Our Interview with Taurus Scott

Stop being lazy!

Brandon Backhaus | July 13, 2015

Taurus Scott is man doing what I know so many of us out here hope to be doing one day, eating off his art like a fucking kitchen table! Besides being a sought-after DJ, he's a producer for Hellfyre Club, SMOG Records, the Low End Theory-affiliated, Alpha Pup.

That's a resume that'd get you hired at the musical equivalent of Goldman-Sachs, except Taurus ain't about that life. As an in-house producer for G-Unit he's already done that shit. Taurus Scott is a man who wants one thing out of life: to be left the Fuck alone so he can make music. Period.

He's new school in that his music is genre-bending, going more for the feel of the moment than arbitrary definitions of what shit should or shouldn't sound like, genre-less outside of bumps. That liberation drips from the pores of every button his fingers rhythmically press.

He's old school enough to know what knocks.

If the music scene in LA were a body, Taurus is a femur. His music has legs. Its marrow manufacturing massive new cells to occupy femoral artery-adjacent real estate, the beat of its heart thumping in his head since birf!

He keeps us all on the path of the righteous and when his subs vibrate your face, you too will genuflect at the altar of bass. It was better than a Double Double animal-style and a chocolate shake conversing with an artist I consider a structural element to keeping us all on the up and up.

Geek out with me!

Our interview with Taurus Scott starts NOW!

Syffal: You and the internet don't necessarily have a passionate love affair. Discogs only has your song from the DVT Compilation. LA Weekly only has a calendar entry for a one-off show at Los Globos. Complex for some clown-ass writeup for some Souncloud track. And that's about it. And yet there you are DJing shows in Brazil. Working with Nocando and Flying Lotus. Being a huge part of Hellfyre Club, Alpha Pup, and SMOG. How do you manage to pull all that off while the internet equivalent to that neighbor from Home Improvement's eyes and hat?

Taurus Scott: Haha! Man at the end of the day I have real life relationships with people. I been around in this game for a while just being behind the scenes and doing my thing. When I was coming up the internet wasn't a big factor. I remember mailing demo CDs, following up with people by phone, doing all the work that people really don't do these days. I just know how to align myself with the right people and working hard to make shit happen. I been all over the world playing my music: Japan, Brazil, and Paris. You gotta know how to hustle harder and get in where you fit in. Stop being lazy!

Syffal: People think that posting links to their Tumblr is enough these days. They forget/or haven't learned the actual human interaction that goes into making a whole life out of art.

It seems like you're a guy who wears a lot of hats, all cocked at angles of course. You're a DJ, a Hellfyre and G-Unit producer, and you're involved with SMOG and Alpha Pup. Which do you prefer? Or is it just one big carnal orgy of HOLY shit I'm so fucking awesome?

Taurus Scott: Yeah dude, I'm all over the place. I'm making money in the underground music scene.

Syffal: That in and of itself is an accomplishment these days.

Taurus Scott: But, you can't just do one thing. Living downtown is expensive so you gotta find a way to pay for that shit. I prefer everything! I'm doing something with music everyday. It doesn't get much better than that.

Syffal: Taurus is the astrological sign of a bull for our readers who don't frequent psychics or Chinese restaurants. And not that fast food, 2-item combo shit! But like a sit down and drink tea and unfold your swan-shaped napkin-type spot. With the real non-wooden chopsticks! And fishtanks! Do horoscopes mean anything to you? Is Taurus as a bull significant to you in any way? Hot, Chinese mustard. Yay or nay?

Taurus Scott: So what's crazy is, me and my pops have the same birthday in May. Lowkey that's why my folks named me Taurus. Horoscopes don't mean shit to me honestly cause every horoscope I read never came true.

Syffal: SMH… Christmas is Queens.

Taurus Scott: I do pay attention and read up on the actual Taurus sign though. I'm a Taurus to the core. Stubborn, lazy, always eating, shit like that. Haha!

Oh and nah, I don't Fuck with that hot mustard. Never been a fan of it.

Syffal: You are an insane person. If wasabi and hot mustard were women I'd have to tear myself in half and marry both, or move to Utah.

You have said that musically "anything goes". I've only ever seen you DJ and once was for The Mike Eagle Show at Los Globos which was really fucking cool and funny but not really like seeing you at Respect, or Low End. Given your ideal night, musically, what would someone who came out to see Taurus Scott expect to come away with? Besides needing to smoke a cigarette.

Taurus Scott: I remember that Los Globos show. Good times! Basically I'm going to give you an all around bass music set. I go hard and like to turn up. Everything from dubstep, grime, d&b, jungle, beats, juke, and hip hop. I go off the crowd and see what vibes people are feeling. That's why most gigs I get call for a DJ set. When people start to know by word of mouth you be killing shit, gigs start to come in.

Syffal: You worked as a house producer for G-Unit. You moved to New York City, from Arizona, to work for G-Unit? At 18? How fucked in the head was that? I think stuff like that never happened for me because I'm a talentless shit, but also because success-in any sense of the word-came to me later in life. Or I would have been dead in a year. How many emotional scars remain? I'm only half-kidding.

