For this throwback Thursday, The Music Vibes decided to re-visit an interview with Lafa Taylor from the Philadelphia performance from Beats Antique Creature Carnival Tour back in October 2014. We must say that not only was Taylor one of the best Ringmasters/MCs we have ever seen, but he is also a cultured renaissance musician who sure knows how to make a play on words.
Flashback Interview:
Rebecca: We understand that you’re quite the world traveler and along with traveling comes the opportunity to play in different countries and experience different cultures. Can you tell us a little about your experiences doing that?
Lafa Taylor: I’m lucky enough to have been traveling pretty much my whole life and since I grew up traveling it’s just been natural for me to continue traveling on my own. I am so thankful to have been able to experience so many different realities all over the globe it makes me ever more thankful for where I am from and my quality of life and opens me up to how many other ways you can live and how many beautiful places there are all over the world. All of that has an influence over my art.
R: What are some of your favorite places that you have been to?
L: Just to list a few, I love Finland where my dad happens to live, last time I was there was in the summer when it stays light- I can’t imagine being there in the winter when it’s the opposite. In the summer it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, there are saunas and lakes. I spent quite a bit of time in Tokyo, it’s definitely one of my favorite places, actually, I guess Japan in general, I really enjoy the beautiful countryside as well as the bustling cities where there is just so much to do. I love that the action doesn’t stop there as far as music or clubbing goes- they go all night! There are clubs that you can go to at any hour of the day or night and there is food that you can get at any hour of the day, there is just stuff going on all of the time and I like the juxtaposition of the crazy packed cities that are kind of dirty and grimy -although Tokyo is fairly clean, next to the beautiful, open countryside, ondsends and trees, the wild abandoned. Also Bali, I love Bali, one of my favorite places, I love the tersest rice fields, the food, the people are amazing there, the architecture’s attention to detail, the temples, people riding scooters everywhere, it’s a blast!
R: In regards to your musical compositions and other work you do, how would you say that cultural element you imbibe gets weaved in?
L: It’s more subliminal than direct, for example thus far I haven’t gone to Bali and pulled din gamalon samples in my music. It’s usually just anything I listen or experience influences my art in subtle ways. Maybe the rhythms of gamalon and the monkey chant affect my music without my even knowing it does.
R: When you travel to different places it kind of affects you as a person and that is what you are expressing through your art.
L: Absolutely. And that’s rhythmically and melodically, speaking to the beats… as far as content in my lyrics, obviously when I experience something that computes a little more directly to my lyrics; if I see some struggle or experience something beautiful that’s going to transmute into my music.
R: So, do you bring your little backpack-recording studio everywhere you go?
L: It’s not something that I always do… speaking to the backpack-recording studio that I brought to Costa Rica, which is what I think you are referring to. I do try to stay productive in my travels… I was just in Tokyo working on a project with a friend of mine from the bay area who flew out and we basically set up wherever we could with an air bnb and kind of just bought some studio monitors off of Craigslist and borrowed a keyboard from a friend… these days it’s amazing what you can do with a keyboard, some speakers and a midi controller. So we set up shop out there. Today, very simple studio for me– (pulls out items as he explains them) – my computer of course, a keyboard that fits in my backpack, I’ve got other midi controllers that I use live, but I also have a little USB mic that’s really awesome for recording on the road… so that’s basically a mini studio these days.
R: Wow, thank you for sharing that with us! We were really curious about that cause its a cool concept.
L: In all honesty, that’s pretty much what I had in Costa Rica as well. A computer a microphone, a midi controller. In Costa Rica I fashioned a sound booth wherever I went out of whatever I could find to hold up. A comforter over my head and a little popper stopper for my mic.
R: MacGyver….
L: MacGyver-ed it together, totally. So I guess the answer is yes, ha-ha. And I am actually really excited I just got that microphone and it can be used with a smart phone so I am excited to possibly do recordings at some point just from my phone. Maybe do an EP all produced on my phone; I think that could be cool. I enjoy challenges like that- embarking on a project with a certain musical taste in mind as well as certain obstacles or restrictions.
Dean: Yeah, that’s a challenge! Instead of just going through a studio.
L: Exactly, I think it would be fun!
R: I think it’s also going to give it a very different sound quality, which would be very cool. Something that you don’t hear very often.
L: For sure- street sounds in my recording and stuff.
R: You do a lot of collaborations with other artists. What have been some of your favorite collaborations?
