INTERVIEW: Ta-Ku

With an intimidating body of work amassing, spearheaded by the current Bandcamp charting release Re-Twerk, Perth’s Ta-ku is showing no signs of slowing down with co-signs from Gas Lamp Killer, Salva, Baauer, Shigeto, Flosstradamus, Nina Las Vegas, JJJ Next Crop, Nosaj Thing to name a few.

The Red Bull Music Academy alumni quickly captured the world’s attention and with the amount of releases he has clocked up for labels like Brownswood, HW&W, Project Mooncircle, as well as collaborations with Chet Faker and remixes for Hermitude and Snakadaktal, Ta-ku looks set to continue with a crackling schedule set for 2013 already locked in.

From an early output of dusty beat samples, this disciple of The Ummah can cut and chop Hip-Hop beats in his sleep, yet it is his current material which shows a dancefloor edge not yet heard from the producer but already clocking up runs on the board like the inclusion of many tracks from Re-Twerk on man of the moment Baauer’s (Lucky Me/Mad Decent) new mix for RINSE FM.

When you were growing up, what age did u stop having a bed time?

I didn't really have one; maybe 9 or 10. My parents didn't really care about sleep.

Are you enjoying watching music evolve or do you think the quality is lacking?

That happens with all music though. People say dubstep came and went but it's still around; it just peaked at its popularity. There is still dudes who make it, play it and love it. It's the same with trap. EDM people get too concerned with whats popular. Just enjoy it. You know, no matter how long it's gonna last for if it's dope it's dope and if you like it you'll look for new stuff even if people are over it. It doesn't matter and just right now people like trap. People get put off when a genre gets popular but I love the way music is going now because it's what i love.

Do you see your music as a musical evolution, or are you happy to stick within the boundarys of hiphop?

Yeah man, I feel my music evolved heaps over the last couple of years. I use to strictly make hip-hop and boom bat stuff, but now I'm into that future beats garage new wave stuff, but as an artist you gotta keep evolving; not to keep up and or take from another artist, but it's like any job - you work in the same place, you get bored, so doing multi-genres is good. As an artist you need to experiment. Like, for example, right now I'm listening to a lot of house and it's dope dudes like Disclosure. Someone like me who hasn't got a big knowledge in house will listen to Disclosure and work my way down to the underground from the popular stuff, and I aint gonna front but I am the biggest dilla fan in my eyes, but i didn't know dill till doughnuts and i worked my way back. Like, people can say you weren't there from the beginning but sometimes you cant be there from the beginning, you just gotta do your research.

Thoughts on Australia's Boiler Room situation?

I think it was such a good look for everyone because they put on so many people, and the perth one was really cool. They put on two shows which was a surprise and they put on like a million in Melbourne (laughs), but yeah it's good man. Australia's got talent and Australias got a lot dudes into beats and so many good producers. It's so good for the beat scene, it's good for Boiler Room and i was stoked to play as well.

Favourite biscuit?

Ginger nut; let it sit in the milk.

How many releases can we expect to see this year, as we all know you pump out more music than most?

Trying to trim it down to ten, only cause this year is getting quite big for myself and getting a few offers to do a proper release for radio and stuff. I say that now but i get itchy and i wanna produce a lot.

How do you have so much time to do so? Or are we just getting a catalogue of things you have done for years that you can finally showcase with your success?

Well it's a bit of both man. I always work on something but I don't spend hours in the lab each day. I try dedicate an hour of music a day. I gotta juggle a family and a full-time job, but you'd be surprised how much you do in an hour each day. It builds up. The 'Make It Last' EP i just released is 7 months old and the 25 nights project is from my day sessions and hour sessions.

What did u eat for breakfast?

Nothing (laughs)

What hardware if any are you using?

I only got a Microkorg. I barely use it. I still use fruity loops etc. I got a very primitive setup. I don't think I'll ever switch to Ableton. I'm really confident and fast with Fruity Loops and comfortable. With Fruity Loops it's easy to hear when people use it, but of course all the sounds I use I tweak myself. It doesn't matter what daw you use really, it's all to do with how u know your way around.

Any up coming collabs you can shed light on?

Yeah so i got an EP coming out with Chet Faker and planning to release soon. I'm working on my debut LP to release this year with some names who aren't confirmed, but once we do it'll be pretty exciting. But at the moment I got a lot of new remixes; got the Flume 'Left Alone' remix dropping this month, remixes for Movement, Ginger, Ghot and an american band.

With the success of someone like Flume, do you feel we could have an influx of producers go to hip-hop, melodic, trappy stuff, and kill it by just repeating the same shit in songs? Or do u feel it'll bring out great productions from the woodworks and hold its own uniqueness? I feel with trap, even though theres some good stuff, there's loads of shit generic trappy edits of pop crap.

I think this time will be a lot of good stuff. With trap, it's set at 140bpm pattern because there is so much u can do because the 145bpm your tracking is so fast you can add so many things. I just found these sydney dudes, Cosmo Midnight, and they are on this like future garage trappy sound and made it their own too, and dudes like me and Hermitude. We love trap but we try make it our own, and a dude like Flume is so good for the way he has done it.

Yeah, Flumes trap is really pop friendly. People don't realise it; it's the beat patterning and the vocal hooks catchy melodies that make it genius.

Yeah thats the thing; it's the beats scene he helps. If that came out 3 years ago people might not of taken it in so well, but the fact Flume made it so digestible and really catchy and then put the wool over everyones eyes and said I'm an instrumentalist and beat maker. I listen to other beatmakers and it's great for others now we don't need vocalist or mcs to be be on the radio.

Being a big hip hop fan myself, I'm young but I have a good knowledge of where it came from. Who were some artists other than the obvious that have really inspired you that people may not realise you were into?

Even now when i listen to hippo I listen to the same hippo. I'll always re-visit 1 d lo, Sonogram, a Detroit rapper. He isn't very well known but something about that album I really love. Of course all the tribe stuff. I love NAS too. It's funny, like when I first started, it was always NAS; every single NAS album. My favourite NAS album is The Message. He is probably one of my favourite mcs. He can be boring but his older stuff is incredible. His latest album just lacked on beat quality, but of course I'm inspired by like the Pharcyde and the golden era of 94-95 and even 98.

Catch TA-KU performing live at CANT SAY alongside NINA LAS VEGAS on Friday March 8. MORE INFO HERE

Words by Jack Cain

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