This promising producer and MC has been commended for his work with Bassnectar, The Polish Ambassador, and most recently, Russ Liquid, but has been making tremendous waves of his own in 2014. We’re excited to see what Lafa Taylor‘s gritty West Coast style beats and uplifting, clever rhymes will bring to the experience of the Creature Carnival!
This seems to be a huge year for you, especially after an 8-year hiatus! After finishing up a tour for your new album, Not One Thing, and now midway through the Creature Carnival, how are you liking life back on the road?
It feels so good to be back on the road! I love traveling to new places and spreading the good word of the bass gospel. It just feels so right.
More on Creature Carnival, how has it been touring with a circus of fellow talented and eccentric musicians? Any crazy stories?
The tour has been amazing so far! Everyone involved is very dedicated to their craft and is amazingly talented, not to mention super nice. Many crazy stories unfold everyday! Tonight we have a double birthday in the crew. Our artist coordinator, Nova, and Simon from Shpongle both happen to share the same birthday! We are in Nashville and are planning to hit a honky-tonk bar with the whole posse, should be… interesting.
As you say in your lyrics from “Etc. Etc.,” the new album definitely has a mature sound, pulling from many different genres. What was your main inspiration for making this album? Also, how do you think your time away from music has helped your sound evolve?
The album kind of came together when I looked at the collection of songs that I wanted to release and realized that they were not one congruent style – I had 808 trappy songs, happy uplifting hip hop songs, RnB songs, a jammy song with a live band, and a bunch of other stuff that was “Not One Thing”, after I decided it was going to be a collection of different styles, I tried to fill in the gaps with a few more songs to round out the flow. I feel like taking time away from music really builds up a lot of awesome creative juices, kind of like when you have been thinking of doing a skate trick for a while and then you finally get on a board and bust the new trick you’ve been thinking about first try.
With so much positive feedback on your new album, I can imagine this is a very exciting time for you. Where do you see things going for Lafa Taylor in the next year?
Things are progressing nicely, I feel like this is just the beginning! I’m gonna keep pushing and making new music and collaborating with all of the amazing musicians I’m surrounded by and we shall see what happens. I am prepared to take it to infinity… and beyond.
Catch Lafa on the last leg of the Creature Carnival dates here, and get familiar with this hip-hop catalogue by checking out his SoundCloud!
