smaller for them.”
“It’s dawned on me that, wow, we are this whole point to the Paradigms of Life in Death. At the end of the day, and at the beginning of the day, we’re carbon-based. We come and go as dust formulated from nothing. Magic intention, right? Nothing happens without intention. Life doesn’t happen without intention, and death also is inevitable.“
“It’s something that’s going to come at one point, and we’ll deal with it whenever it happens. But it’s not really something that we always have control over. Some of us do make that decision, but that’s what makes life kind of miraculous. It’s this paradigm shift in order to be able to see it that way. I felt like I always had a lot going for me, up until adulthood at least. Then I realized I’m actually a small fish in a big sea of creatures.”
“I got pretty intimidated by that. Going into college, I had some great accolades. I was the first chair horn player in the Pennsylvania Allstate Wind Ensemble in my senior year of high school. I got a full scholarship to go to Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. The French horn was my main instrument but I always felt the love for piano. When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a rock star. I never thought that my path would go this way, because I always either wanted to be a Screamo singer in a metalcore band or something angsts. At one point, I got fatigued with metal as a genre on my ears. My personal creativity expanded, but I felt unsure of what I wanted to do.“
Life is full of twists. The downfalls do not define us, but they have an interesting way of shaping us to the core.
“In college, something interesting happened that became life-altering. I let my guard down with who I allowed into my inner circle, and it definitely affected me subconsciously. Granted, I’m 28 now and that was 10 years ago. I look back at it as a pivotal moment in my life. When you’re 18 years old, I think there’s raw emotion that you haven’t even discovered yet. Life is definitely not easy for a lot of people. Often times, others aren’t very mindful about the flip side to the metaphorical gun they’re pointing. There are always consequences to your own actions, as well as others towards you. That doesn’t mean you won’t go on. That doesn’t mean that either person can’t persist. Learning to forgive, heal, and evolve is the will of the universe. Life is still resilient.”
Over time, life taught me that sound can speak, sometimes a lot more than words can. And so I just focused on sound.
William Hayes, Meiñü
“Seeing Excision for the first time in 2013 opened my eyes to what was actually possible for me; all these ideas I had going through my brain and all of the practicing I had done within the conservatory. I was at a very low point in my life and felt the pressure of wanting to abandon music completely. Whenever you have a dream that haunts you every night and says ‘Hey, this is what you need to be doing with your life.’ But you choose to do something else, there becomes this giant waste of emotional morale. The universe intervened and said ‘Actually nope! We’re gonna place you back and this is what you’re gonna do. Yeah. Let’s try this again. Have you learned yet?’”
“I always viewed sound as the voice of the Universe. That life itself is a sound wave, because it is so simple. Whenever a vibration persists, it is movement. Bass is not frequencies that we actually hear. It’s something that we feel. Learning how to create and produce bass music became a really life-changing experience for me to start understanding the paddling pulse of the Earth.”
A musician finding his artistry
Like many artists in the scene, the beginning of their story stems from their biggest inspirations. Drawn from the likes of Truth, the Prodigy, Noisia, and Glitch Mob, it’s no surprise that Meiñü would start producing pitch-dark dubstep. It’s one feat to create bass music. It’s another if the artist is able to take a listener through time, space and consciousness. Meiñü’s sound generates from years of trial and error, and personal accounts of his testimonies.
“In my early 20’s I got into synthesis and bought my first analog synthesizer in 2015. I use a French Horn, Novation Launchkey 49, a Moog SubPhatty, & Push 2 with Live 10 Suite w/Max4Live, NI Komplete 10 Ultimate, KiloHertz, Xfer, Polyverse. Then a few extra baddies from UAD, iZotope, & Plugin Alliance to make my signature sound. Playing the French horn taught me how to do different types of tongue insulation. I like to make and use a lot of percussion sounds with my mouth, and I love what beatboxing can add over layers of design. I want to get more into playing more analog instruments as time goes on, but it’s a pretty expensive hobby to have. A major goal for a future album is to travel with a boom mic and create organic analog music.”
Part of life is this whole idea of being a student and teacher. If you’re interested in growing artistically, check out mixing and mastering services Meiñü offers.
“Music becomes a form of meditation. I use it as a real beast for my spirit, as well as freeing myself from the challenges life brings upon me. Also it’s a form manifesting within a professional world that can be quite daunting and intimidating. The Paradigms of Life in Death is a 5-year long journey manifested. I really wanted to do something for me that can be shared with everyone. It became this focus of, ‘Hey, this is what I can do for the world. If you want me to do anything, it’s here.’ So I did the mixing, the mastering, and the sound design.”
“It consists of an array of compositional elements stemming from either suffering or actually having egotistical rebirth and a deeper understanding for the language of spirituality. I think a lot of musicians are really gifted with this ability to understand the spiritual light of the Universe. I sometimes get it whenever I’m consciously balanced and tuned in. That comes and goes, which creates this idealism of imperfection. I’ve become very content with what I’ve been able to publish. I meditated on the substance that I’m willing to put out there.”
