Word On the Road: Miguel

The last time Miguel took the stage was back in 2018, shortly after the release of his fourth studio album, War and Leisure. His late-2025 opus CAOS, cemented his official comeback arc, marking his first foray into the music space in over eight years. 

“CAOS is the most important album I’ve ever released,” Miguel shares from his pre-tour home base: an expansive rehearsal stage stationed in the middle of the San Fernando Valley. The stage is properly set – literally – for his return, directly translating the album’s themes of disarray and upheaval into an immersive physical experience. 

In the middle of the stage, a car wreck; Miguel and his band stand atop the flipped vehicle to perform “Skywalker.” On top of the stage, an almost Big Brother-esque ancient Olmec head, overseeing the entire set. This, Miguel tells me, represents the subconscious, the “id” we all possess. It’s this particular part of the stage design that he believes best translates the metaphorical themes of CAOS into the palpable and lets the audience in on who Miguel is as a human being.   

This time, he returns to the main stage as more than a musician; he’s a father. His son, now 16 months old, Miguel tells me that it’s fatherhood that ultimately catalyzed his return to his craft, calling his new role the “best kind of chaos,” and summing up the ethos of the soundscape he’s built in just one simple mantra: “As within, so without. As above, so below.”

Elaina Lauren Bernstein: How are you feeling? 

Miguel: Man, it’s lit. I feel good. I really feel like this is the most cohesive I’ve been. 

ELB: Why do you say that? 

Miguel: Last year was the most important year of my life, and CAOS is the most important album I’ve ever released. It builds on the energy of the past year, and the tour component feels like a lot more than just me going out on stage and playing music. My favorite part has been finding the throughline between my old catalog and CAOS and seeing where the songs connect; I think it’ll be the audience’s favorite part, too. 

ELB: How would you describe that throughline that connects all of your projects?

Miguel: All I Want Is You is a songwriter stepping into an artist mindset. That chapter represents the beginning of a new time in my life. I was just starting to live my own life and learn how to be on my own as an adult. It’s all about stepping into a new version of life. Kaleidoscope Dream is about learning as an adult and realizing that I can curate my life, just like a museum. Wild Heart is the curation itself, living my life as free as I possibly can. Moving on to War and Leisure, there’s a little bit more understanding and growing up there. It’s the realization that there’s more outside of yourself that remains to be considered, and how those things actually affect the world. And at the same time, how does the world affect us? 

CAOS doubles down on all three of those. It’s both the ending and beginning of a new chapter. Very subconsciously, there are elements of all my prior albums in CAOS. It’s why I feel as though this album is the most whole representation of me. 

ELB: How would you sum up the ethos of CAOS? 

Miguel: As within, so without. As above, so below. 

ELB: Before CAOS, you hadn’t dropped an album in over eight years. Why was now the time?

Miguel: Maybe the music finally just started coming together again. I had been working for years. Some of the songs are from eight years ago, while others are as recent as months before the album’s release. Becoming a father was a big push in finishing this project and returning to music. It gave me such a new outlook and attitude towards music and its role in culture. My priorities are different now, too, as a result. 

What are your priorities now? 

Miguel: My family is top. Every time I leave my son and come back, it’s like coming back to a new person. Having to work away from him is the thing that pushes me to lock in, but it’s also what sometimes pushes me to not want to lock in [laughs]. It’s the best kind of chaos. 

ELB: How do you toe that line of balancing work and family? 

Miguel: Honestly, I’m learning how to toe that line in real time. It’s something I’m tweaking and adjusting every day. 

ELB: What are some of the older songs on the album? 

Miguel: “Angel Song” is the oldest one. I began eight years ago and didn’t know how to finish it until I was a father.  

ELB: Tell me more about some of the major themes of CAOS? What were some of the underlying messages or motifs that were most important for you to bring into the physical world? 

Miguel: My energy in this chapter of life is more aggressive; I have an aggressive stance on all things that matter to me – what I believe in, my personal ways of expression and creation, and protecting the things I love and care about. That translates on stage. This tour is meant to emphasize the importance of the main theme of the album, which is the nonlinear nature of change. We’ve all been through challenging things, and let’s just say, you’re never wearing a robe, smoking a blunt, and actively making a change. [laughs] I wish it were that easy, but the actual artistic pivots and creative work require a more aggressive approach for me. 

The music doesn’t always need this level of aggressive energy, which is what I think makes the dynamic of this tour really fun. We have high-energy moments, really intimate moments, sexy moments, vulnerable moments, and we also have a lot of fun. If you come for a show, you’ll get a show. If you come to feel a connection, you’ll feel the connection. If you come to see my musicianship, you’ll see my full body of work on display. 

ELB: How do you ensure you’re staying locked in and focused, and fight the urge to just throw on a robe and smoke the blunt? 

Miguel: Man, honestly, I get my time with my son in the morning, and that’s the lock-in right there. I’ve always wanted, as a child, to step into the parent role at some point in my life. I’m a lover and a fighter, and I think my disposition makes CAOS even more powerful. Seeing him every morning makes me be like, “Let me go out there today and not f*ck up.” 

ELB: What excites you most about going on tour? 

Miguel: I really just love music, and I really love the feeling of connecting with people. There’s nothing better than someone coming up to you and telling you that one of your songs has played a role in their life, whether it was at a high or a low. There is no better feeling than knowing the work you put in not only matters to you, but it matters to other people. It’s a reminder of my purpose. It makes the shitty things going on around us feel a little less shitty. 

ELB: With your music catalog so intrinsically tied to your personal life, does that ever get taxing?

Miguel: I feel like it’s more the opposite. It’s the art of pouring oneself into anything that matters, which gives you back so much exponentially. There’s a philosopher with a great quote for this, but I’m in tour mode, and none of my sh*t is registering, but there’s gotta be a quote for this. The work is the joy. The learning and understanding of yourself is such a fulfilling and empowering feeling in a world that feels like we aren’t in control. When you pour yourself into your work, you start to look at the things that are actually yours. No one can take away the work you did yourself.

ELB: Something else I want to ask you about is the supporting acts on the tour; Jean Dawson and Channel Tres have both sat down with Hypetrak in the past year. 

Miguel: I’m so glad you asked because on top of everything, everyone involved in this tour is my family. There’s so much baked into what this tour means to me, so every single person coming on the road is one of my friends. 

ELB: Are there any key parts of the show you’re particularly excited for the audience to experience in person? 

Miguel: Every element of the show is considered, but there’s a “character” in the set that we all have in our daily lives. It represents our “id,” our subconscious, the chatter in our brain. Sometimes it’s intrusive, other times it’s encouraging. I’m the most excited about the cohesion that carries through the show because of this character, who gives more insight into who I am as an artist and a human being.