The Most Creative Man in Hospitality: Michaelangelo L'Acqua

Josiah: There are so many elements that we can touch on in our conversation today, but maybe just to set the stage for our listeners, you have a really, really interesting role. You are the global entertainment director at SH Hotels and Resorts, and you're one of the very few individuals who hold this title. You know, at the very top of the industry, a lot of hospitality brands say they care about culture. Few have roles in their organizations like the one that you have. I wonder if you could describe to our listeners what your role covers, and then I'd love to get into the journey that led you to this.

Michaelangelo: Sure. You know, I'll speak in generalities versus specific to SH, but I'm usually like a creative director in the entertainment and culture space, but like a creative director in residency, right? I'm never a full-time employee because when you're full-time, your head is completely focused on the brand, right? You see nothing outside of the brand because you're not there to do it, right? You have a title, you have a role, but for me, as a subcontractor and a creative director in residency, my head is on a swivel. I'm seeing everything, everything that can service my client at the fullest degree, right? Whether that's a trend, it has a lot to do with trends, right? Where is the psychographic of our demo, you know, where do they vacation, how do they migrate throughout the world, how do they consume, what are the fashion trends, what are the wellness trends, what are the music trends, what are the cultural trends? So I'm constantly looking at everything and then I'm looking at through the lens of let's say a brand's DNA, a brand's internal culture, both internal and external, because there's two, right? Sometimes they're not aligned and sometimes when I come in, I help them align the internal culture can be combined with the external culture or developed and then retaught to the internal culture so their brand can expand. But yeah, in my role, you know, it usually starts always with music, you know. What is the soundtrack? And when I look at My, my history and how I started as a composer, I started with Tom Ford. It was, I was a starving musician in New York city. I got an opportunity to do a small little fashion show for Cynthia Raleigh. It made a big splash because, in 1999, few people could remix and use the technology, right? This is an entirely different universe. I'm dating myself tragically with the gray hair. Anyway, I would choose the right place, right time, and opportunity with knowledge and technology. I got a chance to do a demo for Tom Ford and became music director for Gucci and Saint Laurent when Gucci bought Saint Laurent. So, within that space, I started working with all these really top fashion designers around the world. This is really, really where I learned how to be a translator of another person's vision. Right? So I became a vehicle of expression for somebody else. I started to look at music in different ways, not just music. And it had to do with an emotional state. It had to do with colors. It had to do with fabric and textiles. Right? It had to do with memories. This is what all these fashion designers would teach me. And they were all masters, from Karl Lagerfeld to John Varvatos to Ralph Lauren to Diane von Furstenberg. They all were; I was there to be their vehicle of expression. From those days, matched with composing film and TV commercials, I started to see life as a movie that played out. So when I did music, it was as if I was scoring either the context or the subtext of a film that played out. So if it was the context, music plays out like this, and the person, you and I, are the lead role in the event, right? Like, woo! Then, the subtext is that you and I are looking at each other and watching the sunset, but the music is playing throughout the dialogue. Right? The music is the emotion. So when you take that knowledge and you start to place it inside a physical space, you can then start to manipulate with people's conscious and unconscious connections to the space, right? To the moment that is present, because you usually are present at a hotel more than you are, because nothing's hackneyed, nothing's normalized, everything is new and exciting. And then we can create these moments of awe. which are hospitality magic, where the music is playing a certain way, the cocktails taste so good, the sun is setting, and then the service is like precognitive, right? They're inside your head. And before you even finish with that cocktail, they're like, sir, can I get you another one? And when you put all these elements together, you create moments of awe and magic. So I always start with the soundtrack because if the soundtrack is off, we can't create the through line between sensorium, right? The five senses work seamlessly together to create this conscious and unconscious experience, right?

Josiah: And the unconscious- I appreciate you getting into the details of that just because I feel like still so many people I talk with have questions about the role of music or sound in the hospitality experience. And I'm hearing from you; it is context, it's subtext. And you've described how, again, I'm hearing the versatility of music or sound in amplifying the experience on every touch point you have within a hospitality environment. And that was true. I mean, it's true in hospitality. Now this has gotten up an area of your work, but this was true in fashion. It feels like a fundamentally human reality that music shapes everything.

