“I’ve been producing for over ten years now,” chimes the affable bloke. “I came from a bit of a hip hop background over here – but I think the first electronic track I did was for Tomcraft; that was a long time ago and then all of a sudden I was doing my own music and that pretty much brings me to where I am today – and I’m loving it.”
Having travelled to various corners of the globe not only in his capacity as a DJ, he actually spent some time moving around for other reasons. “Actually I was born in the UK, but then we moved to Thailand and lived there for a few years – later on, we came to Germany. I grew up with my mother – and she is a bit of a big hippie – and since she liked it, we stayed there for a few years. I think we did a bit of a world tour together, being in different countries and all that. I also have a feeling that we were in Sydney, she used to tell me. Now she also lives in Germany but she isn’t so much of a hippie anymore – I don’t think there are any hippies left actually. It was an ‘80s thing and now she’s working in the real world!”
So after a childhood spent living around the world, from the UK to Thailand, Tai found his heart lay deep inside an MPC drum machine as a teenager and spent years collecting his hip-hop beats and programming those one-off grooves. Later turning his production expertise to producing cuts for the dance floor, he has wowed crowds globally ever since.
Indeed, having had a background in urban music placed him well to deal with reconciling the challenges of what else is out there. “For me it feels really natural to work with people. Sometimes I notice that people come to me and say ‘You’ve worked with so and so.’ It’s really rewarding to have people saying that to you, acknowledging the work you have done. Because I produce for different artists it feels natural for me to do things on my own. In the last year I did tracks for Diplo, Steve Aoki, Bart B More, and Felix Da Housecat. I also did two tracks with Crookers and now the Bloody Beetroots are coming into the studio to lay down a couple of tracks as well. So it has been a pretty busy time.”
And for the (now) German, he claims there is only really one way of doing music: “I try not to think too much about it,” he says. “I just do what comes naturally; electronic music is exploding at the moment and I think it’s really important to have different music in your ear that you’ve heard somewhere. That said, you have to do what comes to your own mind and what feels interesting to you. As an artist, you should have your own special sound. You don’t even need studios anymore; everyone has the capability to do music. I just want to do whatever. Sometimes I think that people won’t like something because it will be too hard or too ‘something.’ I mean even Tiesto liked a track of mine!”
Perhaps he doesn’t necessarily know what to make of that honour – regardless though, he is pushing on and focusing on staying busy. “I recently dropped a single on Dim Mak Records called Lose Yourself and am doing another one that is coming out in a month or so. There is also another called Nigerian Connection, which has just been mastered and should be out soon. I was also kind of working on an album as well, so I have a bunch of new tracks which no one has ever heard; so I think I’m going to really try this new music on you guys in Australia at the gigs and I hope you are basically jumping in the air straight up, rather than running away. There should be a lot of music people haven’t heard before as well as a lot of bootlegs and a lot of tracks and edits that are new. I’m really looking forward to it.”
BY RK
