Q&A&Playlist with Tasheff
"I spent a lot of time going on long walks with my headphones on, checking out architecture and people watching, using the time alone to reflect on my own life.”
Photo by Sara Shaw.
Music begets music. For independent musician Tasheff, listening to the tracks of other artists is a primary source of inspiration. Obsessive spins of his favorite records soundtracked the process of writing Tasheff’s recent EP, “The Dream Is Dead.” To celebrate its release, Tasheff shared a playlist of songs that helped shape his experience as a musician.
Tell us a little bit about the songs you chose for this playlist. What makes these tracks significant to you?
This playlist is a mix of my favorite music that has stuck with me from my formative years, as well as what I was listening to while making The Dream is Dead. It’s basically a complete collection of all my never-skips! I noticed a theme of really creative, unique songwriting, as well as mostly electronic, forward-thinking production. I think the influence of some of the artists like Cyndi Lauper, Linn da Quebrada, or Marie Davidson may not be immediately apparent in my work, but they’re really important to me. I tried to throw some curveballs for people who only know me from my recent music!
What influences the music you write? Where do you pull inspiration from?
I listen to albums pretty obsessively, so I draw a lot of influence from whatever I have on repeat at the time. In this case, I was listening to “I’m Your Empress Of” by Empress Of and “Ricky Music” by Porches. I spent a lot of time going on long walks with my headphones on, checking out architecture and people watching, using the time alone to reflect on my own life. Writing music for me is an important way for me to process my emotions, or whatever is happening in my personal life. Every song on the EP was created out of the challenges I was facing at the time. I didn’t necessarily sit down and say “I’m going to write about this today,” but then I would relisten to the lyrics I had sung and start to understand my emotions about a given situation.
What was the production and writing process like for the EP you just released?
Each song has a different story. I started writing and producing Head in May 2020 and finished it around New Years 2021. Easy was written in basically one take, and So Embarrassing started as a slow, Blood Orange-inspired number until I gave it a more aggressive beat to compliment its lyrics. Not A Doctor was the last song I wrote for the project, and that was when I realized I had made an EP. I’d been really unhappy while writing the demos of these songs, and then I suddenly lost my job and my relationship, and took that as a chance to go home and process everything I’d been through. I ended up in quarantine, staying alone and revising and mixing this EP. Finishing it walked a thin line between having a cathartic outlet for the painful things I had experienced while writing these songs, and having to wake up and relive those memories every day while working on it. I’m relieved that it's out in the world now, because I’ve been able to let go of the pain that went into writing it. Those stories aren’t mine to tell anymore.
Are there certain types of music that you listen to when you're in a time of heavy writing?
I was in quarantine when I was finishing this project and felt very cooped up and frustrated, so I would listen to a lot of dance music, stuff with direct and confrontational lyrics, and I would dance around my apartment for hours on end to let out some of that energy. That inspired the feeling I wanted to run throughout the EP: high energy, very emotional, makes you want to move.
How do you listen to music? Do you listen with headphones, on records, etc.? At specific times of the day?
I go on super long walks and put on an album or 4… sometimes I end up walking around for 3 hours! It's one of my favorite things to do. Other than that, I listen to music while cooking dinner, walking to class, or work, and my roommates and I will sit around and watch music videos together for hours. I always listen pretty actively though, and the first thing I hear in a new song is its lyrics. I only recently found out that some people don’t even register lyrics in songs, which blows my mind.