Zach Taylor is an up and coming artist from Calgary, AB. We have interviewed Zach before and have really enjoyed his content. Zach raps in a unique fashion and continues to keep his audience on their toes. The Calm takes a new direction from Zach’s previous sound and creates a more chill vibe, with warmer tones in it. We look forward to hearing Zach live on July 10th at his album release in Calgary, which Nefarious Supply will be covering.
Q: What is the main goal with this album?
EP! The Calm is an EP, haha. I had several goals for The Calm.
Making our beat production more diverse, as well as thinner, working off less is more.
· With these 4 projects we’re trying to build the Alternative Trap (Alt-Trap) sound right. Coming from strictly producing hip-hop into this alternative world I had to learn what sounds mix with what sounds. How far I can take certain areas. How many different subgenres and elements from those cultures can we involve in a singular record. Coming off a full year of that mindset we’re really break it down and thin out our production. There’s a beauty in making it work together for sure.
2. Summer tunes
· Since I rebranded (Jan. 2017) I’ve always tired to get a summer release following Up to 11 (Sept. 2017). The Backgrounder Tape (Mar. 2017) came out in the early spring but there was nothing that screamed summer about the project itself. Being an executive, marketing value is super important to me.
3. Reaching a different audience
· With how we’ve made music so far, it’s been great. The reaction of the Rock and Trap is awesome. There’s definitely a demographic for it but what's so great about it, is also our biggest down fall. It’s so loud and energetic and up in your face. It’s a very big scale act having Slade (Guitarist) and Ewok (Drummer). Makes it great for us to do big shows like Bliss N Eso and the Release Party for The Calm. We needed to make it digestible for a more timid and initame audience, a side of the indie demographic we’re moving more into.
4. Easter Eggs
· Anyone who knows me or Slade knows we love Marvel. Easter eggs are in literally every project and you can follow the trail from The Backgrounder Tape all the way to The Calm. There’s something really cool within Trust, There’s Always an Alternative & The Calm that may need a little closer examination, it’s not impossible to detect but if you’re just bumping the singles you won’t be able to play this 4 year game we’ve been in for the past 2 years and even earlier releases.
Q: The Calm is a part of a series so when can we expect to see it had a very unique sound to it and is a step in a different from your last project. Why did it take this step?
So each of the 4 audio projects in Project EndGame (4 Avengers Movies, 4 Projects) will be different in sound than the last. The Alt-Trap sound is still yet to be officially defined in my mind right we’re on the hunt out there for it. Trust is The Trap mixed with Rock, Indie, & Jazz. We touch on EDM and Boom Bap but stick very Linkin Park, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Leon Bridges. The Calm is the Trap with a big LA, Miami, Caribbean, pop vibe. The next will be the Trap mixed with genres we’ve picked to work on, mostly ones we’ve never touched on. I can officially announce we’re in album mode! Working on the debut album! I’m really excited to see how it turns out.
Q: This is a big release for this album as you’ve been teasing it slowly, what would you say your favourite track is before we dive into it?
I love each record in a different way and could literally go into depth why but for max replay-ability, if i had to show someone ONLY one song. Late Nite Crew. It’s the simplest beat we made, it was the first record we created for The Calm in Nov/Dec, wrote it thinking about the summer I just came off of. The vibes with my girlfriend. The late night longboards. The Denny's trips. I feel like no matter where you’re at in your relationship even if you’re dealing with each other and growing as anyone will tell you should happen (considering it happens in a healthy degree for both parties involved) you’ll be able to relate to the song if you both skate and smoke.
From here Zach and I break down the songs and individually unwrap them, giving them their own personal backstories.
Q: Switch the Addy is the first song that gives this idea of massive change in your music style. What is the inspiration behind this song?
Production wise I love Hobo Johnson, the choppy inconsistent flow on the most empty beats. His “tiny desk” was amazing. I discovered him off that as many probably did. I knew I had to make something like it. I finished producing and wrote this song in The Den in the middle of January during the -40 dip in the weather and I just wanted to be elsewhere. Daydreaming I was elsewhere.