Michaelangelo: Everything. And it is one of our core innate abilities. You do not need to have any knowledge. It is blinking. You know, it's the same thing. Your ability to consume sound and blinking was born into us. So once you start getting into levels of mastery on music, um, this is where you can translate. And I'm a firm believer in like the Samurais, you know, there's like this whole analogy that, you know, The moment you learn how to write calligraphy and you're a master of calligraphy you become a master and then anything else you touch you start with a mastery level. Then you can pick up the sword and you begin as a master and then you just learn the rest of the techniques.

Josiah: Did your early experience as a violinist underscore this for you? Do you feel like pursuing mastery in that field has led to mastery elsewhere?

Michaelangelo: I think, you know, if you're going to, yes. And I think if you're going to choose to play classical music, you are a neophyte. until maybe one person breaks through to be considered a master, right? Out of all the people who are trying to play, And then if you're going to play jazz, it's the exact same thing. Like my teachers played on all the records of John Coltrane Miles Davis or Thelonious Monk or Dexter Gordon. These guys were masters. I was a small insect, you know, on the ground of their world. So I think like, um, when you strive to be a master, you strive to express yourself at the highest levels. That's why I say I failed upwards. I couldn't express myself fully as a composer. I couldn't express myself fully as a, um, producer or guitar player. So, I kept on pivoting. somewhere that I could find a space where I could express myself and people could listen.

Josiah: It's this journey of life, though, right? We're trying to find that fit and you have to, there's gonna be some failure along the way. But even as you described your transition from being a musician in a classical sense and then jazz, and then you talk about entering the fashion world and, you know, having been picked by the iconic designer, Tom Ford to really infuse, you know, the runways that, you know, he is, displaying his art with music is interesting to me. You mentioned you learned about what it takes to translate someone else's vision. I wonder if you could speak to what does that take? I feel like in hospitality, whether it is the owner or maybe developer of a property or a brand, it feels like a lot of our listeners are going to be in that job of translating a vision into manifesting it in the world. How do you do that well?

Michaelangelo: Again, I'm of the older generation; I'm of the analog generation, so the time that you need to put in to even achieve opportunities is different than today, right? So through that analog transition of study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, get an opportunity, fail or succeed, study, study, work hard, right? This creates humility. You're surrounded by masters all the time, and they're letting you know you're not much, right? You're definitely not there. Totally different place than we are today, right? You can, you know, get DJ equipment and practice for three hours, and then that week, you can have a DJ gig. It just didn't happen back in the day. So the reason why I frame that is to express that humility is a big part of being a vehicle for another person's expression, right? I don't come in a room with what I want to say, you know? Like that first opportunity to be a vehicle was with Tom Ford, and the last thing he wanted to hear was my opinion about his world, right? And then every other person that I worked with was the same thing, so I would have to really, really find it within myself that I am not the main character in this experience right now. that I am a tool in someone else's world of expression and I can determine whether I'm going to be successful or failure based off of how much of my ego is being challenged or not challenged, right? Where is the success matrix? Is the success matrix that I truly was able to interpret this person's, this genius's vision? Or was it a failure because I wasn't able to inject my own personal feelings or emotions into this other person's, right? So I think this, over very long periods of time, gets you to a place where I am a vehicle. When I'm hired by somebody or I'm working with somebody, I am a vehicle of their expression. And it's harder to do that nowadays because everybody wants to be a main character. Everybody wants to be a main character in their, in their, their life or their film, you know? So a young person that goes into a hotel brand, they're like me, me, me, me, me, potentially. Right. And that's a hard place because the brand is going to be like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. We're a multimillion, billion-dollar brand. It's not about you. You know, it's about us. And can you do, can you create a vision that's tailored specifically for us? Right.

Josiah: I wonder if we could, this is really helpful because you've been known to tell your team members, especially new people joining the teams that you work with, that ego is the killer, right? Of kind of making things happen, right? And so you have to operate out of this humility that you're describing. I think hearing you describe this, maybe it begs the question, you mentioned fewer people may be thinking this way than before. It sort of begs the question, why collaborate with others? Why work with others? Is there something that you can create that is more beautiful potentially through collaboration, even if you're not the star character than if our listeners are just working on their own?

