I could sit here all day and do a gaggle of breakfast puns, but I’ll save all of you the trouble. All you need to know is that Canadian artist BYNON is more than just a DJ. He’s a producer. He’s a classically trained musician. He’s he’s a think tank. And above all, he’s an absolute riot. I had the pleasure of catching up with BYNON ahead of this week’s premiere of Breakfast with BYNON Episode 3, featuring Crystal Hefner. In our interview he enlightened me with all his ideas for the future, from added bonuses to his new residency at SLS’ LiFE & Foxtail Pool in Las Vegas, and so much more.
Where exactly did you get the idea to start “Breakfast with BYNON?”
It started two years ago when I was still DJing as Richard Beynon but everyone pronounced it “Bae-non”. My buddy Josh – his Instagram and Snapchat are legendary…it’s papi_gringo everyone needs to follow him – owns a club in Cabo and would chill in my hotel room. I would ask the front desk if I could have pans to cook because I hate going out to eat and he was just like, “oh this is awesome, I’m getting breakfast from BYNON!” It started snowballing immediately; My management loved it and knew the fans would too.
What’s the best part of the series?
The best part of Breakfast with BYNON is that we’re in control of everything. We don’t have to wait for record labels to release it or do previews and promo, we just film it, edit, and release. Plus, it’s free and people love free shit, so why the hell not?! It’s something to hold you over until the actual music is out. It’s why I give away half my personal guest list for every show I play. I want people to have the chance to come hang out with me, experience the show from my side, and not have to worry about the cost. You can’t put a price on experiences like that.
Who are some of the future guests on the show?
We’ve filmed quite a few so far. People were really surprised that Episode 1was MAKJ, but he’s actually a really close friend of mine. We have people like Sean Paul who’s also a friend. A year and a half ago we played a show together by chance and we hit it off immediately.
Yeah, I think that’ll definitely set you apart! It’s almost like Deadmau5’s coffee runs with a lot of DJs or music industry people.
Well, not exactly. I don’t want people to see what the DJs are up to, I want to see their personalities shine through. It’s more fun to take them out of their comfort zone, ask them ridiculous questions, mess with them and do stupid shit, but I also just love cooking food. It all just fit together and Breakfast with BYNON rolls off the tongue too. The first episode got over 1 million impressions and we were blown away.
I feel like the fans can relate to their favorite DJs when they really see them being put in a different situation that they aren’t used to unlike normal interviews. I’m thinking publicity stunt like go on the main stage of some festival with a razor and cut Carnage’s hair and then crowd surf to safety (laughs).
Nah, you gotta go bigger like Bassnectar, someone with really great hair. Anyone but Ferry Corsten.
Actually, I met Ferry on Groove Cruise for the first time, him and Markus Schulz. I started playing in this underground casino party that should have only fit 50 but somehow like 300 people were crammed in this room. So I’m playing Eminem ‘Lose Yourself’ and then out of nowhere Markus Schulz just pops up and I was like, ‘I don’t know you. I know of you, but this is just crazy that you’re here and I want to know you. So can we have just a few seconds of uninterrupted eye contact right now? Because this is making my entire life.’
You know You’ve something right when Markus shows up to your rap set.
Right?!
What’s the weirdest episode you’ve filmed so far?
There’s one version of Breakfast with BYNON I really want to put out so bad but I can’t. A friend (who I cannot name) and I were in Vancouver and we walked into a Denny’s at 4am. My film crew found a Denny’s chef jacket at a thrift store. So we decided to go into the kitchen and pretend we worked there. But the problem was that we knew we only had about a 10-15 minute window to pull this off because the second someone noticed who we were filming with and tweets where we are, their fans would mob the place.
So we go in the kitchen and the guy goes, ‘Hey are you new here?’ and I go, ‘Bro I’ve been here for 2 years . Are you new here?’ They caught on within 5 minutes but they were loving it and my friend promised to tweet Denny’s once we were done so we could finish filming. We even asked them to throw us out for the video and the second we left there were like 200 girls outside waiting because someone had tweeted who I was with and where we were.
So why just breakfast? Can we brunch with BYNON?
Well that’s what we’re trying to figure out for my residency at SLS in Vegas this summer. I didn’t want to make ‘Breakfast with BYNON’ a party, I enjoy keeping it just the show. When we were brainstorming we decided to make it brunch instead. We’re planning to have beach balls shaped like eggs, pool mats shaped like bacon, and a raft shaped like a frying pan. Hopefully this will all come together.
Aside from ‘Breakfast with BYNON’ , what other projects are you currently working on?
I hate talking about myself (laughs). BYNON is all so new, we only launched around 10 months ago and the music just started coming last year. My latest track “Hey Hey” Just came out on Tuesday on Spotify, and next week I head off on a tour with Project 46 who are about to release their debut album “Beautiful” on July 10. As for future releases, I have a record that has been played out for a while now called ‘Moonlight Party” coming on Kryder’s label “Sosumi Records” this summer, and a bunch of more music I can’t talk about just yet so keep your eyes and ears open!
Watch Breakfast with BYNON Episode 3 Ft. Crystal Hefner here.
