Shad – Tao

By starrymag | January 28, 2022

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) Singer-songwriter hip-hop with layers musically and lyrically

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) Common, Outkast, Lauryn Hill, Pharcyde

 

Q) You’re originally from Toronto. What makes this destination such a popular place these days for new talent?

 

A) Toronto is maybe the most multicultural city in the world, so there’s a richness there that expresses itself in cool ways through music. Plus, it’s just very much a music city: Our DJs are some of the best in the world and play everything, our audiences are savvy and love music and we have great communities of artists across almost all genres from hip-hop to rock.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Body (No Reason).”

 

A) I got this incredibly energetic beat from Dom Dias who is a super talented and versatile producer. And I just tried to match that energy by taking the lyrics and flows on a bunch of wild tangents.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) I think fans enjoy the surprising energy and the playfulness.

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) The video has a raw hip-hop feeling that reflects what’s happening in the song: Simple, concrete landscapes. Dancing, rapping. Some collage elements as well in post-production. Overall, just raw and energetic.

 

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

 

A) Some songs start with a concept and lyrics. Others start with the music. It can work either way. I’m usually looking for something surprising to begin, something that sparks my interest and gets my brain moving in a direction that feels new to me. That can be a song idea or lyric or it can be a piece of music. Either way, it’s that sense of finding something new that gets the process going for me.

 

Q) How much of hand do you have in the production of your music?

 

A) I don’t make beats but because I’m usually trying to communicate some pretty specific things with my songs and albums, most of the time I end up very involved in producing the songs.

 

Q) Your album Tao is out now, and you’ve noted every aspect of the songs on here are about human life. What inspired this exploration of humanity?

 

A) A few things inspired the album’s overarching theme, but first and foremost it was an image that occurred to me one day as I was thinking about the many tensions in our society and within ourselves right now. The image that came to mind was of a circle breaking into various pieces and then those pieces starting to float away from each other and slowly disintegrating and disappearing. It struck me as a pretty good metaphor for what’s happening to us as individuals–with the circle representing our whole selves being broken into various parts (work, relationships, spirituality, connection to nature, etc.) and how each of those pieces are now under threat of disintegrating and disappearing. So, this image was with me for a while and when it came time to make a new album, it felt like an inspired place to start and also nice big container for a collection of songs because I could write about each of these different “pieces of the circle.”

 

Q) What tracks challenged you the most creatively?

 

A) The whole thing was a fun creative challenge, but “Storm” probably stands out because it was a song where I set out to capture a feeling whereas most of the others were more about communicating an idea. I heard the chorus in a dream, and it felt like it was speaking something about God and nature, the past and the future, all at once. So, it was a cool creative challenge to try to follow and represent that feeling from my dream. Touching on all of these things I just mentioned but not trying to do it in a more impressionistic way, to leave room for spirit and interpretation.

 

Q) What songs hold a special place in your heart and why?

 

A) They all do, but “GOD” for sure because my parents are on that song and also because, like “Storm,” I think it holds together a couple things that we often think are diametrically opposed. Namely, the spiritual and the earthly, God and us. It’s a thrill for me as an artist to be able to give that in a song. And it’s also something that I really believe in, and I think might help some people as we try to heal ourselves and our world.

 

Q) What do you hope listeners take away from checking out Tao?

 

A) I hope they enjoy the journey and feel encouraged.

 

Q) Will there be some live streams or a tour coming to promote the album?

 

A) Yes! Excited to tour in Spring 2022. Dates are all booked.

 

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

 

A) Oddly enough, I don’t really think about dream collaborations. There are artists that I really admire obviously but I mainly just want to sit and talk with them! Pharrell would maybe be at the top of that list. Kendrick Lamar. Caribou. Cleo Sol.

 

Q) What album/band are you currently listening to and why do you dig them? 

 

A) Listened to a lot of Cleo Sol in 2021. Beautiful, rich music and with such a vital message.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

 

A) I’m not sure it’s ideal actually, but it’s what we have! It is our culture. I communicate best through my music, not on social media, so I’m always trying to drive people there. But we work with what we got!

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) A huge THANK YOU. It’s impossible to convey the depth of my gratitude for making my life so full and helping me be myself.