[Exclusive Interview] Taska Black Talks New EP ‘Minds’, U.S. Tour, and More

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He’s blowing our MINDS.

We love a multifaceted, multidimensional artist here at Verge Campus, and Taska Black is definitely it. Following the release of his newest EP Minds the 22 year-old Antwerp based artist is finishing out the last few weeks of  album1 North American tour with San Holo. Despite all the craziness and preparation for his House of Blues show tonight, Taska took a moment to sit down with me to talk Minds, life as a musician, and more.

The minute we sat down in The Verb Hotel lobby, Taska seemed at ease and his humility shone through. He introduced ‘Taska Black’ as just a “22-year-old dude”  who lives in Belgium and makes music. Besides working with like Lowly Palace, Monstercat, and (primarily) bitbird, Black’s latest achievement is his newest release, Minds. 

When asked about the reception of his EP over the course of the last week, Black had nothing but positive things to say. “It’s been great. I mean this EP, for me, is something different than what people were used to for me. So I’m really glad; like the response from the fans has all been great. Everyone’s very supportive of this new direction I’m going to, so it’s been great to see that the fans are very supportive.”

Just by listening to his music, you can tell this “new direction” not only applies to Taska Black, but to the EDM genre as a whole. Black’s sound is anything but typical.

“My parents dropped me at a private violin school when I was four years old, and that’s when everything started, I guess.”

He bounced from violin to piano to guitar and drums until he was about 12 years old when he “got into dance music. I started listening to deadmau5 and whatnot, I started getting into house music, and I started producing when I was 12 years old. It didn’t sound very good, but that was the beginning of everything.”

A few years later, around 18 years old, Taska Black was born. Since then, he’s been using his love of house and classical background to create beautiful, purposeful music. Despite the EDM foundation in his music, Black clearly pulls from a variety of moods and genres throughout his creative process- a process which he describes as a-typical to the standard EDM producer.

 

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Hope y’all had a great thanksgiving. Playing House of Blues Boston tonight hope to see you there xxx

A post shared by Taska Black (@taskablack) on Nov 23, 2018 at 11:31am PST

“Through the years, I’ve been influenced by a lot of sounds…to set myself apart from the traditional EDM producers, I focus more on songwriting, writing with vocalists and getting into the studio. I’m focusing more on that than the production side. I try to both combine the things that people are used to from me (like the majestic and anthemic side of my production) with songwriting.”

This dynamic combination sets Taska Black apart. Not only is the process itself is unique, but it also facilitates the communication of authentic and poignant messages in his music. Similar to the raw soulfulness of his January 2018 single “Sandpaper”, Minds carries a weight almost everyone can relate to.

“A lot has happened this year for me,” Taska said when asked about the heavier themes in the EP, “It’s only been just over a year since I dropped out of college to do music full time. So this year has been a big change in my life; a lot of pressure, a lot of deadlines, started touring internationally this year, so at the beginning of this year I had…some form of anxiety. That’s when I took a small break from music and after awhile I realized, ‘That should be the theme of my EP.’ Basically the EP is a way for me to express everything and to write about what I’ve been going through this year.”

After receiving such positive feedback from fans, Black realized his music reflects more than his own experience.

“There’s a lot of people that hit me up [who were] struggling with similar issues and said that the music really helped them go through it. That’s really nice to hear because I never expected my music to be able to do that for other people.”

As for the struggles he refers to in Minds, Black constantly works to balance his love for music with the stress it can create. “The thing that I keep in my head all the time is you have to do what makes you happy,” he says, which is definitely advise we can all follow.

Check Taska Black out online at: SoundCloud | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

The post [Exclusive Interview] Taska Black Talks New EP ‘Minds’, U.S. Tour, and More appeared first on Verge Campus.

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