TAI VERDES

MUSIC

Aug 3

Tai Verdes is one of those people that can do anything creative and do it well. His confidence seems overwhelming, but as soon as you meet him you realise his self-assurance is completely warranted. After a high intensity run of endlessly energetic live shows, 2021 album ‘TV’, and brand new single “sheluvme” from his upcoming second album, I assumed he might be a bit exhausted, but Tai just isn’t that person.

His drive is infectious, focused and unwavering. When we were introduced a day after he landed in Sydney for the first time I asked him if he was tired and he just said, “I feel like I’m invincible”.

What I like about you is that you have this immense energy. The last few years is when you've kicked off your career, and instead of being like, “Yeah, I'm sad and at home”, you're just out there like, “hey, it's my first ever live show, I'm just going to fucking kill it”.

You know what I see a lot of people going on stage going, “la la la la”. Next song. “la la la la”. Next song. That doesn't really go for me. I wouldn't really watch that after 20 minutes. I want people to watch what I'm trying to do but in an hour and 10 of entertainment.

Do you think you're like background in sport helps with the energy?

Oh, yeah. I mean, do you think I'm going to listen to theatre kid kick my ass? Hell no.

There was a point where you were mostly self-advertising with the attitude, “I will do it. I'll do the social media. I'll get picked up. I'll do all the interviews. I'll do all the shows.” It’s like you don't slow down. In your song ‘Solamente’ you sing “I'm just out here… paranoia follows me wherever I go.” Is there any pressure on your art in terms of what your fans are expecting?

I don’t give a fuck about the fans to be honest. I really don't. I think that my artist project is unhindered by opinion. And I think that if someone is trying to make songs for other people, then it's not really art at that point. It's just a crowd-funded sound, which I'm not trying to do. I'm trying to make my own art. If Picasso was making a painting and someone was like, “add some blue”, Picasso wouldn’t be Picasso anymore. My whole thing is I want to make bodies of work. 10 albums. That's my goal. And then after I make the 10, I’ll see where I'm at. I'm at number two right now, and I just finished it so I'm 20% done with my goal.

I thought I thought this was going to be a quadrilogy?

Oh yeah this is the quadrilogy part, but there's more.

In terms of the new stuff, I can see your instrumentation getting progressively bigger and more ambitious. You’ve got quite a Pop sound that is really accessible, but then you’re recording with different instruments like the ukulele or there will be some horns in in an unexpected place. What does that look like pushing into the next few albums?

I don't believe genre is really a thing anymore. Pop to me is just that people are paying attention. So of course I'm going to be Pop if that's what that means, because I want to share my music in all different types of ways. On the internet, on streaming services, on everything. I think I don't really have any desire to put something out and not work on it. I do all of it, I co-produce everything, I make the album art, all of that is me. And when you have that sort of dedication to the stuff, why would you not want to share it? I look at Tyler the Creator and he puts a bunch of effort into his songs. For me, it's more about making really cool stuff and seeing what happens. Stuff that’s cool to me.

Tyler the Creator is all about collaboration and the collective. In terms of making your music do you extend your circles or are you very introverted and in control?

I mean, I'm in control but I bring people in, like “hey, what you got? You got something cool? All right, I'll take this and this. Okay, you go back to do your thing”. For me it's like if I can bring somebody in that’s doing cool stuff that's one of the best parts about making music for me, because you can create a world that you probably couldn't do before without their help. It's all about collaboration. Make something cool right?

“I really think that it's about making what I like,
then flipping a switch and promoting to whoever wants it. If you want it, you can have it. If you don't like the song, then I got 100 more
that you might like.”

You’re from California and there has been a lot of political and social unrest in the last few years. Your music can come across as really happy, but the lyrics hint that there is an undercurrent of awareness that not everything is happy right now. How do you think the music that you're working on is going to resonate in the United States?

I don’t care. I wish that I cared about other people's opinions but that's how I got here, not caring about those opinions. I keep really highly in my mind the ideals of Andre 3000 and Kanye West. Like Kanye putting out a whole Christian album. Do you think people were like “Kanye put out a Christian album out”? No, they weren't like that. They were just like, do what you want to do, and he does it. For me, I really think that it's about making what I like, then flipping a switch and promoting to whoever wants it. If you want it, you can have it. If you don't like the song, then I got 100 more that you might like. And guess what? You're going to get these songs.

Does it work in the reverse? I think maybe it’s kind of impossible for the context around you not to feed into your music. That's how art works right? So when you're actually making music or even listening to other people how do you pull the context in?

Pulling it in is just realizing that a lot of stuff that's out there is not that dope. How many songs do you listen to twice now? I just know that if I hear a song and it starts with a chorus, then I'm already kind of out. Unless it's a very unique chorus, unless you're using different types of instrumentation. I mean there's nuance to everything. But I think that being original and having a new sound and making choices that people wouldn't usually make, that's what excites me. Rather than doing the same thing everybody else is doing. There's a lot of people doing the alt rock pop thing, a lot of people doing the trap drum thing. And you can figure out how to do all of that, but do it cool. If you're going to do it like everybody else, I’m not listening.

Post modernists said that nothing is original, how do you figure out how to “do it cool”?

I think that your experience as a human being is original. So when I make a song and it’s the first song on my album, and there's no chorus, and I'm just talking about my experience, who else is going to have that experience? Not only are you making a unique song structure, but unique melodies, unique rhythm, unique song makeup. What's happening in the background is a song that I pulled off YouTube. It's not something that producers worked really hard to make. I feel like when a song is trying too hard you can hear it. That's what I really want to put in my music; is that this isn't trying too hard. This is all feeling, does it feel good? I think a lot of people listen to my music and it feels like something.

Is that why on your album ‘TV’, and your latest single ‘sheluvme’, visually the language of the song names are in ‘internet speak’ or at least very close to how real people talk? How much of a choice did you make about that?

Everything, I think it's cool. When I’m looking at it I'm just like, this is cooler than saying “she loved me” with spaces. If it was all lower case, all together it's kind of like saying, “How can I make this the most me as possible?” Right? If it's more me, then it's better to me, because no one else can replicate it. When I make a song title called “we would have some cute kids.”, and then I look on Spotify, and I look on Google, and there's not another song in the universe ever created called “we would have some cute kids.”, it gets my juices going because I’m doing something different.

Do you think that choice purposely attracts a certain audience, like only other people who talk like that?

I mean, you do need fans to keep going, but I'm all about making. I think that if people didn't listen, I'd still be making, and that's what makes it special. I think if people need to hear my stuff, then that's a different thing. I get what you're saying when you say if you want people to listen that's what pushes it forward. But I think just making the music pushes it forward.

Sort of like if even one of my songs resonates if any bit with one person, then I've done my job?

Yeah, Billy Eilish said a really good thing; “I don't want everybody to like every single song on my album, I just want you to like one song”. You know, so that relates to as many people as possible. I relate more to people who just keep making stuff, like Kanye is probably going to make another three albums. Just keep going, keep making. That's what you're attaching yourself to as a fan. It's the guy who's making something rather than someone who's trying to figure out what you're thinking as a fan. What did they think of these last years? What did they create as a project? What are they on right now? Where are they? Are they on this type of style? This type of art? This type of instrumentation? What did they make? I liked Steve Lacey’s last album like that.

Do you think he has a very similar way of thinking to you in that he's also a maker?

Yeah and with him, he does it all himself. I can always figure out what an artist is doing if I just look at the credits. That’s my favourite thing to do just go down an album hear sounds and recognise who they’re from. Push yourself into different places and different comfort zones, do whatever they want. I'm here to judge but I'm also all inclusive.

You can see more from Tai here / listen to sheluvme here / words by Alex Officer / main image by Austin Cieszko / polaroids by Simone Taylor