From Gorgon City’s Realm Records to Yousef’s Circus Recordings, Australian-born TAYA. has established himself as a leading light in today’s electronic music world. A professionally trained singer and musician, his ear for producing organic, melodically-charged tech house is plain to hear, highlighted most recently with his debut on Damian Lazarus’ Rebellion imprint. Out now, the sonically rich ‘One Day Around The Sun’ EP in collaboration with Quackers marks a standout moment for TAYA.. To mark the release we invited TAYA. for a chat, enjoy!
Hi TAYA.! Great to have you with us today. How are you doing and whereabouts are you chatting from right now?
I’m doing great, thanks! At the moment, I’m living In Vancouver, Canada. I moved my whole life over from Australia last April. It’s been a great growing experience starting fresh in a whole new New Country.
How’s the music scene doing there following the effects of the pandemic?
There is a smaller music scene here In Vancouver. I wouldn’t say it’s doing amazingly, but clubs and festivals have just started back up, so I don’t think it will take too long to build back up again.
What’s a normal day-in-the-life look like for you at the moment?
I’ve got my daily routine down pretty well over here. There are certainly much fewer distractions for me than in Australia, as I don’t know everyone here. It’s been great to really get some solid focussed music sessions in. I’ll wake up around 6 am, train/workout then meditate so my mind is sharp to take on the day’s tasks. If I don’t, I’ll feel slow and easily distracted, and my massive days of work will be sloppy. I’ll work on music for about 5-6 hours then on my business which I’m about to launch with my partner Marina. It’s an online mentorship program called Elevate Music Academy, which will include a self-running course and sessions with me. To finish up in the studio for the day I’ll jam out on my modular rack & other hardware units for a couple of hours. I’m currently building a live performance on it, so I try to get at least an hour of practice in each day. Then to finish my work day I’ll go for a big walk or run into the forest which backs up onto my house. Doing so helps break up the day, so I can give my brain a rest from listening to music for the past 10-12 hours!
We’re pleased to be chatting with you following the release of the ‘One Day Around The Sun’ EP, your debut on Crosstown Rebels’ Rebellion imprint alongside fellow countryman, Quackers. Congrats on a stellar release here. How did this one come to find its home on Damian Lazarus’ Rebellion imprint?
Quackers and I became mates a few years back when we met at an event we both played. He caught my attention with his solo live performance, where he bounced between playing the guitar, Moog Sub 37 & a Dave Smith Prophet 6! I thought, “this is someone that would definitely bring some flavour to the table,” in a collaborative sense. I remember praising Michael for his ability to work on all three elements at a professional level. Sometime after, I invited him up to my music studio in the rainforest to collaborate and see if we could make some magic happen. That’s when ‘One Day Around the Sun’ was created. I’d actually been holding onto it for a while, always with the intention of sending it to Crosstown, but I thought it needed more work at the time.
About 12 months later, I opened up the project again and did a day’s work on it which is all it needed in my eyes.
My manager Elle Watson was the one that made the connection with signing the release as she and Damian Lazarus are good friends that go way back. She passed the EP onto him, and he was quite impressed with the two tracks, particularly ‘One Day Around The Sun’ and wanted to sign it to rebellion!
The title track is a collaborative effort between yourself and multi-instrumentalist Quackers with unique results. How did you approach this collaboration? Did Quackers know what instruments he wanted to include prior to starting or was this an organic result of the process?
Quackers and I didn’t really have a plan going into the studio in terms of genre or sound and were both quite open to experimenting with what came out as we’d never worked together before. So, it was very much an organic result of the process. I feel like the best results usually come out when you don’t limit yourself like that just and trust the process.
We did know we wanted to incorporate his amazing guitar skills, though as well as him on the sax and some of our other combined hardware units to create a song with a sonically rich pallet of sound, which I feel like we achieved in ‘One Day Around the Sun’
Can we expect to hear more of yourself and Quackers together in the future?
We actually had a call last week and have already planned to start a new track, working remotely. After our first studio session, we quickly realised that our individual sounds complement each other quite well. I’m pretty particular in the studio when it comes to who I collaborate with. Having someone who understands my sound and who I gel with so easily is nice, and I feel that is something that should be fostered.
The second track, ‘Elevate’, is a solo production from yourself and we believe also features your own vocals? They tie the track together perfectly; what was the inspiration behind them?
Yea, the vocal was definitely the element that tied the track together and helped me get the song completed, but they actually aren’t mine. I wrote most of the song before even adding them. It was never intended to have a vocal as I thought that it would take away from the main synth bass line being the stand-out element in the track. The track was at about 90% complete, but I just couldn’t figure out what that missing 10% was. I came across this vocal, and it just worked!
Thanks a lot for chatting today TAYA.! To round things off, is there anything else in the pipeline from yourself that you can share with us yet?
Other than working on some new releases, I’m currently building a full live modular performance to tour on hardware synthesizers and a euro-rack. I can tell you now that this is a huge project and indeed not an overnight job! On top of that, I am moving my music mentoring online with the upcoming launch of Elevate Music Academy. Can’t wait to share both of these in the near future!
TAYA. & Quackers ‘One Day Around The Sun’ is OUT NOW on Rebellion.
Buy / Stream it here: https://lnk.to/RBL088