Q: You put the sound bit of waves in the beginnings and give a very tropical feel to it, what ideas are you trying to convey with this?
The Calm start to finish is actually a sunrise to late night narration of this one Characters day, the adult version of the youngin you see in the artwork, who we will actually come to meet soon. In this story he wakes up and goes back to sleep but when you’re asleep you’re (hopefully) not going to go into a deep sleep you just daydream a bit, and that’s his Daydream. The waves really induce that hypnotic feeling of being on the Santa Monica Pier even if you’ve never been there. I’ve been lucky to have been down multiple times. Not recently but it takes me down there for sure.
Q: The song is very light hearted and reflects ideas we haven’t seen from you before, where did they come from?
We’ve been making some banger music, high intensity. It was time to chill out a bit. I listen to every kind of music and i need to make music I listen to right. Can’t always make heavy trap music. I think it was mostly tapping into a whole other realm of storytelling and wordsmithing, painting a picture. Eminem and Joyner paint very good lyrical pictures, sometimes with very commercial records and that’s the dream. It’s really cool to have been able to grow in both.
Q: Drip forever is a bit of a beckoning back to your older music, with more of a trap feeling. What caused this slight shift?
In every record we make there's always a Trap element for Switch the Addy the element was only the hi hats on top of the Indie Pop. Listening to a lot of Aminé around the time of making this record. My good friend and someone who I consider a Calgary OG The Blue is coming out of his 2-3 year hiatus and he blessed me with a verse, his first verse in years! He killed it, he’s working on new stuff and I can’t wait to see what he decides to do in the future.
Q: Need to know you released earlier this year on Valentine's Day, as a single. What was the motivation for this?
Need to Know was the only record we saved from the creation of Trust (August 2017 - Sept. 2018) that went on The Calm. I started production on it Sept. 2017 and couldn’t relate at all. Wrote the first verse completely and left it for at least 4 months without a second thought. Even though the beat was so infectious and the hook was so catchy, I wasn’t dating, I wasn’t seeing anyone, I didn’t even have a crush on a girl for that matter. I’m being assessed for High-functioning autism, and that certain disconnect in my head makes it really hard for me to listen to and especially create music I don’t relate to. It does happen, but it's rare. Long story short, February/March this girl who I had extreme history with just walked right back into my life after dipping 100% out of it for 13-14 months. Her friend brings her to a show I was headlining at (S/O Jess) and she’s been by my side since. I finished writing the second verse and the bridge in a matter of minutes like 6 weeks after. I don’t jump into relationships and I had that “I never said it but I love you” at the end of the second and the bridge asks her out, so I wanted to make sure I was actually gonna ask her out, I saved it cause we have to naturally vault records and we were producing so many records I could fill her need for new music. May 19th, i'm like 3 days away from perfection the record and she deadass tries to tell me she loves me. So I had to shush her before she could and play her the song with half the chant vocals that are in it now. Makes for a great story.
Q: As a tribute to your relationship and girlfriend, what lines would you say stand out in the song that are direct tributes.
100% the whole thing. Every line, inside jokes, movies we like. Need to Know is her tribute.
FUN FACT & proof that I'm the king of easter eggs! Peep game!
First verse, completely written Nov/Dec. We linked back up in Feb/Mar.
Her name is Yoshelle. We call her Yoshi for short.
I say “Yo She” at least 3 times in the first verse but the craziest part is the way that they sound like “Even when we cut the lights yo she (yoshi) still shine. UNBELIEVABLE BRUV!
Q: We Aint Going Home Tonight has a very interesting vibe to it, almost like a club on a tropical vacation. What was the motivation for that?
Collaboration is a very big thing for me, with doing what we’re doing too right. I got A LOT of loops I’ll sif through, I got some great plug sites and producers that I get prime, not 100% exclusive, but very rare loops. I’ve seen it happen twice in my career where I've heard someone have a loop I've used, 1 song wasn’t my song, just one I produced. The records aren’t identical right they both have the loop. The xylophone you hear is one of the loops I found, I never went on a vacation or even been out of the Province in a long time! (a Province is like a State in Canada for all the American readers). I found it 20 minutes before a booked session with Maddie. I made the whole beat drinking my breakfast smoothie waiting for her to get to The Den. I played her the beat and she instantly started singing “Sun is going down” and I was shook. We recording it all there and that alone just carried the whole turn over. It was great!
