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00:00What's going on everyone?
00:02How we feeling? How we feeling?
00:04The sound plot.
00:06I'm Mike Sapandara. I'm a staff writer with Billboard.
00:09We got the great Don Tolliver with us.
00:11Hey, yo, yo. How y'all doing? How y'all doing? How y'all doing?
00:15Don T, how we feeling?
00:16I'm feeling good, man. You know, we in Texas, man.
00:19It's my state. You know, it feels good to be home.
00:22I'm just soaping up the energy for real.
00:24Hell yeah. Do you come to Austin a lot?
00:27Like, what was your relationship with the city?
00:29I don't come to Austin a lot. You know, I'm from Houston.
00:31But when I come here, it's like the craziest energy.
00:34Some of my craziest shows have been here.
00:36And just coming here over the years,
00:38it's always been like a crazy experience to come from, you know,
00:42Houston and just vibe out here for real.
00:45I love that. You know what today is?
00:47Side by Sideways.
00:49Yeah, that too. But I was gonna say,
00:50it's the sixth anniversary of your debut album.
00:52Oh, right.
00:53You know, I'm gonna tell you something about that.
00:56Like, really, it'd be these...
00:58It feel like I got so many hours now.
01:00And, you know, these anniversaries be coming up.
01:02And I don't really be knowing how to feel about it.
01:04I've seen it, Heaven and Hell. It's been like my craziest album of my whole, you know, life, besides Art
01:09Tain.
01:10And I'm just... I just look at it crazy.
01:13I looked at that story on one of my fan pages today and I was like,
01:16that's crazy, but I don't know. But yeah, nah. Today is a historic day for me for sure.
01:23Hell yeah. I mean, I think back to that time. I feel like that was right before the world shut
01:26down.
01:27Bro, it was crazy. Like, it was really insane. Like, I had to like...
01:32I literally flew to LA the day they shut it down when my album dropped. That was like...
01:37That was a crazy feeling.
01:38Crazy, crazy. Now is the start. Now to album five, Octane.
01:43Octane to the vein.
01:45That's right. I love that.
01:46So for just some context, like, I interviewed Don about three or four days before Octane dropped.
01:53And now I just look at six weeks since, you know, Mike Crazy debuts at number one, 162,000 units.
01:59All AT tracks hit the Hot 100. I guess, like, how do you feel about it? How do you feel
02:04about how the album's been perceived?
02:06I feel like, honestly, it's a blessing. I think it's been a long time coming, you know?
02:12I put a lot of work, a lot of, like, brain power, and a lot of, like, attention to detail
02:17into making this album.
02:19So it feels good for it to be doing what it's doing.
02:23All right. It's dope to see. I feel like, how does it feel to be like a star in this
02:26era?
02:26To me, like, you made that leap into the A-list.
02:30Honestly, I always felt like I pioneered the game, but I just really just kept my head down.
02:34And made sure that, you know what I'm saying, the music was going to be heard before I really had
02:39to speak on.
02:39And now it's just a thing where, you know, the A-list is, it sounds beautiful, it feels great, whatever
02:45you want to call it.
02:46I think now we just had a point where I'm being heard the way it needs to be heard.
02:50And we finna just take off from there.
02:52Word. Obviously, when you talk Octane, you got to talk about your love of cars.
02:56Like, where did that really start from?
02:58My love of cars.
03:00My dad has always been, like, a car guy.
03:04You know, he always, like, tripped about, like, Beam Ram 2s and all these crazy off-road vehicles when I
03:10was a kid.
03:10Then I just grew up listening to, like, Currency heavily and a bunch of other artists that kind of influenced
03:18my style of cars and just the whole energy of playing music that I love the most and nostalgic moments
03:28in a vehicle.
03:30And the particular vehicle, it's a lot that goes into it, but yeah.
03:35Sure.
03:35I just want to touch on a couple tracks.
03:37If you could just explain to the audience, like, how something like Body came together.
03:41Body was honestly, it was just really all off a feeling.
03:48Jasu, I just literally randomly called him, you know, to be a part of me cooking this whole album up.
03:56I only, like, met him, I want to say, like, once or twice before he came to this session.
04:01But I just always knew he kind of had this energy.
04:05And honestly, honestly, he played that track and I just, it just happened right there.
04:11The energy kicked off, the microphone was right there.
04:15I was kind of, I remember him playing it and I was rapping what I was saying, the whole, like,
04:20thing.
04:20And I, like, screamed and told the engineer to come to the studio.
04:24Cause he, it was literally like that.