Michaelangelo: I think if you are a creator, you're always constantly trying to create and tweak the formula, right? And most of us are crazy, right? And most of us mull over, you know, the OCD of like, Oh, I should have done that. And I should have done this and had, you know, it didn't work that time. So if you have that in your mind, constantly trying to figure out the formula, trying to work out the Rubik's cube of creativity. quicker, faster, more creative, then when you start to work with other people and you are open to collaboration and you're open to be a vehicle of expression, then you can start to get to play the game at a super high level, right? Like if I'm working with somebody who really doesn't know anything about what they want, it sucks. It's really difficult, right? Because then I have to be me. right? I have to give an opinion about what I want and what I think. Right? Versus working with, you know, these higher, these, some of these companies are incredible and they know who they are, right? They just haven't translated into sound or experience on a very, very deep level. And that's a great game. That's a chess game. You know, that's me bringing my best ideas in translating what I think this brand is or the history of the brand and how we can maybe retell a story from a long time ago and make it more relevant. and new and then marry it with some cultural gurus that could also find magic and inspiration and then we can create something even larger. Those are the opportunities that I strive for now, not the, I don't know, what do you think? What I think is I want to go to the beach. I live in Mexico and just relax with my dog. I don't want to have to, you know, I'm working really hard, but I don't want to have to, you know, heavy lift somebody that doesn't know anything. And luckily, my career has been one of one incredible brand after another that's completely challenged me to levels of Doubt, you know, and this is the part of the ego that you doubt yourself. Can you pick yourself up? Can you move forward? You know, can you still go back the next day with the most open mind that you can have to be that vehicle and to achieve whatever your, your client considers success for them?

Josiah: How do you strategically think about entertainment and culture, make it not just something that's kind of fun to experience, but really core and fundamental to what a brand or what an organization can be?

Michaelangelo: It really depends on how deep the organization wants to go, right? Strategically, we could start with music. I'm known as the music guy, so I always start at that level. Strategically, maybe they don't want this deeply evolved soundtrack behind it. Other companies might not have ever been posed the question of how deep Do you want to communicate through music to your guest, right? And that's when we can create a customer journey, right? That then goes into their existing customer journey. How are we going to talk to them, you know, pre-arrival, during post, right? How are we going to create memories? What are the tools that we need? what are the best practices, what are the SOPs, it starts to get very nuanced just the way every other aspect of how they operate is nuanced. Because most people think music is just music. It plays. It's there. No, but if you can get deeply methodical, then there's a system on how we engage and how we touch people at every single aspect from marketing to in real life, um, to brand partnerships, to digital, to, you know, sponsorships, to you name it. And there have to be deeply thought-out protocols and engagement tools on every level. And then there has to be creativity, right? So how does that creativity then trickle down into the entire mechanism? And then if you're looking to scale, then this is why brands would do something like this with me is because if they can figure this out, then they can scale, right? Just the way they have their development, pre-development budgets templated and they can throw it in or their development budgets, they can then plug this in and then they know they're opening at a formula that's up here. Not a hit or miss, not, Oh, this food and beverage directors thought this for that. And this GM likes EDM. So we're going to do a little EDM, but there's a formula, there's a package and, um, there's security at least as much as you can have with, um, scaling your, your brand and then regionalizing your brand. and then acquire clients and whatever ROI the company wants from it. And then, outside of music, then we're talking about experiences. I can go deep into the wellness space, and not building wellness, but how do we create experiences, right? Who are the right people that are trending in a certain space to do a pop-up activation, or a series of activations, you know, who are the individuals that we can develop a speaker series on, right? So that we can create value to the guest that's on property, you know, and maybe we can scale that into a series that travels around the world, you know, to all the different properties. So I go through all the different sensory touch points and we, if a brand wants to, we can go deep into ideation on the experiential component of what they're inspired by so that we can inspire the guest.

Josiah: You're taking something that maybe is some might view as, you know, kind of touchy-feely or woo-woo, and you're building some process around it. I think you described it as the sensorium or just like all of our five senses engaging them. You talk about the customer journey. You talk about, you know, each touch point also within a hospitality property. There's so many ways to express this. So there's a lot of that. I think you mentioned scale, right? So an output of this is taking away some of the variability of hospitality businesses used to always be so hit or miss. I feel, you know, it either works or it doesn't. You're bringing a little bit more predictability to that. I imagine it can also be a challenge when you bring predictability on how do you stay fresh and inspiring and not turn out to be your cookie cutter chain hotel. How do you think about that tension and pushing past that?

