 Hey friends, I'm here today with Taylor Mallory from Chicago He is a singer a producer a loop artist as well as an actor and a teacher As well as some other things which I'm sure we'll get into how's it going Taylor? I am doing well How are you doing today, man? Good great? I'm so excited to be talking to you today I kind of I stumbled on to your work because I was managing TZ Helikon's Instagram a little bit a few months ago and I was just blown away by how clean your loops are how well you use the voice I've touched you so I'm super excited to to hear more about your process and Who you are and and what you do? Thank you, man So let's just dive into Your background. What's how did you get started with music and also just the arts like acting and dance and all that? Yeah, so man, dude, I started performing when I was five years old I'm from the church. My mom is a evangelist. My dad is a deacon. So I kind of got my humble beginnings in the church Just actually how I learned how to sing Nice, and so I started out in this group called boys believers of Yahweh sing and believers of I'm sorry Yahweh is another word for God and we were like the the gospel version of like Jackson 5 and We were you know, we had a lot of performances like in the local area, but we performed in California, Detroit Are like major church convention. So like that's where I really got my my start was in the church I guess to to like, you know fast forward When I was 13 at the at this time CD burners weren't even like they didn't even exist Yeah, so my father had this idea of starting like this little small mowing company So just me my father and I was mowing lawns for like $20. Well, just now when I think about it's like man $20 Now with $20 you can't get too much. But anyway, yeah, I mowed enough lawns to buy a CD burner Then I started to produce my own music My mother bought me a Cassio keyboard a doctor rhythm boss track four mixer And that's when I started making music and production And essentially just to fast forward I turned 18 Got accepted to Columbia College. I'm from a small town from a small town called Decatur, Illinois When I turned 18, I got accepted to Columbia College went there for four years my freshman year I got an internship at a music production company who specialized in jingles by the name of new paper productions and was there for 13 14 years and I'm still affiliated with them as well, but um Yeah, man, um, I feel like I'm talking too much or maybe I'm not answering the question. No, no, this is a journey My start though. Yeah. Wow. So you've been doing music for this over 20 years. Yeah, I've been I Over I'm trying to think I'm not gonna say my age, but um, yeah, I would say definitely 20 years plus I have been performing and making music. Wow It's been a beautiful ride and a beautiful journey, man Hmm. And what I think it's safe to say like you primarily do R&B right now, right? Yeah That's like my my main genre I like to consider it alternative R&B and the reason why you're a concert of our R&B because I believe with the You know the TC helicopter voice live touch, too It kind of gives it an unconventional approach when you add the looping into like a R&B performance It's kind of like you get this inside of like how music is being created So anytime like any any genre that's like progressive or like, you know, bending some of the boundaries I always believe it's alternative. So I Technically I technically consider myself alternative R&B artists, but I do all of the genres as well But that's my thing. Yeah. Yeah, and what got you started with the looping specifically Is that something you did back when you had the CD burner? That's a great question, man. So it's funny, man I always felt like I was looping ever since I was a kid because I would have all these different ideas in my head And I would like make it in my head and at that time, you know, I knew music theory as a kid But I didn't really know how to like work around the keyboard that well And so Yeah, I mean what got me into looping was really Reggie Watts I saw this Netflix documentary or his like stand-up show and I was like, this is amazing Like this is not only amazing, but it's a show. It's creative. It's on the spot is challenging It's you know, it's unique. It's unconventional. It's progressive And I was like, you know what? I want to add this into R&B because I believe that Um when when people think about R&B just generally it's like this like baby making music Now when you say soul music people think of like Stevie Wonder and like You know Hathaway and like all these great soulful artists but Nine times out of ten when someone says R&B, they don't necessarily think like they might think of usher And if you think you think of like a sex symbol And even though like, you know, I don't mind, you know Being that artist as well. I the the creativity the creativity part is a huge part of me And so with with R&B. I wanted to make more creative R&B and that's why I purchased the voice life touch too so I can extend my creative ideas because I feel like I was pretty limited with How I was working around and this allows me to get my ideas out more fluidly and more creatively. So, yeah Awesome. And how do you use The voice I've touched you to do that. Are you because I know you use logic, right? Yeah, I got it So are you looping in logic or with the touch too or like a mix of both? What's the process there? Right. So, um, I