MADLAD (Brett Schlaff ) is a 21-year-old electronic dance music artist and DJ from Michigan. With 13 years of music production experience, Schlaff’s journey into electronic dance music began in 5th grade. Schlaff attended Tiffin University’s TiffinMusic Summer Camp at ages fourteen and sixteen and studied under the direction of Brian Fitzy, PRISCA and Brad Rees. Schlaff is currently a senior at Western Michigan University, pursuing a degree in Multimedia Arts Technology. At WMU he has studied under the direction of Professor John Campos, Professor Christopher Biggs, and Professor Carter Rice. Schlaff has recently completed his debut album, PSYCHO, which is now available on all streaming platforms.
BSM: Tell us about your musical upbringing and early influences that led you to your career path.
Brett Schlaff: “I grew up in a musical family with my mom as a choir director and my dad in an acapella group, so music was always a part of our lives. From an early age, I was drawn to the arts—creating comic books and paper cutouts, and even making Lego stop-motion videos in school. I took piano lessons too, which, although I eventually stopped, gave me a good grasp of music theory.
I am now a senior entering my last semester in the Multimedia Arts Technology program at Western Michigan University. This four-year degree teaches a diverse array of skill sets within the realm of audio and video. There I took video production classes, live studio recording classes, live sound reinforcement classes, sound acoustics classes, and coding classes. I also took music production classes that cover sound design and scoring for video games, movies, tv shows, films, commercials, and other types of media. I have been able to learn many different digital audio workstations during my time in the program. Some of the projects that are assigned in these classes are extremely demanding and include: recreating a chosen song’s original mix to an indistinguishable level of accuracy, setting up and engineering a live band’s performance while recording and making real-time mix adjustments, sound designing a movie scene with Dolby Atmos panning, and producing a short film as well as recording and integrating dialogue and sound effects. It is an intensive program that has expanded my experience beyond the Electronic Dance Music realm, providing deeper insight into various areas of audio and video production.”
BSM: What was the first and last concert that you attended?
Brett: “The first EDM concert I ever attended was Breakaway Music Festival in Lansing. I was in middle school. I saw many artists, most notably Yung Gravy and Zedd. Yung Gravy’s humor came through immediately, as he told the audience that he had had a lot of lasagna before he came on stage and that he felt a bit too full. Regardless, he still powered through and gave an engaging and witty performance.
At the time, I had been listening to a great deal of Zedd’s music. He was the main reason I went to Breakaway. He did not disappoint. It was my first time ever hearing and seeing dance music in a live setting and I was thrilled.
The last concert that I attended was seeing Virtual Riot and Moore Kismet at Elektricity. Virtual Riot has been instrumental to my development as an artist. His music production tutorials online have been incredibly influential for me ever since I began composing music.
Moore Kismet is an artist that I have been following for a long time. They got on Never Say Die Records when they were a teenager. I was just a few years older and I remember having my socks blown off.”
BSM: What is your all time favorite album and why?
Brett: “My favorite album of all time is ‘Quest For Fire’ by Skrillex. His earlier work sounded way different and has completely transformed himself as an artist. His earlier stuff is nostalgic for me, and his newer stuff is, in my opinion, groundbreaking.”
BSM: Describe your recently released album, the ideas behind the songs, and your overall creative process.
Brett: “My stage name is MADLAD, and I’ve just released my first electronic dance music album called PSYCHO. The tracks range from euphoric to dark, with the opening song, Turn Up The Bass, featuring a devilish choir that really draws you in. What makes both ‘Turn Up The Bass’ and the title track, ‘PSYCHO,’ stand out is their lack of repetitive sections. When I write, I often get so involved in the process that I can stay up all night just to see where the song takes me!
‘Lose Control’ was the first song I finished for the album. Prior to that, I had released tracks on SoundCloud and YouTube but often deleted them due to dissatisfaction with the production. ‘Lose Control’ was the first song I felt truly proud of and helped me gain clarity for my later work.
After ‘Lose Control,’ it took me months to produce ‘Give Me Some More,’ during which I abandoned many project files. Once I understood what worked in ‘Lose Control,’ my track creation became more consistent.
‘Hustle’ was the most challenging track to produce, going through numerous revisions before I could present it. My family gave honest feedback, which helped me improve it. Afterward, they enjoyed ‘OK!,’ which is probably my second favorite.
‘OMG!’ and ‘Feel Something’ came from the same project file and feature a ‘we got energy’ sample. For ‘Can You Handle It?’ my goal was to tease the listener with the drop. In contrast, the aggressive ‘Push It’ includes a heavily processed sample of my own voice.
I often find that ideas clear up once I have something small written. The initial sounds in my digital audio workstation make it easier for me to write.”
BSM: Do you have a favorite track from the album and why so?
Brett: “My favorite track from the album is ‘Keep Dancing’ featuring Grace Newman. Grace is a vocalist and producer who is also in the Multimedia Arts Technology program with me at Western Michigan University. I met her through one of my friends in the program. She has a beautiful vocal timbre. I sent her the lyrics and a demo of me singing the vocals. She sent me back a solid vocal demo that I then post-processed and integrated into the mix. Out of all the tracks on the album, I find myself coming back to Keep Dancing the most. The vocals are catchy. The drop is anthemic.”
BSM: What are the challenges new talent experiences from your perspective?
Brett: “There are multiple challenges that I am facing right now. I have been trying to gain a solid fan base. In order to do this, I have been utilizing social media. In particular, I have been utilizing Instagram and TikTok. My videos haven’t been going viral, but some posts and videos have gotten some attention.
A very big challenge that I am facing is getting myself into clubs to be able to DJ in front of people who actually care about EDM. I have emailed many clubs and they have not gotten back to me. I will keep trying.”
BSM: How have you overcome your own challenges and created opportunities for yourself?
Brett: “I have navigated my challenges by focusing on and engaging with my local community. I have been DJing house shows and at local bars. Local bars often attract crowds that are more interested in socializing and drinking than they are interested in enjoying Electronic Dance Music. However, inviting some friends to my shows at the bar got some people on the dance floor. I played a house show recently and about thirty people were there, many of them being my friends. They were engaged and jumping for the entirety of my set, an hour. After my set, many of them told me about how much they enjoyed it. It felt great to have people in front of me physically reacting to my music. Many people were filming clips from the show. They sent them to me on Instagram after. I was able to make an Instagram post with all of these clips. The local community and my friends have given me the greatest response out of anything I have tried so far. I am thankful to all my friends and the local community who have shown interest in me.
I have submitted to Insomiac’s Discovery Project multiple times. If I win the Discovery Project I will get the opportunity to DJ at one of Insomiac’s music festivals. I have not been accepted yet. I recently submitted it again. I will keep trying.”
BSM: How do you feel about A.I. Technology and do you see yourself utilizing the new technology in future productions?
Brett: “AI technology has improved its skills in writing essays, making visual art, coding, and more. However, AI suffers from a lack of originality. The end product is a soulless generalization of all of its source material.
A.I. is even worse with anything regarding music. Lyrics generated by A.I. are often extraordinarily cringey, cliche, nonsensical, and ultimately unusable. A.I. is even more deplorable when it comes to generating instrumentals. The only thing relating to music production that A.I. is somewhat usable for is, in my opinion, vocal production. For many of the songs on my debut album, I used A.I. vocal websites to help me create vocals. I wrote my lyrics and melodies. I then sang and processed these vocals. Then I put the vocals into the A.I. websites and it would generate the same vocal but with a different timbre. I would often turn my voice into a female voice with these A.I. websites. I usually despise the sound of my voice which was the main reason for me using A.I. It was a strenuous and tedious process to get the A.I. vocals to be coherent. For example, I might originally sing the word “you” and A.I. would spit it back out as “yeaow.” Then I would have to do another take. It was a great deal of work to get any A.I. vocal to sound intelligible, so my lyrics for my songs would often end up being short. All my songs that feature my A.I. vocals have lyrics that are at most only a few phrases.