04:26I was, like, rapping.
04:26I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:28Pull up, pull up, pull up, pull up, pull up, pull up.
04:29He jumped on the computer and I just started recording it.
04:32Then it was over after that.
04:33Yeah.
04:33What'd you think about that sample for off your body joint?
04:36Oh man.
04:37Like, it's kind of crazy.
04:39Cause when he, when he first did like, honestly, I love Justin Timberlake a lot.
04:43Like my mom, she played him and like Pharrell and Outkast and all these crazy great artists
04:50when I was growing up as a kid in the car.
04:52I got a lot of like fond memories of that.
04:55And that Justin Timberlake is always one of my favorites.
04:58I justified that album is literally like in my top 10 favorite albums of all time.
05:03And, um, honestly, uh, honestly, uh, I didn't really like, I understand what it was.
05:12I understood the energy of that moment was going so crazy.
05:16I understood what the sample was, but it just sounded so crazy.
05:19I didn't think that deep into it.
05:21But as I had this song and I sat with it for like a week, I was like, hold on.
05:25This is literally one of my favorite songs of all time.
05:28That's crazy how that album is out.
05:30Like Rock Your Body is really, literally one of those songs that just really like triggers
05:35it like an endorphin in my body when I hear it.
05:38Like rewires your brain or what?
05:39Right.
05:39You know what I'm saying?
05:40So to put those two together was so iconic for me.
05:44It's such a special moment.
05:46You know what I'm saying?
05:47The Duke.
05:49For sure.
05:50Um, another thing I wanted to touch on was like, you talked about like in our interview,
05:54this like appreciation for a Y2K pop and that, that kind of era.
05:58If you could just take us back to like what you were listening to then or anything like that.
06:03What I was listening to, I mean, when I think of big of it, I have like a crazy, fond,
06:10fond
06:10memory of just like being young watching like the Spice Girls.
06:14Like they had a crazy little energy.
06:16Like I think they were like really like one of the key moments that I had the Backstreet
06:21Boys.
06:22They was crazy.
06:23That was a crazy little band.
06:24They went out there and did their stuff.
06:26NSYNC, all of that.
06:27Oh, literally.
06:29It was just like the, the vibe of it takes me back to, that's how I am with music.
06:33Some music I just love because it brings back like a memory of that time.
06:39And it just makes me love the music even more because I think about, that's kind of the
06:43only way I can remember that far back into my brain is when I hear like that, the music
06:49from that era.
06:51That's dope.
06:52Yeah.
06:52Another thing I was going to touch on was, I remember when, when I interviewed you, you
06:55said Travis was cooking up still.
06:57So we, he wasn't on Rosary yet.
07:00I guess if you can just tell us like how he ended up hopping on there at the last minute.
07:05What Travis is like, me and him, we always see each other.
07:09We talk, you know, I really try to keep it.
07:12I really try to keep it, you know, relationship that me, me and him have like, you know, as
07:17far away as just like from music as I can sometimes, because, you know, at the end of
07:22the day we are human beings and I don't like to just make our, you know, like meeting of
07:29each other every once in a while, just be about music.
07:33So I was just, you know, running this music.
07:36I really let him take his time.
07:37I really didn't even, this album.
07:38I was like, yo, whatever Travis want to do, he could pull up however he want to do it.
07:44I ain't really, I just wanted to make sure that he understood my journey with the music
07:49when I played it for him.
07:50It was never the intent to play a song for him to get on it.
07:53But it was always like, yo, I want to play this just to let you know where my head is
07:58right now and how you feel about it.
08:00And, you know, I was seeing him records from the album and he would come back to the studio
08:06at certain times.
08:07But he just kind of, he just kind of vibed for Rosary and he understood, you know, my
08:13idea for it.
08:14And, uh, it was crazy.
08:17I really love his verse on that song.
08:18Yeah.
08:19So that was like super last minute.
08:21He hopped on there like Thursday night and then the album's out Friday.
08:24Um, Thursday night.
08:26I don't know about Thursday night, but it was definitely last minute.
08:29It was definitely like one of those things where I was like, all right, bro, where you
08:33at?
08:34You know what I'm saying?
08:35He be, he be moving around.
08:37I just love that energy though.
08:38Like I think it's just more, it's more of a, it's more of a thing of, it's more of a
08:46thing of excitement, you know, to not really have that type of urgency for me.
08:52I like the fact that he kind of sit there already, lock in at whatever you want to lock
08:57into.
08:58Yeah, for sure.
08:59And he's loving the album.
09:00I just saw him post on his stories, like three different tracks yesterday.
09:03I guess, take us into some of your conversations that is he like proud of you or how he feels
09:08about the album?
09:10Um, you know, he loved the album.
09:12He loved the album so much.
09:13And, uh, I'm just happy that he able to enjoy it.
09:16Like at the end of the day, I got, like I told you in that interview would take me back
09:20to that time where like, he used to listen to that music and I would just hear it.
09:24Now I see it.
09:26Feel what I'm saying?
09:27Yeah.
09:28That's so dope, man.
09:29Damn.
09:29It's great to see how it's come eight years later now.
09:32Right.
09:33Even more.
09:33Yeah.
09:34It's even crazy.
09:35It's like, what's like the, the biggest thing you think you've taken from Trav from like
09:40a mentorship standpoint?
09:43Um, I was just, I was just know, you know, who you are, bro.
09:50I always know who you are and never, never really let, never really let a room, you know
09:56what I'm saying?
09:57Dictate your ceiling or your floor.
09:59Yeah.
10:00Never let nothing kind of tell you where you can go or how you can go about it.
10:06You know what I'm saying?
10:07It's kind of what, what I always picked up from here.
10:09Wow.
10:10I love that.
10:10We kept the street going five for five Travis on Don Alms.
10:15We tried to keep it going.
10:17It's like the undertaker streak at WrestleMania right there.
10:19Trying to keep it going.
10:22Something I found super interesting when Octane started to take shape, you and your right
10:26hand engineer producer 206 Derek went to Miami and he told me like, that's when he got you
10:31to kind of dive into producing for you for yourself.
10:34I guess if you could just talk about that journey and kind of adding that, you know,
10:39to your repertoire as a producer on this album for the first time.
10:43To be honest, I don't know if that journey started in Miami.
10:48I don't know.
10:49I kind of always wanted to produce.
10:53I was kind of been like the guy to direct everything I want to do on my music.
10:57I'm very hands on with everything I want on my music.
11:01Like I'm very, very, very like particular about the sounds that I put into my songs.
11:07But now these days, I think Miami, maybe I definitely last year, I will say around the
11:15time I started making this album as I put more effort into producing and it's been crazy.
11:22It's really honestly, I get some of like my best work and some of the more songs that I'm
11:28proud of, you know, when I produced them.
11:32I don't know.
11:33It's crazy.
11:34I just kind of got a knack for it.
11:36Like, you know, playing a piano, playing a certain chord or piano, playing certain instruments
11:42that allow you to play chords.
11:44Yeah.
11:46You know, quicker than I guess usual, whatever, a different type of.
11:51It's been, it's been fun.
11:53It's like.
11:53We're going to see more producing from you, maybe for other artists even or something.
11:57Yeah, for sure.
11:58Yeah.
11:59Don Tyler, our production, they playing, bro.
12:01We, we coming for everything, bro.
12:032027 and R.
12:04I love that right there.
12:06Um, I, I know like the album also started to take shape when you went to Carmel by the
12:11Sea and had this Airbnb and it was like this creative retreat right by the ocean.
12:15I guess, do you paint that picture for us and how that was inspiring you?
12:20Um, Carmel by the Sea.
12:22Um, yeah.
12:24Yeah.
12:24So.
12:25It's called Castle Creek, right?
12:26That's what you guys called it?
12:28Yeah.
12:28So basically I went out to, I wanted to have a, so this is crazy actually.
12:34So I wanted to do a, a recorded camp for this album, Octane.
12:39And this was like the big camp for the album where I have been recording music for this,
12:45um, prior to this camp, but this camp was supposed to be like, all right, this is where
12:50I'm, I need to get like the bread and butter of this album, which I did, which was E85 and
12:56a couple of Sweet Home.
12:58I got a, a lot of very important records out of this particular camp, but, um, it was just
13:04really supposed to be, um, you know, as close as I could be towards Big Sur and Monterey.
13:10Right.
13:10And I kind of like landed in between both of those.
13:13And, um, it was like this house that was like kind of on this cliff and it, you know,
13:19um, it was like this, it kind of felt like this medieval feel to it.
13:23So I ended up calling it Castle Creek.
13:26I kind of give all my, um, like, uh, we kind of give all of my, uh, main camps, certain
13:31names, but either way it goes, it was kind of like a racetrack for the cars.
13:36I had sent my, uh, the car, my Porsche down there, my, my Cerrado down there.
13:40And it was kind of like a racetrack.
13:42I was literally like playing the songs and hitting that, um, that highway down, uh, whatever
13:47that is down Big Sur and just kind of listening to the music on loop.
13:52And, um, it was a vibe because I really loved those cars and I wanted them to be at the
13:58camp,
13:58but I didn't want to be particularly in LA.
14:01So this was a great medium.
14:03I shipped the cars down to the camp and it was just great to visually see them there
14:08at Castle Creek and to record the music because the cars had a very, very, very, very, very
14:13important piece within the visual concept of this album.
14:18Right. It all works within like the Optane Zeitgeist.
14:20I feel like. Yeah, for sure.
14:22Love that. And then how did you discover the Mount Wilson Observatory?
14:26Oh my God. Um, dude, dude, dude. Observatory was a crazy piece.
14:30So with this album, it started with, um, it started with to, to sum this up.
14:37It started with the idea of a group B rally racing.
14:41And I kind of fell in love with that.
14:43Cause I love how the fans, uh, would spectate on the racetrack.
14:48Like that's why I got banned because the fans were literally spectating,
14:53like literally you'd be trying to get through a corner and there's a fan
14:57with like a camera, like right on the track.
15:00And it's like, it was getting ridiculous.
15:02And I got, I got intrigued by that. And that kind of like, I let that play on loop
15:08when I would make these songs and I was like, okay, I got the vehicle aspect.
15:12And I kind of got the soul of it. Cause I love cars, but what is going to be the,
15:17the home of this? So I was kind of like, all right, I want to go geodesic dome.
15:23I want it to be basically a geodesic dome was just like a, a glorified tit.
15:27It's like a tit that like, you can see through.
15:30It's like one of those kind of plastic tits you might see at a,
15:34like a festival or something that they use. Right.
15:36So I was like, maybe I do like a whole little space where I just put a crazy,
15:41huge tit and I got my cars out there in the woods and I'm recording music.
15:45But I was like, nah, I don't want to, I don't want to build that.
15:48That's expensive.
15:49I didn't, I was going to have to shut it down.
15:52Right. I was like, let me find a place.
15:55So we started doing research, research.
15:57I was like, yo, this is pretty interesting.
16:00It's just me and my guy, Ralph.
16:03He was doing a lot of creative direction and helping me find exactly where I want to go.
16:09So me and Ralph, we did a lot of research and development and we ended up finding Mount Wilson.
16:14And what was it, what would I thought was intriguing about it was.
16:17So what I thought was intriguing about it was the telescope that's been there for a hundred years plus.
16:24And the actual structure, because it opened up like the Astrodome for the telescope to see out of it.
16:31And it's fit completely 360, but the actual dome was kind of a geodesic dome.
16:37Cause it was round and it was on top of a mountain and they done rally races there in the
16:42eighties.
16:43I was like, bingo, this is my spot and camped out there, get a ton of shoots, recorded music.
16:52And it just all made sense for me.
16:55Yeah. I thought it was cool when you said like, you know, astronomers and they're trying to like Edwin Hubble.
17:00He found that it's deeper, more galaxies than the Milky Way, right?
17:04That's how it started.
17:05That telescope was where Hubble found out that, um, there was more than beastie eye in the Milky Way.
17:11And that was like one of the most biggest discoveries that kind of led to a bunch of other discoveries
17:16from that war telescope.
17:18But what I thought was cool about it kind of related to my life is that astronomers have to, you
17:24know, look into that telescope,
17:28like sometimes three, four, five in the morning to see a certain planet because the earth is, you know, moving.
17:36So that's kind of like the studio.
17:38Like sometimes you might be in there cooking rhymes till three in the morning till you actually see what you
17:43want to see.
17:44And when you see it, you got to seize the moment, lock into it and hopefully you get some out
17:50of it.
17:50So I kind of related to that story and that, and that whole thing of just astronomy period.
17:55Right, right.
17:56Just finding, trying to find that answer.
17:58Sometimes you got three, four or five in the morning.
18:00You're like, there it is, right?
18:01Yeah, word up.
18:02How many tracks total you think you had for Optane before you had to whittle it down?
18:08Um, tracks.
18:09How many tracks did I have for Optane?
18:12I think I had, um, oh, I recorded over like hundreds of songs, you know, for this album, but, um,
18:2118 made it.
18:22Yeah.
18:23How tough is that process to kind of be like, all right, we want this.
18:26We don't want this.
18:27This kind of makes sense here.
18:28I think it was tough.
18:30You know, it's tough.
18:31It, it gets, it gets easier every year because I'm like kind of knowing I'm kind of getting better and
18:40sure of myself.