Taurus Scott: Right, so in G-Unit I was doing engineering and production. Working under Sha Money Xl. Sha is the one that put me on. He's doing big shit now. I moved to NYC when I was 18 and stayed out there for a minute. Working odd ass jobs and getting fired. I worked at this car dealership in Queens and those fools fired me cause I took a car from the lot and went to lunch without telling anyone, and they all thought I was on drugs. Which was not true, only WEED. I left NYC and went back to AZ for a few months. I been sending Sha Money beats for the longest. He finally called me and said they was looking for an engineer and if I moved back he would give me a shot. So I packed my bags and left again. From there it was on. I got mad stories. Nothing I would share online tho. But I had some of the best times of my life working for the Unit.

Syffal: Metallica and RATM were influences for you. Do you credit being from Scottsdale and by proxy hescher burnouts smoking dirt weed behind 7/11 as integral to that exposure? Or do you think that you would have been as open to outside influences if not for where you first laid ears upon the Earth?

Taurus Scott: Bands like that especially RATM influenced me heavy because I been a drummer since the 4th grade. I would always try and copy those drum riddims to practice. It helped me get my chops up. I listen to everything. I'm hella open, all music inspires me. Even country now.

Syffal: I'm originally from New Orleans. I've seen girls full-on twerk to Toby Keith songs. So weird.

So you come to LA. Why? Then, you meet Dibia$e, go to Low End Theory, and what? Fall in love? Was it like a feeling of kinship and an understanding, or more like face melt, future shock, blown away? What significance did Low End Theory, as a transformative community, have for you?

Taurus Scott: I came to LA cause I needed a change after doing music in NY. Back then I was really looking for placements. I knew there was other ways of getting money off your music other than looking to place records with rappers. I moved to LA and didn't know a single soul. Well one person, my homie Justin Myracks. Got a job slanging music gear at West LA Music, met Dibia$e at the RedBull Bigtune Beat Battle and he took me to Low End Theory. After Low End, game over. That's where I needed to be. Low End made it be known that you can come up there and just do you. Everyone loved weed and beats. I was in heaven bruh.

Syffal: You've produced tracks for Nocando and his Hellfyre Club collective. How is making beats for alt rappers different from the G-Unit stuff?

Taurus Scott: I guess the only thing different is that alt rappers are more open to weird experimental beats. During the G-Unit time, there was a certain formula that worked and they stayed with it.

My bad, time to take a smoke break...

Taurus Scott: I'm back...

Syffal: I'm also assuming some years have passed between those two destinations and I wonder too: you having been someone actively producing then and now, what has changed the most in terms of production? Is it better or worse or are you indifferent now that every 30-something former raver with a Macbook and a desk job thinks they can produce?

Taurus Scott: Man back in the day when I was coming up (I can't believe I'm old enough to say back in the day) it was all about the MPC and keyboards. I had the MPC 60. The drums on that thing hit so hard, nothing like it. You would have like 5 different keyboards hooked up to your MP and then track out the beats in Pro Tools. Now you can do everything in your computer. I know mad people not even fucking with Pro Tools. shit I just got Reason 8 and I'm in love with it. I don't judge these new people out here making beats. Times have changed. At the end of the day people with real talent will be the last ones standing.

Syffal: It's like Instagram makes everyone think, even if they don't admit it, that they could be a photographer if they really REALLY put their little minds to it. But at the end of the day real photographers still work.

Who's your favorite rapper to work with? Not in terms of the finished product, but to like record with and chill with while making music. DO you chill with rappers while you make music!? Because it just occurred to me you might like Dropbox that shit and be onto the next thing… hahahaha!!!

Taurus Scott: LOL! Right now I do work with a new artist named Asad iLL. Dude got bars and he Fucks with The Order Label/Alpha Pup fam. Honestly I don't even like to be around people when I make music. I like to be alone. Just me, my weed, and a beautiful lady rolling my weed.

Syffal: That's why I have Johnny Symmes.

Which three artists did you last listen to? Like I haven't left my house all day, so I went back and looked at the "last played" option in my iTunes. Before listening to you, it was a great Northeastern noise group called SPLNSHNTS, and before them Mick Jenkins "The Water[s]," which is fucking hard. Before Mick it was Buck 65's 'Situation'.

Taurus Scott: Ummmmmmmm…the last thing I listened to was a grime remix I did of this Wiley track. Before that it was my homie from the UK, Soloman. One of his grime tracks that's fucking insane. Then before that it was Kendrick Lamar with Hood Politics.

Syffal: I fucking loved your "Beat on the Drum" video. All Willy Wonka, and coming of age. Was all that just like a dope idea because you knew some guy who could do all that purple shit with the eyes and the sky and hallways, or does that narrative have a significance to you personally?

Taurus Scott: Me and the video director was at his house in Venice one day smoking weed. We was just high as Fuck listening to the beat and started throwing around the ideas that you see in the video. It just worked out.

Syffal: Cool story, bro! So, you have a self-titled record on Hellfyre. In November it'll be two years. What's the next nug we'll be able to shove in our bowls to toke on? Is there another Taurus Scott project in the works?

Taurus Scott: Yeah dude...I'm working on another project now. I'm just getting my Reason bars up before I really go in to full production mode. It's been a minute and I'm ready to be in full artist mode.

Syffal: Reason bars. Like Cliff Bars but with actual flavor! Thanks for spending some time with us Mr. Scott. I'm a see you soon! Love!