Overall it was good for me to learn about the current capabilities of this new technology.
Moving forward I plan to use less A.I. vocals in my productions. For my upcoming productions I have been working with some superb vocalists and the results have been so much better!
I can get full lyrics instead of small phrases and the vocals sound more human and emotive because they are, unsurprisingly, sung by actual humans. In the present day, humans are far superior to A.I. in every element of music. A.I. can be helpful for some things, but it is a long way off from generating any type of art by itself that surpasses human intuition and creativity.”
BSM: Describe your “dream job?”
Brett: “My dream job right now is to be a professional Electronic Dance Music Composer and DJ. I want to continue to release singles, EPs, and albums. I want to create music videos. I want to DJ at clubs and music festivals. This is my current dream job, but the dream could change as the music industry is changing. An EDM performance doesn’t have to mean DJing with CDJs. It could mean hitting pads and buttons like Fred Again.. and Shawn Wasabi. DJing doesn’t have to be done on a stage. As ISOxo and Knock2 demonstrated, it can be done in a shipping container hung by a moving crane. EDM doesn’t have to be only played at clubs and festivals. Shows can be thrown under bridges and in underground tunnels. EDM is always and always has been about pushing performance to me in every way possible. So far I have been focused on pushing my performance within Ableton and on the Decks, but this can change just as the very definition of what an EDM performance is can be changed.
BSM: Name five DJs that you would invite to a dinner party.
Brett: “I would invite Sammy Virji to a dinner party. He is always smiling ear to ear during his sets. He seems like the kind of guy that would be fun to have around.
I would invite Fred again.. to a dinner party for the same reason. Fred again Is also smiling all the time through every set. In his boiler room set somebody accidentally nudged one of the decks and it skipped. It didn’t bother Fred again… Maybe it wouldn’t bother him if I overcooked the potatoes at the dinner party!
I would invite Skrillex to a dinner party because he is so positive. He can handle any stressful situation. During Skrillex’s Second Sky set, one of the CDJ decks was skipping. Some DJs would have had a panic attack. Some DJs would have picked up the mic and would have started saying whatever frantic thoughts came to mind at that moment. Other DJs would have stormed off stage.
When Skrillex was in a situation that he couldn’t control, he simply tried to fix it and cooperated with those around him to get the problem solved. He said uplifting and comedic things when everyone was standing around waiting for the deck to be fixed. He said things such as “it takes a village to raise a Skrillex set” and “[first festival this year, it] can’t be perfect, it’s got to be real like the Bay Area.” He sounds like a fun and positive guy that I would want to be around. At the dinner party, Skrillex would probably want some Chicken Soup. HA!
I would invite Shawn Wasabi to a dinner party. The man is endlessly smiling. His music often sounds happy and cute. He is always doing creative musical things with the objects around him in the world. Maybe at the dinner party he would hook up some wires to his food. Then when he drums on his food it will be interpreted as MIDI information that will trigger samples. We could all get a dinner performance from him.
I would invite Dillon Francis to a dinner party. He is known as a bit of a Jokester. I saw a video of a fan giving him a USB at one of his shows. He put the USB into the CDJ’s and all that was on the USB was a wet fart sound effect. Dillon Francis proceeded to play this for the crowd. Just for that, this man deserves some dinner. Maybe I will make burritos.”
BSM: What does 2025 look like for you?
Brett: “In 2025 I plan to graduate from Western Michigan University with a Bachelor of Science in Multimedia Arts Technology. In 2025 I plan to release my first music video which I am currently storyboarding with my good friends who are going to help direct, film, and edit the video. I can’t spoil what other projects I have in store for 2025.”
