On this episode of Mind Massage, Ta-ku takes us on a sound journey using some of his favorite items such as a Walkman, camera and Korean Snacks.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 (blows)
00:02 (taps)
00:06 What's up?
00:10 My name is Taku, and this is my mind massage.
00:14 I'm about to take you on a sound journey
00:22 using some of my favorite things.
00:25 (tapping)
00:55 So for Gen Z that are watching,
00:59 this is a, it's called a Discman,
01:01 and this is what was the gateway to my discovery to music
01:07 and borrowing as many CDs from friends as I could
01:14 and never giving them back,
01:15 and then destroying the CDs,
01:19 and then giving them back.
01:23 I'm from a small town called Perth, Australia,
01:27 on the West Coast of Australia.
01:31 I'm from a place that's like extremely isolated.
01:34 People don't wanna visit there.
01:39 No, they do.
01:41 It's beautiful.
01:42 But I always felt very separated
01:46 from the rest of the world,
01:47 and being from Perth helped me kind of find my voice
01:53 and share my music with the world.
01:56 For people that have never heard before,
01:59 would be extremely emotional, nostalgic music.
02:06 For people that aren't afraid to cry.
02:10 I first started making music when I was 22.
02:21 I had a full-time job selling health insurance,
02:23 and I had to do something that wouldn't make me go crazy.
02:29 So that's when I started making beats
02:32 during my lunch break.
02:33 And that's where I fell in love with making beats
02:39 and becoming a producer.
02:41 (tapping)
02:45 (crunching)
02:47 (tapping)
02:49 I'm gonna text my wife.
03:10 The reason why I love texting off silent
03:15 is it's kind of obnoxious,
03:20 but also it makes me feel important.
03:24 The faster you type,
03:28 the more business you're doing.
03:32 I love you.
03:32 (laughing)
03:38 Sorry.
03:39 (texting)
03:42 And that's another good hack
03:44 that you need someone in your life
03:46 to tell you that you ain't nothing.
03:47 And to bring you back down to earth.
03:50 When I first started producing,
03:53 I used Fruity Loops,
03:57 which is like a really basic software,
04:02 but a lot of really cool people use it.
04:05 And it was easy enough for me to understand
04:09 and to like navigate,
04:11 because I'm a little bit stupid myself.
04:13 And that's what I use today.
04:19 If I could collaborate with any artist.
04:22 I've always had an obsession with Nas.
04:33 I fell in love with Nas when I was in high school.
04:36 Like his Illmatic record.
04:38 And like, I heard it when I was 15,
04:43 but it made me feel some sort of way.
04:47 And he's always been like my number one rapper,
04:51 like lyricist, emcee.
04:53 So it'd definitely be Nas.
04:56 If I could bring any artist
05:02 to any album
05:03 to a desert island,
05:09 it would definitely be,
05:13 I spelled that wrong.
05:14 Definitely be
05:17 a Dwellae subject.
05:31 Zend.
05:32 Because that album,
05:35 Dwellae, I'm the biggest fan of Dwellae.
05:40 His music is so incredible.
05:42 And I can listen to that album back to front
05:45 on day 10 and never get sick of it.
05:47 I love you Dwellae.
05:57 This is my beloved Leica M6 camera.
06:02 My first one got
06:06 stolen when I was in San Francisco.
06:14 But let's not talk about that.
06:17 Left it in the front seat of my car
06:20 'cause I'm a ignorant Australian.
06:22 And it disappeared, so I had to buy another one.
06:27 But the reason why I love this camera so much
06:30 is because Kendall Jenner, no I'm just kidding,
06:33 is because it is a German workhorse of a camera.
06:38 It's super tough and takes amazing photos.
06:42 Even if you're a bad photographer.
06:46 So I'm doing this for the love
06:48 because there's already film in here that's been exposed.
06:51 But I wanna show you guys how to unload it.
06:54 So I'm gonna expose the film for you 'cause it's not,
06:59 it's all very dainty.
07:03 And I think that's why I like it.
07:06 Sometimes as a man, it's important to just dainty it up
07:10 a little bit to be gentle and not be so,
07:23 you can only be so dainty though.
07:25 So "Songs to Come Home To" is my debut album.
07:30 And it's weird saying debut album
07:32 because I released some EPs a couple of years ago
07:37 and they all had like eight to 10 songs on them.
07:40 But nowadays, those are albums.
