Ta-ku Does ASMR with Korean Snacks, Talks New Album & Questlove Collaboration

2 years ago

On this episode of Mind Massage, Ta-ku takes us on a sound journey using some of his favorite items such as a Walkman, camera and Korean Snacks.

Transcript

00:00 (blows)

00:02 (taps)

00:06 What's up?

00:10 My name is Taku, and this is my mind massage.

00:14 I'm about to take you on a sound journey

00:22 using some of my favorite things.

00:25 (tapping)

00:55 So for Gen Z that are watching,

00:59 this is a, it's called a Discman,

01:01 and this is what was the gateway to my discovery to music

01:07 and borrowing as many CDs from friends as I could

01:14 and never giving them back,

01:15 and then destroying the CDs,

01:19 and then giving them back.

01:23 I'm from a small town called Perth, Australia,

01:27 on the West Coast of Australia.

01:31 I'm from a place that's like extremely isolated.

01:34 People don't wanna visit there.

01:39 No, they do.

01:41 It's beautiful.

01:42 But I always felt very separated

01:46 from the rest of the world,

01:47 and being from Perth helped me kind of find my voice

01:53 and share my music with the world.

01:56 For people that have never heard before,

01:59 would be extremely emotional, nostalgic music.

02:06 For people that aren't afraid to cry.

02:10 I first started making music when I was 22.

02:21 I had a full-time job selling health insurance,

02:23 and I had to do something that wouldn't make me go crazy.

02:29 So that's when I started making beats

02:32 during my lunch break.

02:33 And that's where I fell in love with making beats

02:39 and becoming a producer.

02:41 (tapping)

02:45 (crunching)

02:47 (tapping)

02:49 I'm gonna text my wife.

03:10 The reason why I love texting off silent

03:15 is it's kind of obnoxious,

03:20 but also it makes me feel important.

03:24 The faster you type,

03:28 the more business you're doing.

03:32 I love you.

03:32 (laughing)

03:38 Sorry.

03:39 (texting)

03:42 And that's another good hack

03:44 that you need someone in your life

03:46 to tell you that you ain't nothing.

03:47 And to bring you back down to earth.

03:50 When I first started producing,

03:53 I used Fruity Loops,

03:57 which is like a really basic software,

04:02 but a lot of really cool people use it.

04:05 And it was easy enough for me to understand

04:09 and to like navigate,

04:11 because I'm a little bit stupid myself.

04:13 And that's what I use today.

04:19 If I could collaborate with any artist.

04:22 I've always had an obsession with Nas.

04:33 I fell in love with Nas when I was in high school.

04:36 Like his Illmatic record.

04:38 And like, I heard it when I was 15,

04:43 but it made me feel some sort of way.

04:47 And he's always been like my number one rapper,

04:51 like lyricist, emcee.

04:53 So it'd definitely be Nas.

04:56 If I could bring any artist

05:02 to any album

05:03 to a desert island,

05:09 it would definitely be,

05:13 I spelled that wrong.

05:14 Definitely be

05:17 a Dwellae subject.

05:31 Zend.

05:32 Because that album,

05:35 Dwellae, I'm the biggest fan of Dwellae.

05:40 His music is so incredible.

05:42 And I can listen to that album back to front

05:45 on day 10 and never get sick of it.

05:47 I love you Dwellae.

05:57 This is my beloved Leica M6 camera.

06:02 My first one got

06:06 stolen when I was in San Francisco.

06:14 But let's not talk about that.

06:17 Left it in the front seat of my car

06:20 'cause I'm a ignorant Australian.

06:22 And it disappeared, so I had to buy another one.

06:27 But the reason why I love this camera so much

06:30 is because Kendall Jenner, no I'm just kidding,

06:33 is because it is a German workhorse of a camera.

06:38 It's super tough and takes amazing photos.

06:42 Even if you're a bad photographer.

06:46 So I'm doing this for the love

06:48 because there's already film in here that's been exposed.

06:51 But I wanna show you guys how to unload it.

06:54 So I'm gonna expose the film for you 'cause it's not,

06:59 it's all very dainty.

07:03 And I think that's why I like it.

07:06 Sometimes as a man, it's important to just dainty it up

07:10 a little bit to be gentle and not be so,

07:23 you can only be so dainty though.

07:25 So "Songs to Come Home To" is my debut album.

07:30 And it's weird saying debut album

07:32 because I released some EPs a couple of years ago

07:37 and they all had like eight to 10 songs on them.

07:40 But nowadays, those are albums.

