BEHIND THE BOOTH WITH TAYO BEATS
ISSUE 3.0
JULY 2024
Interview conducted by: Olulana Mofiyinfoluwa (@finnnix)
Photos Credit: Oluwatosin Samuel Omotayo (@tayo.beats)
Design: Mbuba Chiagozie Tochukwu (@agozieee_)
INTRODUCTION:
Q. Can you share a bit about your background and what led you to become a music producer?
A. My name is Oluwatosin Samuel Omotayo, known as TAYO. Growing up, I loved music, sounds intrigued me. I always loved to figure out how records were put together. My dad had a number of records playing, from gospel to highlife, to country music. He wasn’t a fan of Nigerian pop and hip-hop music but I always listened outside with my friends. In his younger days, he led a church choir and wrote lots of songs he later showed me, saying he would record them some day. I also remember getting a little piano gift from him then, I never really figured it out but I enjoyed playing with it.
Then in uni, I did a lot of music with my close friends, we were always looking up the hardest of songs until lockdown I stumbled on FL studio app. I did not really have anybody to tell me what to do so I learnt it myself, God brought the right people my way, collaborated with a few producer friends and within two years, I started cooking up for artistes. I am still figuring things out till this moment.
Q. How would you describe your unique style and approach to music production?
A. Well, nothing elaborate, just me, my laptop and earphones. I love to lay chords, so as to set the pace for the rest of the process. I try as much as possible not to overthink or complicate anything. I also make sure I don’t really have a particular approach per say, because I hate routine. I try to be spontaneous as much as possible.
I can say my basses are my biggest priorities in my beats, because apart from melodies, I believe a large percentage of listeners by default, will listen to a song with sweeter basslines than others. After that, anything goes.
UNCONVENTIONAL INFLUENCES :
Q. Can you share some unexpected influences that have shaped your music production style?
A. Before I started making beats, I used to watch Jon Bellion’s beat production videos a lot. His sound and process is so inspiring and organic, so subconsciously, I always think like “I have to make something different from what I always hear”.
Q. Are there any non-musical sources that inspire your creative process?
A. Food, I create very efficiently when there’s food around, Money. TBH, there is something about getting paid that makes creative blocks disappear, ask any commercial producer; and my woman’s voice, LOL.
MUSICAL EVOLUTION:
Q. How has your musical taste evolved over the years, and how does it reflect in your production today?
A. Nowadays, I am more critical about music because it is easier for me to pick up little details than I used to, before I got into the creation process. I also discovered that paying attention to sound selection really made production easy for me. Sometimes, the difference between and RnB and Trap beat can be the choice of kick or hihats.
Q. Can you pinpoint a specific moment or experience that significantly influenced your approach to music?
A. I remember my first ever beat making session with an artist. He hummed some melodies and I laid some chords to it, and he was like he wanted some changes that were surprising, because I wasn’t feeling the changes he was asking me for. We had a little back and forth because I believed my own proposition sounded perfect to me, and even others. I was upset he wanted to change it. We eventually came to a conclusion. This happened other times and has made me realize that inasmuch as I want to be free to express myself, I must also consider my clients and create an allowance for them to express themselves also, for the whole product to be a success.
COLLABORATION CURIOSITIES :
Q. If you could collaborate with any artist, living or dead, who would it be and why?
A. Kanye West. He is a genius, I will like to know what goes through that man’s head.
Q. Share an anecdote from your favorite collaboration – the unexpected, the challenges, or the magic moments.
A. A lot of my collaborations have been funny, spontaneous, like on the spot, but once, while I was on my year 4 industrial training, LitTY called while I was in the office that he was planning ‘THE CYPHER’. After the call, I heard a string sound outside from some speakers blasting loudly, got inspired and loaded FL on the spot, found a string sample and finished up the beat in 30 minutes, it was my first hip-hop beat in almost 6 months. Sent it to him and he put 5 rappers on, the result was fierce LMAO. You need to check it yourself lol. I have really weird stories about how many songs I produced were made.
INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES:
Q. What's a unique production technique or trick that you've developed and swear by in the studio?
A. This is funny but I don’t overthink. I can cook up with whatever comes to me at that moment, chords first, bass or drums at other times. Once I start overthinking, I close my PC.
Q. Are there any unconventional tools or instruments you frequently incorporate into your productions?
A. In almost all of my choruses, I use a long one note string. It just kind of fills up every space and gives the beat a euphoric or ‘uplifting’ kind of feel.
MUSICAL SYNESTHESIA:
Q. If your latest project were a color, what would it be, and why?
A. Red. A lot of collaborations I’m currently working on currently, including my EP have romance based themes. I think red colour is a theme colour for romance, burning passion, sensuality and I love romance. Stay tuned.
Q. Can you describe the emotions or images you aim to evoke with your music?
A. Euphoria, sweet music. I want my listeners ‘head to burst’. Like ‘bro who is the guy behind this?’ I love when my beats carries, visualizes or make up for whatever my artistes are saying on it.
SOUNDTRACK OF LIFE:
Q. If your life had a soundtrack, what three songs would be on it right now?
A. Sweetness by Obongjayar and Sarz,
7 years by Lukas Graham,
“DEY FOR ME", it’s my new song as a producer. i collaborated with KAMSI, Tayo x Kamsi, check it out”
Q. Is there a particular song that encapsulates a significant moment in your life?
A. I’m not forsaken by Maverick City, Chandler Moore, Naomi Raine.
MUSICAL PHILOSOPHY:
Q. How do you see the relationship between technology and music evolving in the future?
A. Well, the main point of technology is to make work processes easier, music isn’t left behind. Specifically, the use of AI will upset lots of traditions, OGs will lose their jobs, others who are catching up to this new wave will remain and newer people will be brought in.
Q. What's your philosophy on the balance between technical precision and raw emotion in music?
A. Shortly, you MIGHT need emotional inspiration to lay up the foundation of whatever you’re cooking up at the moment, then technical precision to make your product perfect or close to perfect. Talent vs hard-work type shit.
GENRE FUSION :
Q. If you had to create a new genre that best represents your style, what would you call it?
A. I love dark RnB and 80s pop so much, so any genre I might create will have a trace of it. I have not figured out a name yet. For now, I can just say ‘something-fusion’.
Q. How do you navigate blending diverse genres while maintaining a cohesive sound?
A. I think the trick to this is dependent on how creative and how much you can combine and flip sounds across genres. I also collaborate with producers that specialize more in other genres.
STUDIO RITUALS:
Q. Share a quirky or unique studio ritual or habit that you believe enhances your creative process.
A. I drink water. LOL.
Q. Do you have any superstitions or specific routines you follow before starting a new project?
A. There’s really not one I can pin point at the moment, it’s all spontaneous. However, when anyone tells me to come to a studio and ‘let’s vibe’, I just know there will be nothing to show for it afterwards. I believe as much as we’re trying to have fun and not be restrictive, we still have to be intentional about this craft.
FUTURE SOUNDSCAPES :
Q. What trends or changes do you predict in the future of music production?
A. Expect more and more fusions from producers. Currently I can say there’s being a gradual shift from afro-amapiano fusions to electronic fusions in the Nigerian music scene. Producers like Sarz, London, Arieenati, Ozedikus and many Nigerian underground producers like myself are very experimental. I believe the alte movement will become mainstream and bigger than it currently is, the community is saturated with geniuses. However I can also say we don’t know what to expect in few years to come, because music is like water, it can only be controlled to some extent.
Q. If you could time-travel and produce a track in any era, past or future, when and where would it be?
A. Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen; Made in Lagos by Wizkid; Park O, Sarz and Lojay.
Also 808s and heartbreaks by Kanye West. The first time I listened as a producer, I was blown. I wished I would be part of a culture shifting project of that caliber.
Nigerian 70s musical era, I’ve been listening to Nigerian jazz of recent, the Lijadu sisters, Fela, Okotie, Sunny Ade, I think I’d have done something ‘cooler’ at the time
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