use for for for for the looping live. I use main stage actually Oh, nice. Yeah, really main stage is just a way for me to trigger my sounds because For the longest time doing I have actually videos on on youtube people probably won't notice as much But they're like when I first started looping I was like doing it live in the logic session But there's always like this small like latency when you go to the next track because I was literally just hitting the um Like the down arrow type of thing To go to the next instrument and I remember when I was looping live, I would have to um, I would have to tap my um My keyboard first, but so I can to to wake up the sound to even to even execute the sound So I was like, oh I've got to move around this and so my mentor at the time is like dude. Have you heard of main stage? You should just use main stages. That's what it's for. It's for like, you know live performances I learned main stage learn how to uh operate that and um, yeah, so I um when I do loop I use main stage with voice life touch too and then I have my um audio MIDI controller and I'm I'm I'm a big standalone synth guy. I do plans like buy more analog like, um, I'm sorry But buy more buy more standalone Yeah, but right now I just use all this the software synths Um, yeah standalone so yeah, and you can get a lot done with With main stages built-in stuff. It's pretty flexible amazing man. Yeah What type of stuff are you doing on the voice live touch too? um on the voice live touch to the main thing that I'm uh exploring is Really like the vocal design um harmony like for an example the Always use that I like to um sometimes I when I I had this song called uh, just like you told me that's on a spotify and I like make this like, um Guitar selling So that's the other way that I use it, um Um, I definitely use like the the the tuning but something but but sometimes with the tuning I feel like it limits me when I'm singing because it's so much tuning that I can't actually hear myself Yeah, so lately I've been kind of like taking the the tuning off and just like working on making sure I'm more pitch correct Pitch accurate I like I might I might tune it to like 50% but not 100 anymore because it kind of just throws me off And then also I use the the looping aspects of it which took me about two to three years to like really get a um A hold of but uh, yeah, dude. So I use it as a vocal designer I use it as a a looping device I also use it man to record my voiceovers as an actor. So I Yeah, I just had a script yesterday um For a company and I love my voice live touch too because that's what I use it for so yeah It's I use it for a lot of different um Reasons and for uh different uses. So And does it act as like your interface too and you're like outputting the main stage sounds? Uh, yes, um, it does it does. Yep. It acts as my my output device as well So that's sweet and then but however though like when I when I do loop I'm looping from in the The aux the aux channel because I'm I'm pulling from those those synths that are in my my main stage which We're kind of like in my logic. That's awesome. And for those for those watching like you've got to check out Taylor's looping stuff. I was watching the other day your so far sounds performance from a few years back We did uh for sale by Kendrick Lamar And I think you're using the logic there probably Because that's like an older one, but it was still like it was tight. It was great the way Like you you have a really great performing presence and that comes out a lot in your uh your instagram content do you think do you think your performance is influenced by the other Areas where you express yourself artistically like acting and That's a great question. You are absolutely right and um just to make a statement here. I don't consider Myself and I don't I would recommend any artists to never consider themselves a one-dimensional artist and that is for the reason Why is because I just believe that um, you know As a a performing artist if you can perform musically There's other talents that you might have too and that's why I access that into my acting and acting is is more like Secondary it's not my primary Like focus of like occupation of like what I want to do for the rest of my life But it is a huge part of me because I've been acting since I was like 16 Um, and I I have noticed that you know because of the live performances that I've done as like as a kid Or even when I loop now it all just they're not like mutually exclusive. They all work together Yeah, that's a great question because I am a live performer It definitely translated into all the other creative aspects too like even the cooking, you know, it's just Man, I love that and you That's very well articulated. I imagine because you you share that Type of thing because you're a teacher, right? Like you mentor people who are growing in their art Yeah, man, um, I actually for the first like this year was my first time teaching full time I've I've done like workshops. I've done like, you know, three or four months or six months commitments But this is my first time being a full-fledged Educator so currently right now I am a high school Teacher at the shy arts the chicago high school of arts in chicago It's actually the first public art school in chicago and I teach a music business philosophy and ethics class They are called professional development for a vocalist And essentially like, you know, I'm teaching them how to publish their music I'm teaching them about the essentials of being an artist like why like why do you sing like why are you an artist and Teach them about marketing about, you know, demographics how to put yourself out there Currently right now with you know, with the pandemic that's going on. I'm teaching, um Financials contracts and social media. I'm kind of like putting all that into one ball So I really love educating in the the the the great thing about that school is that like I feel like I mean like My arts college again because every student there is super artsy and that's how we were at columbia I mean just super artsy kids being progressive and just like, you know, just trying to like, you know Go for the Go for the most unique sound and the most unique, you know art that we could, you know Create in pain. So um, and then also I'm a director and teacher at um school of rock And um currently right now I have a 25. I'm sorry 24 student rock ensemble that I direct and then I teach Private vocal lessons. So that's what I do throughout the week and then on the weekends. Um I'm a gigging artist as well. So I do a lot of like corporate casino wedding gigs too. So wow Big music education and acting is like all full-time. Yeah, it's pretty Go go go. Is it nice? Is it is it almost like a rest not having as much Stuff going on the last little while or is that a strain? Man, do you are like, are you in here, man? Hold on. Let me turn on the on the reverb. I Or like, yeah, do I feel like you're in my space? So, you know, I was just talking to my friends um about that, you know, I For the longest for maybe for the past eight months have just been going on like Just going it's been on go like stairs and I um, even though I it's unfortunate of what's going on I do think that this is a time for everyone just to you know recalibrate. Um Get back to self-care and really getting to the root of why we're doing things and So, yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up because I needed this rest And uh, I'm glad that I'm taking it at the same time. I'm not sitting down just not doing anything. Yeah But it is a great opportunity just to um fine tune anything that you have going on in your life right now so I'm very fortunate for the I'm very fortunate to still be able to make money as educator and I'm fortunate currently right now just to get the This space to rest. So, yeah Yeah, it's so And that's the thing with being like a musician or any type of artist is it's just like when it rains it pours and sometimes it'll just Go for months or years and there's no end in sight. So, right? Yeah, uh, I'm glad you're glad you're getting that rest um so uh You've got a bunch of music out. Um on spotify. You've just been releasing some new music on your instagram and uh is there stuff on uh Bandcamp or Is it just the spotify releases? I never I never got into the the The bed, you know, I think I post no, I was into reverb nation years ago But I think I'm going to start putting my music on bandcamp And I really appreciate bandcamp for what they did a couple weeks ago about you know, giving 100% of the revenue to the artist I mean, that's just the way to pay back to what's going on right now But I think that I am going to start utilizing bandcamp because one thing what I like about bandcamp Is that you know, you can sell your music and it's like this I don't know. It's just like a different community there You know, it's like if you don't want to put your stuff out on spotify or those other channels This is just another way for you to monetize your creativity. Um as a as a recording artist So I have not put it on bandcamp, but I do have music on soundcloud and all the other major streaming platforms, so I'm currently right now on streaming platforms. I have Uh my last album which is called take control which is that is essentially like a straight ahead rmb album Um and then prior to that I had an album called tailor made which is on soundcloud and then I have like singles Um as well currently right now what I've been doing I've been doing this like song challenge a 52 week song challenge and I just started this today. Um where you know, I allow my fans or you know supporters to Rate the song and what I'm going to start doing now is that like it's not I used to do like this gliding scale Where it's like well if it's hot is it is it right here right here? And now I'm just doing is it hot or is it not because it's like I learned I learned I learned from my mentor and uh You know that you know if if someone is on the fence of your song. That's not a good thing It's just like it's it's them to like either not like it or like it And so my my goal is to like get at least a 90% rate And if if I get a 90% rate, then I'll release it so the supporters can Um can download it. So yeah, that's sweet and you've so you're gonna have 52 finished songs when you're through this 52 finished songs now a lot of these songs are like one minute Um, but um, but this is like another thing that I'm I'm kind of like I didn't start this is actually an artist by the name of tier whack. Do you know who that is? No He's awesome. You should check like after we get done this interview you should go to a youtube and just type in tier whack Whack world and it's a 17 minute clip of her. Uh, she pretty much did 17 one minute videos And she put the one minute songs on spot of five So that so the whole