07:43 But in my day, those are EPs.

07:47 This has 20 tracks on it that I've written

07:51 over the last five to seven years.

07:53 And while I struggled to get this film out,

07:56 it was a ode to my childhood.

08:00 And an ode to what home is to me.

08:08 And for those watching, home could mean anything.

08:11 I mean, home could mean a hug from your mom.

08:16 Home could mean photos you took

08:20 when you moved into a new city.

08:22 Home could be your father's favorite meal

08:28 that he used to cook you every Saturday.

08:31 So this album was like an ode to everything

08:33 that home means to me.

08:36 And home to me is everyone that has supported me

08:42 and made me the person who I am today.

08:44 And I hope when you listen to that album,

08:49 you feel that because it's extremely important to me.

08:52 My favorite memory would be,

08:58 I'm just loading the film now.

09:03 This is like the best sound in the world.

09:07 My favorite memory from the album

09:16 were definitely meeting Questlove through Jazzy Jeff,

09:21 because those two are my idols, like for real.

09:28 And they were so kind to me.

09:30 And they were like, "If you ever need anything,

09:37 let us know."

09:38 And I was like, I literally said,

09:40 "Okay, like one second after, will you be on the album?"

09:43 (laughs)

09:45 And Questlove is so generous that he said yes

09:49 and invited me to his backstage studio in,

09:53 in New York and showed me all these unreleased beats

10:03 that he made.

10:04 And like all these unreleased beats that J Dillon made.

10:09 And I was just in awe to be in the same room with my hero.

10:14 And later on, I had a track

10:20 that I wanted him to lay drums on.

10:22 And he did it in like 10 minutes and sent it back

10:26 like he was my best mate.

10:29 How cool is that?

10:33 And ever since then, I've been telling everyone

10:35 that he's my best friend.

10:38 But I just love the generosity of people like that

10:41 who have accomplished so much

10:43 and still give so much to people.

10:46 That wasn't as discreet as I thought it was gonna be.

10:54 But these snacks, like I'm half Maldi, half Filipino.

11:00 And I hate to feed the stereotype that all we do is eat.

11:06 But these snacks are Korean

11:08 and my wife introduced me to these.

11:11 I don't know what they're called,

11:13 but they're like styrofoam that tastes like maple syrup.

11:17 So don't judge me.

11:20 (plastic crinkling)

11:23 Some people like open snacks all the way to the side

11:46 so it becomes like a serving bowl.

11:48 So I'm gonna do that now.

11:50 And then now it's like a, like a thing,

11:59 like a peace offering, you know?

12:01 It's like.

12:17 The music video "Smile" was based off my childhood

12:22 and like the childhood for like most people like me

12:27 who look like me,

12:28 who maybe had to become the man of the house

12:33 or become older a little bit quicker.

12:39 And sometimes when you're young

12:44 and you have like a lot of responsibility

12:47 for your family,

12:48 you feel like you can't have fun anymore.

12:51 Unlike what we're doing today, we're having a lot of fun.

12:56 But that's what's the inspiration behind "Smile"

12:58 is like, even though you may be young

13:01 and you may have to like do a lot

13:05 for your family and friends,

13:07 remember that you're still a kid

13:09 and you're still someone who is allowed to be a kid

13:13 and express themselves as a kid.

13:17 Because it's important.

13:18 My best piece of self-love advice

13:23 would be to go easy on yourself

13:32 and remind yourself that

13:36 if you are going through something

13:38 really tough,

13:44 that you probably have a really good reason to be upset

13:48 and give yourself a big hug.

13:51 And remember that your story matters.

13:59 And if you're creative,

14:02 that it's important that you tell your story

14:06 because I guarantee that there's a kid out there

14:10 or someone else that doesn't know how to express themselves.

14:15 They can learn from your story

14:17 and can not feel alone

14:22 because life is tough.

14:26 So just remember that

14:27 where you are now, you've done really amazingly to get there.

14:32 And like people are proud of you.

14:37 So you should be proud of yourself too.

14:39 I want to say thank you so much

14:42 for coming to my mind massage.

14:44 Please check out my album,

14:47 Songs to Come Home To if you haven't

14:49 or not, it's okay if you don't.

14:52 But I'd appreciate it if you did.

14:54 Thank you.

14:56 - Beautiful.

14:59 - Okay.

15:00 You can cut.

15:01 (laughing)

15:04 (crunching)

Ta-ku Does ASMR with Korean Snacks, Talks New Album & Questlove Collaboration

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended