Australian Hip-Hop Band The Taste Discusses Their New Video "The Hands Of" And The Important Message Behind It
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The Taste is a Cairns, Qld based Hip-Hop band who recently released a very DOPE visual for their song "The Hands Of". For this exclusive Q&A, the guys talk about the "The Hands Of" video, how they all came together to form the band, what they endure during a typical rehearsal and much more.
I'm sure you get a lot of questions about the name of your band, but I've never heard the answer, so please indulge me and explain (for probably the millionth time) where the name "The Taste" originated, as well as what it means.
Basically when the band started we looked at many different names but the word 'Taste' seemed to stick out and we thought it was fitting. I just seemed to notice the word more and heard it used everyday fairly commonly. One of my favourite songs is The Rolling Stones song 'Symphony For The Devil' and in that Mick Jaggar says 'I am a man of wealth and taste'. Hearing that one day after discussing band names was what cemented it for me. Rory Gallagher had a band called 'Taste' in the last 70's so we had to stick the 'The' in front, but I preferred it anyway to be 'The Taste'.
The definition of 'Taste' is 'a person's liking for particular flavours', which I think is very relatable to music in general. For the listener it is very much about personal taste. What one persons likes, will more than likely be completely different to somebody else. Our band is very large and is made up of a group of individuals all adding different elements and flavours to make one unique sound. Our own personal taste in a sense.
We really like the overall message of your single "The Hands Of", as well as the aesthetics of the visual. What motivated the songwriting of the song and whose idea was it to make the video animated? Also, who directed it?
The clip was self done and took myself a lot of hours to complete. I got the idea after speaking with our photographer Stewart McLean who was showing me some recent photos he had taken at one of our gigs. When we were viewing the pics he was holding down the shutter, and it looked like we were watching a video. The idea evolved to editing the pics individually and adding the lyrics, giving it an early 90's indie sought of theme. There was close to 500 pics edited and a different pic every 18th of a second. With rap, sometimes the audience can find it hard to follow due to the speed, so we decided to make it into a lyric clip to allow the listener to really engage with the words and help emphasize the message of the song. Lyrically the track explores modern day issues with capitalism and the effects it has on our surrounding environment. Its not aimed at one particular issue, more at a lot that is happening in the world. I personally believe we are in a time where we greatly need to asses the way we live, and really should be making changes for the greater good of people and the planet.
How did the seven of you come together to form the band?
The band originally started as a Duo in 2011, and from there has evolved and grown. We spent a lot of last year performing as a 7 piece but lately have been going as high as a 9 piece. I think we all really like the power you get from playing in a big band and its what draws us to perform and create together. Being a big band there is a lot of different elements happening at once and when it all comes together, its an amazing feeling. A lot of time I get really lost in the music and the moment. Its a very genuine feeling of happiness for myself.
Describe a typical rehearsal. With seven members and as many personalities, is it difficult at times to get on the same page?
It can sound daunting because there is so many people and can be at times hard to organise, as we all have different things going on in our lives in terms of scheduling. But once were all together it works really well. It's sought of like a sports team in a sense, everyone plays there position and does there role for the greater good of the team. Prior to last year, we use to write a lot of songs individually, where lately it has been more collaborative. Its definitely a different approach but I think its better for our band and where we are heading.
Will we be getting a glimpse of you guys on stage in the US in 2017?
That would be amazing and hopefully the opportunity arises one day. We will continue to focus on growing our music online and see where it takes us from there.
Are you working on a follow-up to "REFLECTIONS"? And what are you most proud of with that album?
Definitely been working on a follow up and hopefully we will be heading in to a studio very soon for a mid year release. Its been a few years since Reflections so we cant wait to get something new and fresh out to the world. Reflections I think is a really good bookmark of where we were at as a band at the time. We had so many different ideas back then and you can really hear them coming to life as you listen through the album. There is a lot of styles covered and at times it sounded like a different band, track to track. But that's just where we were at back then. I think in a few years I'll look back very fondly at that recording, it came up really well and we are all very proud of it.