07:43 But in my day, those are EPs.
07:47 This has 20 tracks on it that I've written
07:51 over the last five to seven years.
07:53 And while I struggled to get this film out,
07:56 it was a ode to my childhood.
08:00 And an ode to what home is to me.
08:08 And for those watching, home could mean anything.
08:11 I mean, home could mean a hug from your mom.
08:16 Home could mean photos you took
08:20 when you moved into a new city.
08:22 Home could be your father's favorite meal
08:28 that he used to cook you every Saturday.
08:31 So this album was like an ode to everything
08:33 that home means to me.
08:36 And home to me is everyone that has supported me
08:42 and made me the person who I am today.
08:44 And I hope when you listen to that album,
08:49 you feel that because it's extremely important to me.
08:52 My favorite memory would be,
08:58 I'm just loading the film now.
09:03 This is like the best sound in the world.
09:07 My favorite memory from the album
09:16 were definitely meeting Questlove through Jazzy Jeff,
09:21 because those two are my idols, like for real.
09:28 And they were so kind to me.
09:30 And they were like, "If you ever need anything,
09:37 let us know."
09:38 And I was like, I literally said,
09:40 "Okay, like one second after, will you be on the album?"
09:43 (laughs)
09:45 And Questlove is so generous that he said yes
09:49 and invited me to his backstage studio in,
09:53 in New York and showed me all these unreleased beats
10:03 that he made.
10:04 And like all these unreleased beats that J Dillon made.
10:09 And I was just in awe to be in the same room with my hero.
10:14 And later on, I had a track
10:20 that I wanted him to lay drums on.
10:22 And he did it in like 10 minutes and sent it back
10:26 like he was my best mate.
10:29 How cool is that?
10:33 And ever since then, I've been telling everyone
10:35 that he's my best friend.
10:38 But I just love the generosity of people like that
10:41 who have accomplished so much
10:43 and still give so much to people.
10:46 That wasn't as discreet as I thought it was gonna be.
10:54 But these snacks, like I'm half Maldi, half Filipino.
11:00 And I hate to feed the stereotype that all we do is eat.
11:06 But these snacks are Korean
11:08 and my wife introduced me to these.
11:11 I don't know what they're called,
11:13 but they're like styrofoam that tastes like maple syrup.
11:17 So don't judge me.
11:20 (plastic crinkling)
11:23 Some people like open snacks all the way to the side
11:46 so it becomes like a serving bowl.
11:48 So I'm gonna do that now.
11:50 And then now it's like a, like a thing,
11:59 like a peace offering, you know?
12:01 It's like.
12:17 The music video "Smile" was based off my childhood
12:22 and like the childhood for like most people like me
12:27 who look like me,
12:28 who maybe had to become the man of the house
12:33 or become older a little bit quicker.
12:39 And sometimes when you're young
12:44 and you have like a lot of responsibility
12:47 for your family,
12:48 you feel like you can't have fun anymore.
12:51 Unlike what we're doing today, we're having a lot of fun.
12:56 But that's what's the inspiration behind "Smile"
12:58 is like, even though you may be young
13:01 and you may have to like do a lot
13:05 for your family and friends,
13:07 remember that you're still a kid
13:09 and you're still someone who is allowed to be a kid
13:13 and express themselves as a kid.
13:17 Because it's important.
13:18 My best piece of self-love advice
13:23 would be to go easy on yourself
13:32 and remind yourself that
13:36 if you are going through something
13:38 really tough,
13:44 that you probably have a really good reason to be upset
13:48 and give yourself a big hug.
13:51 And remember that your story matters.
13:59 And if you're creative,
14:02 that it's important that you tell your story
14:06 because I guarantee that there's a kid out there
14:10 or someone else that doesn't know how to express themselves.
14:15 They can learn from your story
14:17 and can not feel alone
14:22 because life is tough.
14:26 So just remember that
14:27 where you are now, you've done really amazingly to get there.
14:32 And like people are proud of you.
14:37 So you should be proud of yourself too.
14:39 I want to say thank you so much
14:42 for coming to my mind massage.
14:44 Please check out my album,
14:47 Songs to Come Home To if you haven't
14:49 or not, it's okay if you don't.
14:52 But I'd appreciate it if you did.
14:54 Thank you.
14:56 - Beautiful.
14:59 - Okay.
15:00 You can cut.
15:01 (laughing)
15:04 (crunching)