Q: Obviously this song is about a party and is set in a warmer place than Calgary, so where do you envision this song taking place?
Miami hands down! Never been, but i’ve been to Fort Lauderdale on several occasions. Would love to go tho!
Q: Slide Thru is a very vintage sounding song, with the distorted guitar and a live crowd doing artist call backs. Why did you go with this idea?
Environment and/or narration is so important when you’re creating concept projects or albums. The Calm is day to night story but there’s no actually narration to it. We had to bring in the feel with the environment. You'll notice we do it with every record. The live 80’s guitar & bass has a nice evening feel to it after the whole pick up of Drip, Need to Know, & We Ain't Goin Home. Switch the Addy with the Beach/People FX. This drops a tranquilizer in the rhythm and melody but leaves the life in the drums. It leaves you your night music, it creates that image with that environment but you still have the energy to keep partying through the night and you'll feel the same texture in Late Nite Crew. The vocal chats are always done speratley, some time months apart but really cool to do. We use them as the characters "peanut gallery" a mostly biased, hopeless romantic, extra opinion. The mini cartoon characters in musicals for meant encouragement haha.
Q: When doing the group recordings for the callback, who did you end up getting for it?
It's all people who are in circle or artists and friends that'll come to the studio.
Fun Fact 2: The other 5 Underdogs (Aypayne, Selly Cisco, Niyi, Vars, & Yung Cazzy) were on Need to Know as well as a homie of ours Colin Martin. They all were involved in asking a girl out in a way.
Slide Thru only has a 2 of the Dogs and a lot more (artist) friends. Everyone's name is on the tracklist credits! You can see everyone there!
Q: The song has a bit of a different vibe in terms of lyrics than Need to Know, where it seems to be like a call out to get a girl into you. Was this the intention with it?
The 2 songs for sure sound like they’re different. Personally I would still say these lyrics to my girl. I see how people will interpret it that way, that’s the plan, but it’s a (phone) call to link up, nothing more. You could easily call your girlfriend and play it smooth like that you feel.
Q: How would you describe the style of this song?
80’s Pop Alt-Trap
Q: Finally there is Late Nite Crew. This whole EP has been a roller coaster of different styles and makes it a very interesting listen, and Late Nite Crew doesn’t disappoint. The song beckons to a darker, even sexier tone to it. What is your intended feeling with it?
It’s the closure, the end of the day. The end of The Calm. The 1am, 2am banger you listen to skating lit as fuck downtown (Calgary) booling with your girl or a girl your becoming to know. Like I said at the beginning, you can listen to it at any point in your relationship and bond over skating, smoking, & conversation under moonlight.
Q: There is lots about escape, being apart from everybody and just enjoying life with one person, is this the right idea with it? What would you be escaping from?
100%, escape is a huge thing for the record. Me personally, I’m trying to escape from my head, sometimes my immediate family, escaping from all the expectations of life. You’re supposed to do this, you’re supposed to do that, you’re supposed to feel like this, and it’s these 2 kids (falling) in love thinking to themselves “well like what if I don’t want to.” That was one of the foundations of my relationship, honest rebellion from outside expectation. Being taught and brought up one way your whole life and just having felt so outside of everything cause the norm didn’t end up working.
Q: To end this off, would you like to say anything about the EP, the event that you are doing, and also your future projects?
S/O my team and the other teams/communities that helped us sell out Junction (Calgary, Canada) in under 3 weeks! Catch ya July 10th! Put The Calm on repeat and dig, dig, dig into the projects and look for those easter eggs. There’s something crazy coming and I can’t wait for the story to continue and hopefully we’ll be able to tell the full story visually very soon!
The Calm is out on all platforms to listen to, please give it a listen!