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  • Shout out to all the Taiwanese and all the indigenous, aboriginal people of this country.

  • Y'all are phenomenal.

  • It's an honor.

  • What we're creating is something that is gonna probably inspire a lot more creation.

  • It's gonna inspire a lot more people to come out here.

  • Yeah.

  • Yeah.

  • I'm here with Black Teeth.

  • What's going on, Eddie?

  • Tell me about the tour, man.

  • What brings you guys out to Taiwan?

  • Our first tour out here was in August, and it was honestly, it was an honor to be able to perform out here.

  • We got connected with Taiwan off of our intern from Drexel.

  • So shout out to Hanako.

  • A big thing that we do within our musical journey is we remix music.

  • We produce it all, everything that we play in all our sets.

  • And she said, you know, it would be really cool if you did this with indigenous music, aboriginal music from Taiwan.

  • And we had no idea about that.

  • We didn't really know about the indigenous culture out here.

  • We went out to Taitung and recorded some artists, six different indigenous artists from six different tribes.

  • It was amazing.

  • We looked for those communities so that we could help empower those communities and also show what we do and bring our spin on it.

  • We're working on an album currently with indigenous artists.

  • So we're working with Amis, Bunun, Paiwan, some of the different tribes making, we don't, I think we signed the NDA now, so we're not allowed to talk.

  • We can't talk about the project right now in too much detail, but it is a project that is gonna help get people to understand the indigenous tribes out here, their music, because the music styles from each tribe is all very different.

  • The languages, the indigenous languages.

  • Yeah, they're all very different.

  • And what we do is we don't compromise to our style.

  • So we're bringing them into our world.

  • Beautiful.

  • But one of the coolest things about that when it goes back to collaboration is artists here in Taiwan, they are fully for collaboration.

  • They almost, they want something different.

  • The willingness is unmatched.

  • It's truly unmatched.

  • No ego, right?

  • Going back to the no ego thing, too.

  • I mean, we've performed, we've met some of the acts, super humble backstage.

  • Almost kinda, you know, not talking as much.

  • Oh, I'm like, yeah, no, so honored to be around you, da, da, da.

  • And then they go on stage, super commanding.

  • Like superstar status, you know?

  • From one thing to the next, it's amazing.

  • Collaborating with Taiwanese artists has probably been one of our favorite things from this entire journey.

  • They do not back away from any type of sound or any type of direction that we go in.

  • They're always like, let me try it, let me try.

  • Shout out to Passac when we're making, we made a fantastic song on this album that we have called Ti Ma Som.

  • So we're making an album, it's gonna, we don't wanna talk too much about it yet since we're coming out with it hopefully next November.

  • And, but it does shine light on each different tribe that we worked with.

  • And, you know, it's all, it's honestly, it's just, it's crazy to even think about that.

  • We came out here and we did that.

  • I think everyone's gonna love it.

  • And I think the Taiwanese people are really gonna appreciate it, too.

  • The aboriginals in Taiwan are quite famous for having a good voice, being good singers.

  • Yes, for sure.

  • We worked with an artist, Aboos.

  • She signed to Warner.

  • She surprises us every single time.

  • Not even surprises us, but she's phenomenal.

  • Her professionalism, and it doesn't turn off.

  • You know, whether you're hanging out as a friend, you're recording in a, recording a music video, you're recording as an artist, her professionalism, it just does never, it never turns off.

  • Yeah, the talent out here is crazy with singers.

  • We did forget the biggest part, too.

  • It's such a huge part of the culture out here, karaoke.

  • Yes.

  • It's massive.

  • You know, and we just went out to karaoke with some people the other day, and.

  • I've never been so intimidated.

  • We have this person that we work with, as well.

  • She's also amazing.

  • She works with Hanako Koko.

  • She works for the Taiwanese government, and she was up there singing like Adele, you know?

  • Yeah, seriously.

  • So they take it seriously, and then when it's your turn for the microphone, we're like, hey, nah, we're okay, so.

  • Anybody got a Vanilla Ice song I can rap real quick?

  • Justin definitely assimilated a bit faster.

  • Okay.

  • And his level of confidence,

  • I think the first night we did karaoke out here,

  • I was like looking at him, like, oh.

  • What?

  • I was like, rapping every lyric, you know?

  • And then I slowly eased into it, and then, I mean, it's just such a fun time.

  • I mean, you rap a full verse from start to finish, and you feel like a champion.

  • Yeah.

  • So tell me about Jamaica.

  • I moved to the States when I was 14, and I had always been like a Jamaican who was a little bit more forward with American culture.

  • I always watched American TV shows.

  • I listened to hip hop way more than reggae and dancehall, even though that's still my roots and still where I come from.

  • But I always, you know, I used to be a rapper when I was in Jamaica, one of the few people at the time.