18:41Yeah.
18:41More confident with what I'm trying to do because at the end of the day, I'm not trying to do
18:46what somebody else is doing.
18:48This is all freely of off of my perspective, my take on music and my idea of what I think
18:53I want something to sound like.
18:55So sometimes as an artist, you don't know how people might take it.
18:59You might've heard ATM and be like, Hey, yo, bro, what are you doing?
19:02But at the end of the day, that's how I felt.
19:05And I felt people loved it.
19:06And that's what keeps me pushing forward and keeps me sure of myself that I know what I'm doing.
19:14Um, I don't, I don't need all of that.
19:16I can do what I want to do.
19:18And I know exactly what I want to do.
19:21And, you know, I got a team to help me do so.
19:24So, um, it makes me feel like, you know what I'm saying?
19:29I know what they're doing.
19:29I love that.
19:30Do you think we'll get a deluxe like on streaming services?
19:34I don't know.
19:35We don't know.
19:36I heard a couple of songs that rocket power goes crazy.
19:41Oh man.
19:42So as far as like, what's next, have, have you started to sketch out ideas?
19:46Do you like, Hey, I just want to take a break from, from, uh, this.
19:50Honestly, I don't really want to say this, but yeah, I will say this is that, oh, I'm just trying
19:57to take as much time as I can, you know, to backing in my family, backing in my son, backing
20:04in my girl and my family as a whole, but I am already working on my next out.
20:10And to be honest, to be honest, bro, um, to be honest, bro, I just realized within myself, I just
20:21love music.
20:22And I just feel like right now, if I don't put out anything, I just need to capture this moment
20:30because there's a lot going on in my life.
20:33But when I was making this album and when it came out and it's, it's, it's just fueling me to
20:41want to be as creative as I can possibly be.
20:45And even with like, you know, the balance of just trying to make as much time as I can for
20:50my family, but still making sure that, um, I fulfill my duties as an artist and as a creator.
20:58And as somebody who really tried to push things forward in a way to continue to create.
21:05So.
21:06Right, right.
21:07I mean, if you got the magic, hey, let it keep it going.
21:09Right.
21:10I'm trying to keep it overly going.
21:12Right, right.
21:13Do you feel any more added responsibility as like one of the, you know, the superstars in this ever now?
21:19Do I feel more responsibility as a superstar?
21:22Yeah.
21:24Well, I mean, in my eyes, I always felt like a superstar.
21:28I felt like every time I got on somebody track or every time I did something for somebody, I always
21:33performed, always proved myself to be, you know, a valuable player out here.
21:39But I think now, bro, I just want to keep it going in the right direction because I feel like
21:46I'm heard the way I need to be heard.
21:49And I, um, I don't care how long it took, it took till now.
21:53I'm trying to keep it going.
21:55And I'm just, I'm loving it.
21:57The real, it's time for just real music.
22:00Like, I think that everybody has an artistic, you know, you know, idea of what music is or what they
22:06want to do or what it's supposed to sound like.
22:08But it's a bunch of junk out here in my eyes.
22:11I hear you.
22:12And I just want to be that guy to sit back and say, hey, this is what music is, bro.
22:18This is, this is, this to me, bro, is like what somebody want to listen to from all ages.
22:27Somebody would want to tap into to understand maybe a story behind it.
22:32Maybe there was some intention behind the album.
22:35I feel like some of the greatest artists of all time have all put detail and intention to what they
22:40try to do.
22:41So, you know, all I'm trying to do is keep that going, you know, and not lose focus on what
22:47that is for art.
22:48Burt, I love that.
22:49Yeah.
22:50So we got the performance tonight.
22:52Looking forward to that.
22:53It's my first time going to see you perform.
22:56It's going to be lit.
22:57What can we expect from that?
23:00Honestly, man, just get ready to, just get ready to go octane.
23:04I mean, honestly, is everybody here going to the show tonight?
23:09Hell yeah.
23:10Has everybody, has anybody in here not seen me perform before?
23:15Okay.
23:18So tonight, y'all will understand why I've been here doing what I've been doing and why they say the
23:25things about me.
23:27So we, we finna go up.
23:29It's finna be fun.
23:30I'm excited to see everybody there tonight and be safe, man.
23:34South by Southwest is crazy.
23:37Austin is crazy.
23:38They say it's a weird place.
23:39I love it.
23:41And we finna have fun tonight.
23:43So let's do it.
23:45I love that.
23:46Don, I appreciate you giving us some time today, man.
23:48I appreciate you.
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