Taylor Thomas is a 16 year-old musical prodigy hailing from right outside of Dallas Texas. His musical roots include him playing percussion in a band for five years. Once that fell through he started producing monster Electro-House and Dubstep tracks on an 8 year-old laptop using FL 7 and some very basic synthesizers. Now he has a full blown studio and uses FL 10, Massive, Sylenth1, and a concoction of FX. His production has already gained support from: Lucky Date, Crizzly, Lazy Rich, Strobe Jelly, PRA2, Solar Shock, Cold Blank, Candyland, Distantt, Quartus Saul, Liberty!, Pixl, Zedd, F12 Music, and many more. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for his new EP being released on Solfege Records soon! P.S. Be sure to LIKE his facebook HERE.
What up dude?! Care are to tell us a bit about yourself?
-Hey man! Sure thing, I'm a 16 year old high school-er from the Dallas TX area that's trying to stand out in the EDM scene.
Could you tell our readers a bit about your musical roots? How and when did you know you wanted to produce electro?
-My musical background is a long one, It started in sixth grade, when I signed up for percussion class / band. This is how I got in love with rythem, I was imemdiatly hooked on
the emotions you can bring up with playing a certain chord progression or rythem and wanted to start making my own stuff. I tried my hand out in FL studio around 7th grade,
but got into serious production at the begining of 2011 around my birthday in January.
You have been pumping some serious originals out lately...Paranormal Activity is one in particular...What's next in store for you?
-I have a sick electro house track coming out soon called "Discovery", pretty much the sound I wanted for Paranormal Activity, but didn't want to incorporate because it would change the feel
of the track. It's going to include some classical bits as well, but it's going to be a bit more chaotic as well as musical and more rhythmically intricate.
Is there any possibility that we could get a sneak preview from one of your upcoming tunes... that isn't on Soundcloud? Or is this strictly confidential and kept in a underground bunker behind 1000 meters of solid concrete?
-Many of my old stuff is under that 1000 meter slab, because it sucks hard. But I can get you a track I started to remix for a friend, but he released it without me :P so now I have to turn it into
an original. It's kind of my old style where one synth plays at a time, but I will work so some nice transitions from synth to synth to bring it up to "Discovery" quality.
Who are some artists that have majorly influenced your work?
-The first and foremost that got me into electronic music is Daft Punk single handily, as I think they have the catchiest hooks and most tantalizing leads. The next big game changer
for me was Wolfgang Gartner. I heard his 5th Symphony on some you tubers mix and looked him up right away, as I love the sound of orchestras and classical music, and his remix got me into thinking that I could still like this classical music, but make people dance. The last thing that lead me to this style of production is Porter Robinson. I caught his songs onlast.fm while driving one day, right before he hit it off in the electro world and with Skrillex, read his bio, and was instantly inspired. I knew if he could produce "Say My Name" In high school, what's from stopping me?
What is one big thing that you hope to do in the near future involving your career?
-I really hope I can start touring or collaborate with some more known artist. I'm fine with making originals for now, because I have barley any free time, but as soon as I get some time, I want to go see how people react to my music at a dance festivals / clubs. Or collaborate with some talented artist, especially Distantt since he's close and around the same
age as me.
You are slowly but steadily sneaking your way into the electro EDM world... With every new song it seems you go higher and higher! Do you have one massive gem hidden in the bag waiting to be unleashed?
For now, I think my "Say My Name" will either be Paranormal Activity or Discovery. If people like the twist I put dubstep / electro in Paranormal Activity, I could get a lot
of attention, but if not, I'm working endlessly on Discovery to try to bring that banging style of electro house that Deadmau5 or Wolfgang Gartner brings.
What programs/tools do you use to produce your music?
My DAW of choice is FL Studio, flat out. Only because I watched maybe 5 tutorials on the basics, then spent 4 years learning the rest by experimentation. I stopped watching
tutorials because I didn't want to learn someone else's style and ended up finding a different way to do the same thing over 3 times, and ultimately, this helped me learn the program faster.
Over all it's an extremely versatile DAW with endless features around every corner. As for my synths, I like to layer up Massives and Sylenth1's for that diversity you need for
your own signature sound. I then add a ton of FX's to them to make them stand out from other artist, oh, and 100% Modern Talking free.
3 tracks you can't stop listening to right now?
-Easy, it changes almost every week, but:
1.Wolfgang Gartner - Shrunken Heads
2.Uppermost - Born Limitless
3.Justice - Audio, Video, Disco
Any secrets you would like to tell your fans?
-First of all, I hold back no secrets, any fans can ask me anything by shooting me an email, but I would like to get this out there, NEVER stop trying to get that sound in your
head. I know It seems impossible at first, and you may not know how to produce it right away, but If you keep at it, that song you've had stuck in your head that you think
will get you noticed will soon come out, but you'll never know if you stop trying.
If you could open for any act who would it be?
-Diffidently Wolfgang Garnter or Porter Robinson. I choose Wolfgang because his production quality is untouchable, and his synths fit and piece together perfectly, but I pick
Porter Robinson because he has achieved so much at a young age and I think the age similarity would be a cool thing to talk about with him.
You have a EP coming out on the 31st of this month! Can you care us a little bit about how that came together?
Haha, well first of all, this whole Paranormal idea hatched with one of me and my friends talking over it at band camp, yes, the classic joke of "I was at band camp and...",
the night after we watched Paranormal Activity 1 and 2 over my studio monitors got me thinking that It would make a sick electro / dubstep banger. And no body's done it, so
why not. A couple months of working on it between school, band, and friends I sent it to Dan Alm, 1/2 of the owners of Liberty and Solfege Records, and he loved it! Ever since
then he's been supporting me, and I can't thank him enough for it. Seriously a great dude, and he's one of the reasons I don't hold any secrets in my music production.
What has been your most memorable party you have played, and why?
Well I would have to say that would be one I played about 3 days before writing this, It was a friends open house costume / birthday party, and I decided to invite Distantt
(Chirs Garcia), one of the dudes that remixed my tracks. I met up with him, he played his remix, I played my own original, and coincidentally, the cops heard the noise and told us
to shut it down right at the end of the original mix of Paranormal Activity. Of course I was playing stuff and another DJ friend of mine spun for an hour, so the party wasn't
a waste. But it was just amazing to meet another producer, and have my own track tip off the cops.
Any big plans for 2012? Tours...New EP's...Etc?
-I don't know of any tour dates planned yet, but trust me, If I can get one, I'll take it. As for new music, expect me to be cranking out well crafted bangers in 2012
like no tomorrow. (I mean c'mon, it's 2012, there may not be a tomorrow :P ) and to kick these hits off, I'm going to try to put together a small album maybe released near February
or March.
Well thanks man for letting everybody know what's up!! Cheers!
-No problem dude! Hit me up whenever, this goes for any fans too ;)
Tunes:
All of his tracks up to Paranormal Activity: http://www.mediafire.com/?ki09q4qd31ledew
Exclusive Teaser: Taylor Thomas - Untitled (Original Mix)
Taylor Thomas - Discovery (Original Mix) - WIP [Final TEASER] by TaylorThomasMusic
Taylor Thomas - Paranormal Activity [TEASER] *Out on Solfege Records: Oct. 31st - Halloween!* by TaylorThomasMusic
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