album is only 17 minutes But it's cool because she paired it with this youtube video And so each she has a video for each song, but it's a minute And so that made me think like okay Well, we live in this world now where it's like the attention span is so small I could write this full song four or five minute song and put it out every single week But who's really Going to sit there and go through a four or five minute song when you have like ads coming your way You have your friends, you know wedding pigs. So do you have like these party pigs? You got the corona? You know, yeah, so the the idea is to Still create a song and it still is a song because there's a verse. There's a chorus and there's another chorus Um, but the for for me to to fill out the song It's like if there's like a demand and like some of the songs that I put out had been like a demand Like old me that's on spotify right now. It's one Um, it's one of my uh song challenge songs and so people were like do put it out So that's just what i'm going to be doing. It's like, you know, just to manage my time and just manage Expectations if I see a demand and I put it out. So Yeah, and what's the I've I've been loving old me, but it sounds very like Produced compared to the looping stuff. So i'm curious. What's your process for taking a song from the written idea phase to the Ready to release Great question, man. That's funny, man. Yeah, you did do you're great at this Yeah, so Yeah, great question with with old me and I I just want to make a point here With all the music that I've been putting out do I don't have this big studio like, um, currently right now I'm I'm kind of like taking a break Um, just from you know from things and I'm just just staying at at at home outside of the pandemic And just you know self-producing the dude what you see right now is all I use This is this is all I use is this in sense. And so with old me I think that what made it sound more producers because I actually have musicians and so Okay, you know, um, of course I created all the um the melodies and the um You know the beef of the song, but you know, I had a Artist like bud way fares who's a great bassist who's played on at least six or seven of my song channel songs um I've had a a drummer by the name of Jeff Maley who's actually in my band My gigging band and buoys in my gigging band too. And then when I met by way, he introduced me to his friends Matt Engelson and then Dylan Musso and so he was he played trombone Dylan did and then Matt he played the trumpet and he also helped me to Mix and I do some like pre-mastering and mastering and then I had another guy who I work with at school rock finish out the mastering by the name of a Rafé braffer, so But as far as just answer your question about producing and I want to make a note here I mean that is what a producer does. It's not so much. It's not just making the beat It's like curating it, you know coming up with the different sounds like, you know, maybe mixing it maybe You know tuning the drums like I like to tune my drums to the key of the song and stuff like that and so um Yeah, this is a like this song challenge is more than just for like vanity purposes It's just another educational way for me to just Up my game as a producer and as a writer and it's just the overall artist. So but yeah, great question, man I um With old me the reason why it's produced was because I think it's just a mesh of You know the knowledge that I have of mixing the knowledge I have of like, you know Musicianship and just like honestly the camaraderie with the musicians do it's all about a vibe It and if the vibe is not there you won't get the magic and I'm learning that so And on that on that track, did you get in a room with them and like work it out? Or did you send them this stuff and they sent you back parts? How did that look? Yeah, dude, that's another thing about the this life that we live now and this new technology world We all did everything in the comfort of our home. It's like the videos and I I I've been getting a lot of um Uh, you know messages to ballet man, dude, are you really recording that live? Do every single like song challenge you've seen is recorded live It doesn't look like it is because it's so like produced in a sense, but it's it's recorded live. So yeah, dude I I did all that in the comfort of my homes. The musicians did it in the comfort of homes And then we just all put it together. So we were not we weren't in any big studio. We weren't like You know No, we just did it at the comfort of our homes now I I do want to say that like I'm not trying to dismiss any like major studio because there's definitely a lot of pluses and benefits to having um A great studio, but I think the point that I'm trying to make is it's more about the creativity the knowledge Of a musicianship and just how How well can you work around and be creative? And I think that that's what producing and that's how you get great records. It's not necessarily a studio It's really about what's in here. So totally and that's such a trap that especially young musicians fall into where they're like I need to have the gear. I need to have like the best stuff if I want to make something that's good. We're really like You need a laptop. You could even do stuff with your phone, right? Like there's it's all about your creativity Guys the limit man. Yeah, and and that um is a good segue to like I know you're an educator