L: I really enjoy all of my collaborations. However; I am really enjoying two projects right now that I am nearing completion, one of which is with a good friend of mine who I mentioned came out to Tokyo, his name is Aabo. We’re working on a kind of disclosure-esque house music-y-project, which has been really fun. Again delving into a certain style that we want to create has been really fun and we both love house music. I also have been really loving collaborating with Medium Troy from my hometown of Eugene, Oregon. They have access to and work with a whole orchestra so we were able to create these tracks and bring in orchestra players to round out all of our recordings. That will be coming out hopefully during this tour- that has been a blast. Those are more in depth collaborations that I have done- so those have been really fun because I have gotten to sit down for a while and really go deep with my collaborators. I enjoy that just as much as I enjoy popping in with artists like Bassnectar or the Polish Ambassador or Rush Liquid for one-offs. Those are really fun as well to tap into a sound for one track and see what comes out of that.
D: We were listening to some of your songs on YouTube, and I kept hearing you use the same words but with different meanings…. I was wondering how you came up with that?
L: I am really into lyrics as much as I am into producing and making exciting fun dance floor bangers with big bass… or without. I’m really into lyrics; I grew up on underground hip-hop so I listen to what people are saying, still. I love lyrics and wittiness… I am always thinking of rhymes and “Rollin’ Dough” came out of a collection of “perfect rhymes” that I collect. So when I think of a perfect rhyme if I have a chance I will write it down. So I had a big catalog of all of these perfect rhymes to pull from. I thought about my rhyme catalogue and then I rounded it out with other rhymes I thought of on the spot — because I am fairly good at figuring out something that rhymes perfectly.
R: What were some of your favorite Hip-Hop Artists?
L: As far as my favorite underground hip-hop artists when I was growing up I would definitely go to Mos Def and Talib Kweli right off the bat as well as Atmosphere, kerres 1, Pigeon John- LA underground.
R: So when you’re composing your lyrics now do you still use the same process of going through your rhyme book?
L: I usually just write on the spot these days, I am going to eventually release a similar song to Rollin’ Dough with a similar writing style. I’ve got some rhymes stacked for that, one that someone just wrote me was (they wrote it a little different then I made it out), “intensities in ten cities,” someone wrote something similar to that and I came out with that. So I am still collecting perfect rhymes and I pull from that for the new song. In general, when I write I switch it up. I like different techniques so sometimes I will freestyle a verse on the spot, sometimes I will freestyle it line by line, sometimes I will partially gibberish freestyle a rhyme and then go back and write in other words and sometimes I will just sit down and write slowly. One thing that is pretty consistent with me is that I like to write to a beat first. I am not one of those writers that just write rhymes all the time in a notebook. I don’t have stacks of rhymes that don’t go to songs.
R: I feel like it would be pretty tough to have something written down and then find a beat to put to it- most of the time the beat also effects what you’re writing, that’s a huge part of it.
L: For me definitely. And as a producer I am not like restricted by needing to find beats, if I have an idea I can just sit down and start composing something I want, a sound that I want for the idea I have in my head.
D: I heard some more of your associations in one of your newer songs, “Etc. Etc.” towards the end… so you used it back then in your song “Rollin’ Dough” in 2005, but you’re still using some of the same techniques in your newer music too.
L: Yes, I love those perfect rhymes, I just love words, and I love playing with words in the human language.
R: Can you tell us a little bit about your newest album?
L: So, my newest album Not One Thing came out on 4/20 and I would say that it showcases some of my newer styles of beat making as well as rhyming and singing. I’ve recently gotten into R&B a little more which the track with Russ Liquid on there kind of showcases. Even more recent than that has been these collaborations with Bassnectar and Polish Ambassador. Also, I got some exciting news that Bassnectar remixed one of my tracks entitled, “Heaters,” which will be remixed on one of his remix albums coming out this Tuesday.
R: That’s exciting; he’s just about to go on tour so maybe he’ll pop that track on.
L: I’m sure he will.
R: If you had to choose one piece of advice, what would you want to tell aspiring musicians?
L: I would say don’t become a DJ as we already have enough of those, study an instrument which could of course be vocals, and be persistent and be unique.
R: I think that’s very sound advice!
R: Anything you want to tell the readers of The Music Vibes?
L: The tour has been a blast and I am so thankful that Beats Antique thought that I would be perfect for the Ringmaster of ceremonies. It’s been a great experience so far going to a lot of cities that I haven’t played before and getting to be in front of a big audience of receptive folks. So big shout out to the Beats Antique crew and anyone that is making this crazy thing run!
R: There is quite a circus out there!
L: Absolutely.
Now back to the present…
Lafa Taylor has since come out with those epic collaborations he spoke so passionately about with Medium Troy as well as some new singles. His current tour will be taking him to Crystal Bay Club Casino in NV this weekend where he will be playing from Friday March 13th-14th before heading on to California for the Serenity Gathering on March 20th.
If you’re a music lover, The Music Vibes encourages you to catch one of Lafa Taylor’s shows if he is playing in your area. You can find the rest of his tour schedule at http://www.lafataylor.com/tour/.
Interview by Rebecca Wolfe & Dean Taddei
Article by Rebecca Wolfe
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