“On the side, I’d often work in the service industry to help build this album and afford my passion to create. Luckily, I’ve been blessed with a lot of wonderful people who helped provide for my livelihood to this date. I’m amazed that I’ve been able to put this album out. Perseverance has been super key to building something like this, or even the building blocks of life in general. I wanted to make something that will last forever. You put out music on Spotify, iTunes, SoundCloud or whatever platform, and it persists for a long, long time. That’s awesome to have the ability to create something that inspires others by sending a message, or help someone through the tough days.”
Hard work pays off, thus creating Meiñü’s debut LP, The Paradigms of Life in Death.
Talking to Meiñü about his artistic skillset becomes this sense of overflowing rich passion. The originality and free spirit coursing through him can be heard through sound systems, making every track an equal favorite.
“Each song on The Paradigms of Life in Death has a special spot in my heart. This is years of my work here; it’s pieces of me. The whole album was picked through about 100 songs. But I think I had the most fun creating “Stubborn” with Sunken Frequencies. We were both experiencing a difficult breakup and then the pandemic happened. I had been reeling in it. Sean had been reeling it. Johnny was reeling in it. So we put our heads together and decided to crank this thing out.“
“On “Justice” with Brightwing, we decided to tell the story of a life-changing event that all of us watched happen. I feel like there’s this level of artistry that can carry intention. There’s the artists’ intent, as well as the audience’s interpretation. “Omega” was another really powerful experience for me to make as a creator. There was this idea to surrender to the power of the music and let go of your own self-control, inhibitions, and fears. I learned with this song to just create and not care about anything else other than the moment and the focused intention.“
“Break the Internet” is another interesting story. My friend Tyler’s dad was in a ska band and I knew he could shred. I requested – no, I actually begged for him to throw down a sick guitar solo, and I did a little bit of editing to it. I still consider myself definitely a student in a lot of ways.“
You’ve heard his story, now stream the music!
Having honest conversations with those in our community is the building blocks to forward thinking.
“A lot of people who resonate with the type of music within our community have experienced or seen oppression happen to their friends or themselves. This vision came of making music that creates a story about how it’s possible to live peacefully and more sustainably. There’s a lot of people who really believe in a world that is greener. People believe in science and being aware of living environmentally consciously. Within the music community, most of us side to this degree.”
“We have the power to create this shift and say enough is enough. So far, I see it happening, which gets me excited. I want to discover a way where I can personally, as a business owner and musician, create success while changing the world in a positive way. I want to really focus on community service in the near future. Grassroots communities are very important and a way for us to stay resilient. I want to make sure that my brand sets the example of being the change we want to see here on Earth and gives other people opportunities.”
Amplify Change with Meiñü
“We’ve seen society do this time and time and time again. We self-destruct and try to rebuild but never actually do. It bothers me, especially last year living through the total meltdown of our society. I see this shift changing from a societal standpoint now but not necessarily being applied as a whole. Especially with the pure ignorance from the United States government and total neglect for people who are creating as well just living through a pandemic.”
“In Florida specifically, the unemployment system was designed to be willfully corrupt. It took me 16 weeks to get my unemployment after I got laid off from my job down here. I had two options; I could either just stay paralyzed, sit on the couch and just watch Netflix all day, or I could actually do something about it and make a change through music. Of course, I decided to utilize my time to meditate, heal, and live as frugally as possible. Then, I began jotting down a lot of these projects I had been cycling through.”
Remaining patient and putting your full trust into the Universe
“With artistry, you shake hands with a lot of different people, and it’s a good thing. There’s a lot of benefits to that. But you also have to be wary of who you give your power to. I learned that the hard way. It led me to be really conscious of who I give my energy to, as far as the networking of artistry – surrounding myself with those people that are on the quest of making this world a better place.”
“I think the biggest advice that I would give to younger artists is to make sure that you’re surrounding yourself with people who advocate for your success. People show that through their actions, not just their words. Because people often masquerade themselves and say, ‘Oh, I’m here with you.’ Only later do you discover this dark cloud they’re bringing over you. They pretend that they’re there for your energy, but it’s really for their own attention. There’s so much more to life than those types of people.”
Sometimes being in the right place, at the right time, opens abundant opportunities for you.
Learning the story of Meiñü can teach us about a lot of aspects of life. The main two specifically being the power of patience and persistence. All the hard work he’s put into being a musician, or even just a human being, is finally paying off this summer. The stacked Yonderville lineup includes Electric Hawk’s newest favorite, Meiñü. If this event isn’t on your list of must-do’s this festival season, don’t fret. You can catch this dubstep legend as an opener for Wreckno in Orlando, FL on June 21st.
Following the release of his debut album, came a sick collab with Haven Woods, titled “Sacred Dub.” Be sure to check it out, along with the growing discography from the Orlando-based producer. While this artist may be new to your list of must save tracks, one thing is certain; the bass community will be a whole lot more blessed as we introduce ourselves to Meiñü.
Start the journey with Meiñü
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Looking for new music? Keep up with our weekly Spotify Playlist, Fresh Hunts. Updated every Friday with all the latest releases. Whether it’s the newest drops from Meiñü, all your favorite artists, some old-school, or underground – we just want you to hear it.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we at Electric Hawk understand just how hard life can hit. Part of the beauty in this magical journey we call life is the bliss we feel from music. If you’re in the dark, When The Music Stops is a non-profit organization with a mission to support and uplift others through the power of community, music, and love. Believe in yourself, Electric Hawk loves you, and you are never alone.
