Tayo Irvine Hendrix
Tayo Irvine Hendrix is back with the release of her new single Crazy Dayze, the first track to be released off her new album Experience This.
We caught up with her to chat about the single, the upcoming album and being a major producing force on the new record.
- You are about to release your first single Crazy Dayze so what can we expect from this new track?
The sound of the music is very much about the mantras and the rhythm this time; what we are hoping to do is bring a bit of a new genre onto the scene.
When we are hoping to come from this is that people will tap into the spiritual side and get a bit of healing as they go through the tracks.
- There is a mix of jazz and blues with the sound of electric guitars seeping through on this track so how big a fan are you of this genre?
I am a big fan of all music but this is a fusion of R&B, rock, soul and the spiritual sounds; it’s a complete fusion with a very sensual fell going on. I just love it.
I am not a jazz fan per-say, but I am very much into Blues and rock, and I am very much into the current stuff that is out there at the moment. So it is all kind of neo-soul.
- It is very much a fusion as you say so how did you find bringing all of these different sounds together? Was it an easy process?
It is not an easy process, but it was a very natural process from our perspective. Because of the person that I am and the work that I do I am touched by many different areas in my life; I tap into a lot of different areas. But we make it work really well.
What is happening here at the moment and the reason that people like in it in the way that they are is because it is such a new fusion and a new set of sounds. It is unexpected, and it is not something that you would necessarily put together but when it has worked well.
- There is less than a fortnight before the single is released, so how are you finding the response to the track so far?
Brilliant, really really good. It has been so good that we have actually seen one of our tracks on Ebay. I got a message from someone in the early hours of this morning - I don’t what country it was from - asking me to sign the single (laughs).
I wasn’t sure what they were talking about and asked them to take a picture of and apparently they had purchased it on Ebay (laughs). We haven’t even got the single out there but there are already some bootlegs (laughs). If they can be bothered to do that, then there must be something good coming.
- This is the first track to be lifted of the new album Experience This, so how does this single introduce us to the rest of that record?
I think it is important that it does introduce it because it has mantra running through it; it is a very subtle mantra, and it is not an in your face mantra. The whole album has a very healing spiritual tone running through it - but you are not going to know that unless you are that type of person.
It was introducing people in a very subtle way, and this song is perfect. We didn’t choose this song the PR people chose it, but it was a good choice.
It was a combination of everything that we needed it to be on the album, and it represents the album throughout.
There are a couple of songs that are more mantra and yet there are also songs that don’t have a mantra on them and are more rock and roll. This one is a fusion of both; again, it is that fusion that we are bringing into the equation.
- What do you think this album says about you as an artist?
I am eclectic (laughs). There are lots of different areas and facets I think. I look at things from both ends of the spectrum - Yin & Yang - that is my life completely as I look from two ends of everything; there is always and a positive and a negative.
And I think that the album does show you that there are two sides to everything, and if you listen to the lyrics and take the lyrical content throughout the album it really does show you that whatever situation you are in it is your choosing as to how you are going to turn that around.
If you take Crazy Dayze, she is doing what she is doing, but she is doing it with a passion, and she is doing it with love and trying to make a positive energy from what is not such a great start in life.
- David Stevens has produced the album so how did that collaboration come about?
David and I have both produced it; I am the co-producer of the album because I wanted to work with someone who I could produce the album with. I didn’t want to work with a producer, and me be the artist.
It was very important for me, because of the way that we are doing the stuff, that it needed to be with two people, and I needed to have a really strong say in what was going on.
I was at an event in Downing Street, and I just asked if anyone knew anything and his name popped up. I thought he was a great guy, and we got on fabulously and we just took it from there.
I am really glad that we did as, I don’t think that the album would have been the same if I had worked with someone else.
- How did you find working with him? And how collaborative a producer is he?
David is a great guy. I knew what I wanted and when you know what you want, but somebody doesn’t understand... David is not a spiritual person so, in that respect, one eyebrow would be shooting up to heaven when I was doing certain things. And I would be like ‘bring your eyebrow off the ceiling Dave’. We had lots of clashes.
Dave is a great producer, and he is use to working with big record companies where he can do his own thing, and they just throw lots of money at him. But that wasn’t what I needed; I needed someone who could get exactly what I wanted on to the record, and that is what we did.
It took us the best part of a year and a half for exactly that reason as we went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth until we found the sound that was spot on and the fusion that we have now. It has been an interesting journey (laughs).
- How much is producing a side of making a record that you enjoy? Or did you produce this album out of necessity?
I did. I knew the sound that I needed, and I knew what I was trying to achieve. The reason that I didn’t go to a record company, and the reason that I wanted to do this independently was because I wanted to have no limits; I wanted the sound to be unlimited.
I didn’t want it to be assigned to a little box as that would have been like putting a square peg in a round hole. The production side was very important, and that was why I left the first producer that I was working with because his ideas were so strong, and it just wasn’t what I wanted.
I knew what I was looking for, and I knew the sound that it was supposed to be; it had to have the elements of the fusions of everything together. I didn’t want to just create a pop track.
- You have done this independently so how have you found that whole process?
Fabulous. It has been interesting as I have met a lot of people that I wouldn’t have needed to meet if I had done this through a record company. It was all about energy, and I needed the right people in the room with me.
I always meet all of the people that I am working with from producers to PR people; if I don’t connect with them, then I don’t want to work with them. For me, it was very important to have the right people to create the right energy, and I think we did that.
With a record company, I wouldn’t have had that as they would have been interested in it simply for the amount of money, they were going to get at the end of the day. I believed that people were going to buy this either way, and so I wanted it to be the best that it could be before we put it out there. I want to feel that it is fabulous, and that is what we did.
We were picked up by a company quite a while back, and they were like ‘we can do this and do that’, and I said ‘no, we won’t be doing any of that’ (laughs).
Maybe years ago I would have gone ‘yes please’ but at this point in my life, I don’t need to be doing it for that reason, I need to be doing it for the right reasons.
- We are seeing more and more artist taking this independent route do you think record labels are becoming a little too rigid in the type of music that they are willing to back and make?
I don’t know that they are becoming too rigid; I think that people are becoming less and less inclined to sell their soul in a way that they use to years ago. Years ago, you use to pay a certain amount, and now you can download it for pennies.
So it is slightly different as anyone can put anything out. You are less inclined to go with a record company now unless you want to be the next One Direction; unless you are intending to be a big star, you may as well do something in your own way as you have got your own energy on it.
I don’t think so many people are interested in the big record companies nowadays, and that is why so many small record companies have been set up. It is also why we have sent out our record label, so we can pick up other artists.
- So you are keen to bring other artists on board the label, that is the plan?
Oh yes, yes. It is really about getting my stuff out that, and I am hoping that people will want to re-record the stuff. For me, it is about getting the mantras and the synergy out there.
We will pick up other artists, and I will be setting up a production team where I will be doing the producing that I have been doing on this album. So I wanted to start the ball rolling with my own album so that I could see what I can do and people can see exactly how you work.
- Away from music you also have the Tayo Healing Programme, so can you tell me a bit about that and how you got into it?
I got into that because I was working as a counsellor and a life coach and a medium; I do a lot of work in terms of generally working with people and empowering people to feel better about themselves.
The idea behind that was to help people feel as good as they can feel about themselves, and that is how we set that up - it would be about twenty years ago now.
We have got the Tayo Wellness Clinic in London and the Tayo Healing Centre in Kent. And they are both run in the same way as we do counselling with people, and we work with King’s College Hospital as well working with a lot of cancer patients.
We work right across the board with both physical and emotional healing. It has been going a long time, and it is very important to me that people feel good about themselves.
It is also very important to me that people can be the best that they can be at anything; we try to lead that by example.
When the album is released, and you start hearing some of the tracks you will hear that in the songs as every song has a story. There is a back-story to all of the tracks, and it all involves some sort of healing (laughs).
- So you are a musician, you have a healing programme and you are also an author, so how do you find he time to juggle all of these things?
I only find time to juggle all of these things but I don’t really find the time to sit and cuddle up to any great one of them. I do find time to juggle these things because that is all I have ever known.
I have got my kids and my youth foundation as well; so I do have the thousand things that I do. I am a woman, and women can do anything can’t we? I am constantly on the go, and that is all I know and am used to doing.
- You are juggling all these plates so how do you find that each of these aspects influences the other?
They all influence the other. But it all comes down to my belief, which is the power of... In the Tayo Healing Programme, one of the things that I do is positive thought. Positive thought, positive action and positive outcome; everything literally comes off those things.
So everything in my life stems from that whether I am dealing with my own children or my youth foundation kids. Everything is about how you feel about yourself, and if you feel good about yourself, then you can cope with anything.
For me, it’s about trying to understand what has happened in my life the whole way through - I have had quite a complex life as you can imagine - but it has been about understanding the journey and understanding the reason why I had to take the journey I had to take.
I have come all the way through that, and I have done that with the help of mantras and with the help of being able to talk to people.
- Finally, what is coming up for you as we go through the rest of this year?
I am writing a book at the moment, and so I have asked to do some bits and pieces on that front. Releasing the album is the biggie for us now; so we will release the album and get the music out there.
I will be writing a book next, and then I will be back to do a second album. Then hopefully we will be at the end of the year.
Crazy Dayze is out now. Experience This is released 23rd September.