and you've probably got like so many like wisdom bombs of of insight. So like what's a What are some big pieces of advice you'd give to people who are starting out into music? And maybe even more specifically who want to do the type of music you do where they're looping and Like they have their own unique style. What advice would you give to young artists? Yeah, another great question. Um, yeah, the the first thing that I would uh recommend For artists who are starting out who um eight is want to get to music It's just to learn basic music theory Like what has really helped me and honestly how to really utilize the voice life touch too to the to the best way Is to you have to have some idea of theory because a lot of people hit like the harmony and they just do the auto And it doesn't sound good. And if you if you know theory, you know, whatever song is in the key And you can go to the voice life touch too and put in the key of the song And what I love about the voice life touch too you can even change the way that the harmony sounds And if you don't have an idea of like what pitch, you know tone Um, you know color of a sound or theory when you get this box It'll it'll be really cool because you're making all these cool sounds But when you perform it it may not be at the best so like my my my just right off the bat Like when we're just talking about looping It definitely has a lot of connection to like music theory and rhythm Especially when you have a metronome and playing to a kick, um a click track In a live setting. Oh my gosh, it's so nerve-wracking because at any point, dude It can go wrong But if you are a skilled musician and you know rhythm and you know how to like move around it's it's easier for It's just much easier for you to to to utilize it And so that's the first thing and the second thing is just to be creative and unique and I see we only have like five minutes left So I I try to keep this short But um, yeah, it's just to be unique be creative and just take the time to like really know theory Yeah, it's that foundation that really Like makes you able to do stuff and the thing with looping like when it's good It's great, but then when it's just a little off like you miss that downbeat and it's so awkward and yeah Do you have anything you want to plug like I know you're releasing new music you're doing the song challenge What type of stuff do you want people to know about that you're you're involved in right now? Yeah, well, um, first and foremost is the is the song challenge Doing a 52 week song challenge a song a week and I will admit that it hasn't been a song each week I have been writing a song each week, but as far as with the videos like if you look at the timeline I may have not done it every single week, but I've been writing literally writing a song every single week Um, so I'm just plugging that Um, I'm also just plugging like the new single. I just released old me which is on a spotify. You can listen to Uh, my last album take control on spotify. I will be um coming up with some new merch Real soon speed. Yeah, that's connected to the song challenge. That's connected to Um, the cooking show that I have I have a cooking show online. It's called music burger tv And it's literally me just uh putting food and music all under one bun. That's what I call it music burger And I actually had this show 10 years ago, but I stopped doing it because I had this vj contract This is a video jockey contract and they told me I couldn't do my own show. So um, but now I'm doing it again So plug in that and just to stay tuned. Um, like I said, we're going through some really rough times right now in the world But the beautiful thing is like artists like myself and artists all over the car All over the world. We we have music to give we have energy to give out I think it's just a perfect time just to share some light into the world. What a a good song. So yeah, yeah Thanks, man, and we'll have links for taylor socials and His music I'm also going to put a link for the the chicago high school for the arts in the description because I think that's just such a cool institution And people should be supporting that so they can donate to the um, uh, to that school too because that school is 100 percent donated through like, you know donors and like, you know, uh, those who have um, wealth and you know for Education and have a special Appreciation for education for inner city kids. So you can go to that site. I think it's just shy arts.org and you can donate as well So, yeah, man, and I I want to thank you once again robbie and I want to thank uh tc helikon Uh, just want to put this out here if I know we're going through rough times But I would love to be an ambassador. I would love to get you know, any new tc helikon equipment I would do cool tutorial videos anything man I'm like i'm such a fan and I just i'm so appreciative of uh The uh the support that i've gotten from you guys seriously. So yeah, thanks man. Yeah, we love again We just love everything you're doing Um, and yeah, I like the I like the support idea. I'll send you an email um Sweet man, thanks so much All right, man, robbie you take care and uh, you need anything else man. Just let me know Oh, will do on that end you have a good day and I'll see you later if you need anything from me You know, you have my email we could do this again or if you want to we could just do it at another time It's completely fine with me