Breakbot

The producer Thibaut Berland from Corbeil-Essonnes, who trained as an animator, signed to Ed Banger in 2009 and made the nu-disco single "Baby I'm Yours" with Irfane.

Origin: Corbeil-Essonnes, France
Years active: 2006-present
Genres: French house, nu-disco, electro-funk, boogie, synthpop
Labels: Ed Banger, Because Music, Moshi Moshi
Also known as: Thibaut Berland

From animation to Ed Banger

Breakbot is Thibaut Jean-Marie Michel Berland, born on October 5, 1981 in Corbeil-Essonnes. He studied at the computer graphics school Supinfocom and co-directed the short film Overtime (2005) with Oury Atlan and Damien Ferrie, which won Best Graduate Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2005. In 2007 he did the graphic design of the spaceship for Justice's album Cross, where he met Pedro Winter, the founder of Ed Banger. He has said he went to graphic school with Xavier of Justice, began making music around 2000 on a home computer with a MIDI keyboard, and stopped animation work around 2008. Learning production largely through remixing, he said making those remixes had been like going to school for him.

He released the Happy Rabbit EP on Moshi Moshi on December 15, 2007, and signed to Ed Banger in May 2009. His remixes include Pnau's "Baby" (2008), Royksopp's "Happy Up Here" (2009), Kavinsky's "Nightcall" (2010), Chromeo's "When the Night Falls" (2011), Charlotte Gainsbourg's "Heaven Can Wait" (2011) and MGMT's "Siberian Breaks" (2011), roughly 40 by 2012.

Albums

His debut album By Your Side (September 14, 2012, Ed Banger and Because) reached number 19 in France, with guests Irfane, Ruckazoid and Pacific!. He wrote it in D minor, partly because his childhood piano ideas tended to land there, and named Hall & Oates, Prince, the Beach Boys, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds as a model, among his influences. The cover shows him as a partly unwrapped chocolate. Still Waters, made with Irfane, followed on February 5, 2016 and reached number 41 in France. Later releases include the Another You EP (2018), the single "Be Mine Tonight" with Delafleur (2020), which was nominated for Best Animation at the 2021 Berlin Music Video Awards, and the Remedy EP with Irfane (March 18, 2022), made in a shared studio they built during lockdown.

He co-produced Clara Luciani's Coeur (2021), remixed Spiller's "Groovejet" in 2022, and has credits on Fujii Kaze's "I Need U Back" (2025). In 2023 Winter said of a possible Bruno Mars collaboration that it is never too late.

Records

By Your Side 2012 · Ed Banger
The debut album, with Irfane, Ruckazoid and Pacific! as guests.

Songs

Baby I'm Yours By Your Side · 2010
A nu-disco single written by Breakbot and Irfane, released on Ed Banger in 2010 with a hand-painted animated video.

Chromatics, Japan