Michaelangelo: I'll make the analogy of jazz, right? There's a song written, right? Bernstein wrote a song, and we're all gonna play it, okay? On paper. That's the guidelines. These are the chord changes; these are the rhythms, right? There's a beginning, there's an end, and there's, you know, a flow of the melody, right? Perfect. Every person that gets handed that will play that song. But the jazz component is the improvisation and the interpretation of the song. Right? So if you had John Coltrane playing it, he's going to be playing the song, right? Exactly what it is in the paper, but he's going to add his context and his flair. And if Miles played it, it would be a different totally vibe. So when you create the structure for the song, the composition, when you scale and you give it to a hotel, let's say in Australia versus one in Asia, they're going to interpret the value, the relevance, the creators that could play that song in a different way. So when you're talking about hotels, there's usually some sort of cultural director involved. If you are in more of the lifestyle luxury spaces, you have a cultural director you have a concierge. When they have the song, they're going to play it and be like, oh, here in Singapore, These are the cool kids that do X, Y, and Z, and they know how to play our song. So let's pull them into the fold, right? The game plan, the roadmap never changes. It's the people playing the song that do. And that's why it becomes much more easy to scale when you have a book of music. We can play this, we can play the ballad, we can play the upbeat song, we can play the mid-tempo one, you know? And then we can create motifs in between, which are melodies that change. If it's a-ta-ta, next time we play ta-ta-ta-ta-pa-pa-pa-ta-ta-ta-ta, you know? So I think within the framework that I can provide within the strategy, there's implementation rules, and then there's room for interpretation.

Josiah: It feels like a paradox, right, where these constraints or these guidelines almost could empower more creativity.

Michaelangelo: Absolutely. Because when you're dealing with young people or people who might not necessarily understand the output of what is needed in the hotel lifestyle space, they can go rogue. They have a lot of ideas, but they're like, oh, let's do this. Let's do that. And blah, blah, blah, blah. They don't finish ideas. They have run on sentences. But if they're in a framework, Right? And the ROI is very clear, then the creativity can flow within that. and then they have direction, and then part of my job is to always, it's being a mentor, it's being a boss, it's being a shaman, it's being a psychiatrist, because younger people these days that are creative, it can be stifling to work inside a corporate environment, right? So again, ego, all artists have ego. My job is to hear them, understand them, Tell them, I love them. I respect them. I see the creativity in them. But right now is not the time to challenge. the individuals that are hiring you. So let's just bring it down. Let's listen. Let's be better and let's create more. So that's another component to my job, which I really do love working with super, super creative, younger people. Cause then I could play up my, my strengths, which is the gray hair, you know,

Josiah: Do you feel the context of hospitality provides this interesting canvas for people to express themselves creatively in a way that other industries don't?

Michaelangelo: Could we be a magnet for creative thought? Yeah, I think it's the industry. I mean, what industry can you play with? you know, design, location, food, beverage, entertainment from the morning to the late, late, late night. Every single day part has a moment, right? The morning is the big blowout for the morning. You know, the afternoon is, you know, and then the sunset and then like the early evening, you know, each one has to be a high note and you have to be as creative as you can be. so that you don't know when the person is coming into the room, the guest, but they better be wowed. In any given moment you can create a moment of awe and a moment of magic and a moment that resonates and a moment that you can recall after the stay. This is what I'm constantly thinking about, right? This is why I go like kind of crazy. It's like, if I can get this formula just right, then when they leave, if they get the email on the playlist from the hotel that they just stayed at, and it's like sunset sessions, and of course they're gonna pop through it, because that memory was so vivid. And then if they hear the soundtrack, they're like, ah, I'm back. Josiah and I remember we were there, we had that, you were drinking that cocktail and it had the thing in it. And, you know, and that other person walked by, we were both like, Oh my God. And we're in the moment again. And music was able to do that. Right. And then they played the soundtrack at their dinner party and people were like, Oh my God, Josiah, you always have the best music. Well, the brand gave it to you. And now it's a part of your life. And it's part of your home experience. So this is how I'm constantly thinking, you know, and this was, um, very much my days at the W where they, they allowed me to, um, to nerd out, let's say on experimenting with culture soundtracks and people became obsessed with it.