  • But when I moved to the States, one of the first communities I looked for was other musicians and other people that I could collaborate with and work with.

  • He comes from Kingston, and instead of looking for Jamaicans, he looks for musicians.

  • And he finds you.

  • Yes.

  • Tell me a little bit about-

  • I'm mixed.

  • So my dad, my dad's African-American.

  • My mom's Italian.

  • I feel like America is, in general, a melting pot, especially any extension of the East Coast.

  • You know, New Jersey, New York, even down to Philly.

  • You know, Baltimore, all that whole area is just a melting pot.

  • So I really just feel like an amalgamation of all the cultures, musical influences.

  • You started as a saxophone, right?

  • Yeah.

  • Is that correct?

  • Okay.

  • Tell me about that.

  • Sixth grade.

  • Okay.

  • Just started in a concert band.

  • Started playing tenor saxophone in concert band.

  • And then, you know, took that, went all the way through high school with that.

  • Was in marching band, was in jazz band.

  • Nice.

  • Concert band again in high school.

  • And, you know, that just led to being able to read sheet music, just know the ins and outs of technical music, you know?

  • And then that was always something that allowed us to differentiate ourselves as producers.

  • Shout out to all the Taiwanese and all the indigenous Aboriginal people of this country.

  • Y'all are phenomenal.

  • It's an honor and a pleasure and a privilege for us to work with y'all.

  • What we're creating is something that is gonna probably inspire a lot more creation.

  • It's gonna inspire a lot more people to come out here and to do, you know, and to possibly go to other countries too and try to discover and assimilate with some of the indigenous cultures there.

  • And maybe it's this time now in music for us to go backwards a little bit and bring some of those cultures forward.

  • Cause I feel like they've been pushed to the back a little bit.

  • For sure.

  • As time keeps going on.

  • That was really cool to see.

  • And we're doing indigenous remixes of some music that we made.

  • And it was received very, very well.

  • We were blessed to see an indigenous competition between the tribes and they all like competed together and in a friendly way, obviously.

  • But they had a competition doing their traditional dances and songs.

  • That's cool.

  • Yeah, they had a rap competition, singing competition.

  • So Asia first and then maybe world tour.

  • What are you guys thinking?

  • Definitely the world tour.

  • Just being out here in Taiwan.

  • We did not expect to be back out here this quickly.

  • Yeah.

  • It was a one month.

  • You know, we went back for one month and then we're right back.

  • And what happened to make it so quickly?

  • We loved it.

  • The reception.

  • You guys loved it.

  • They loved you.

  • Yeah.

  • Okay, for sure.

  • And also the people that, you know, what we did with the indigenous music, we're able to show people what we could do in real life instead of just, you know, sending things through email or just sending over track files.

  • We're able to show them exactly how we could palette this indigenous, you know, stuff that we're doing, mixed in with our stuff.

  • And merch is a huge part of how a lot of artists eat.

  • Yeah, agreed.

  • In the streaming era now where, you know, we had a million streams this year that equated to 600 bucks.

  • Oof.

  • So, you know, of course.

  • Spread out 600 bucks.

  • It's not like we got that 600 bucks on one day.

  • I know how that works.

  • $10 here, $15 there, you know.

  • When you're an artist these days, it's not, you can't just do just one thing.

  • If you're good at music in the studio, but you're not good at live performances, practice.

  • Go to open mics.

  • Go perform for free.

  • Build, hone in on your craft and just continue to, if you don't wanna do that, then yeah, potentially go the other route and try and hook up with a major label or hook up with a manager who could do those things for you.

  • But just know that, you know, as time goes on and now we're battling AI, we're battling music that, you know, you could type in the type of music that you want and they'll write a song for you with Adele's voice, with a beat that sounds like it's Timbaland and it wasn't made by any of those people.

  • So now we're competing with something completely different.

  • So don't run away from honing in on your craft because you're only gonna have to get better.

  • And we stand true to that as well.

  • Yeah, and also don't be scared because there's all those resources, AI resources.

  • What you bring as a human being and your level of talent, creativity, commitment is something that a robot or a website or a corporation could never recreate.

  • So never lose faith, you know, because who you are, even your flaws is what makes you valuable.

  • Yeah, collaborate, communicate with people, talk to people.

  • Even these days, a forgotten art form is the street team, you know, going out and giving people something tangible in your hands.

  • It's just all, it's all Instagram and emails.

  • Don't be afraid to go out there and give someone your album.

  • Give someone a physical QR code to find your music.

  • Okay.

  • That's honestly the coolest thing is that with all this AI competition, you should do the things that a robot can't do.

  • See it as an opportunity.

  • Black teeth all the way.

  • Thank you guys for watching the podcast.

  • Don't forget to follow these guys.

  • Their links are in the description below.

Shout out to all the Taiwanese and all the indigenous, aboriginal people of this country.

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