Brazilian Producer Bruno Furlan Has Become One of Dirtybird's Most Prolific Acts

Bruno Furlan is one of Dirtybird Records' most prolific players. With 16 releases for the San Francisco-born purveyor of oddball tech house, the Brazillian DJ and producer has become synonymous with the label. And while his decade-long career has included work with some of house music's most lauded imprints, like Jamie Jones' Hot Creations, A-Trak's Fool's Gold, and Chris Lake's Black Book Records, Furlan says Dirtybird will always feel like home.

For Furlan, the familial atmosphere that founder Barclay Crenshaw (AKA Claude VonStroke) and his team maintain is unique and never transactional. "It's more familiar. They respect you," he says. "You matter to them. We spend more time when we get together [talking] about life."

It's fitting that he ended up a key player for one of house music's most famous family businesses. (Crenshaw runs Dirtybird with his wife, Aundy.) DJing is something of a family affair for Furlan as well. "My father was a DJ when I was born. And when I was a child, I spent all my years listening to house music, drum 'n' bass, funk, jazz — everything," the São Paolo-born DJ explains.

His father taught him how to spin on a pair of Technics turntables at home, helping him understand what music works on the dance floor. When the time came for Furlan's first professional gig, he sold his monthly food voucher provided by his job to buy him a set of headphones.

"I never forgot this one simple thing," Furlan says of the gift. "And I'm super grateful. For sure, this made me who I am today. Not necessarily only a DJ, but a good person."

With his parents providing the ideal environment for creative exploration, his musical tastes continued to evolve after discovering tech house on a late-night radio show. With his attention piqued, he scoured the internet for more music, eventually stumbling upon VonStroke's "The Clapping Track."
"This song changed my life forever," Furlan says. After finding Dirtybird and "all the weird sounds that they released, I said, 'That this sounds like 100 percent me, my personality.' And I just started playing this and trying to produce this."

After producing a dozen tracks, he sent them to Crenshaw despite his friends saying it was impossible to get signed to the label. Three months later, Dirtybird picked up "Blow Minutes," including it in its tenth-anniversary compilation released in 2015.

Dirtybird has always put music first. Even in an era where social capital is paramount, the label puts talent above all else, making it one of house music's most potent tastemakers. Taking a chance on a relative unknown from Brazil was a risk that paid off in spades.

When Furlan's K.O. EP was released a year later, Crenshaw put the producer's journey in perspective, writing, "Last year, I put a Bruno Furlan track on our ten-year compilation without really knowing anything about him. But later that year, I went to Brazil and met him in person. I have to say I rarely meet a young producer with so much pure, good-hearted enthusiasm as Bruno Furlan... This always goes a long way at Dirtybird, but of course, it still comes down to the music. Bruno Furlan has captured a very simple, very funky sound that is really special, in my opinion. The beats are huge, yet nothing is over the top, everything is quirky and bumpy and very much what I like to play."

Since then, Furlan has gone on to produce some of Dirtybird's most recognizable anthems, including his collaboration with Claude Von Stroke, "Book Is on the Table," and 2019's "Another Planet" with fellow Brazillian badman DJ Glen. The latter has become a staple of Furlan's DJ sets.
"I always ask myself, 'Can this song ever die?' Every place that I play every weekend, people need to listen to this song. I said to my girlfriend, 'If I stopped playing "Another Planet," people will probably kill me,'" he says, laughing.

Post-pandemic, he struggled to fit it into his sets as he transitioned to a groovier tech house sound. So he crafted a mind-bending new remix, dubbed "Bruno's VIP mix," giving his trademark song new life. Once again, Furlan stunned house heads with a near-ubiquitous song that, since 2021, has been dropped by everyone from DJ Snake to Chris Lake and John Summit. He imagined it would remain a coveted ID until a video of more than 10,000 ravers going mental to it during Fisher's set at Turin, Italy's Kappa FuturFestival went viral and convinced him and Dirtybird otherwise.

Riding high on the wave of its recent release, Furlan returns to Club Space on Sunday, August 27, for the Miami stop of the Dirtybird Players Tour. Playing at 11th Street nightclub is a right of passage for any DJ, but returning to Miami is particularly poignant for Furlan.

"Space was one of my first gigs in the U.S. with Dirtybird. Returning now with the new Bruno, after 'Another Planet' and 'Another Planet VIP,' and a thousand EPs with Dirtybird is super special for me. It's not just another gig. It's more like returning to where everything started. They changed my life."

Dirtybird Players. With Claude VonStroke, Vnssa, Bruno Furlan, Black V Neck, and Andres Line. 11 p.m. Sunday, August 27, at Club Space, 34 NE 11th St., Miami; 786-357-6456; clubspace.com. Tickets cost $19.06 to $24.72 via dice.fm.