A CONVERSATION WITH TRIP HOP LEGEND WAX TAILOR

Born and based in France, near Paris, Wax Tailor has sold nearly half a million physical copies and holds millions of views on streaming platforms around the world. He’s recognized as one of the leaders of the international hip hop electro scene and has been featured in Pitchfork, Mixmag, NME, Wonderland, CLASH Magazine, XLR8R, Rolling Stone, and I can’t express my excitement on having the opportunity to share my interview on the release of his latest single and award-winning video, ‘Misery (ft. Rosemary Standley)’ . So far, the video has already won awards for Best Music Video at New York International Film Awards, Oniros Film Awards and Cannes Indie Short Awards with nominations for several other prestigious awards in the works. The video was directed by Berkay Türk, a young 3D Motion Designer and artist from Istanbul, Turkey and features the talented vocals of Rosemary Standley (lead singer of Moriarty).

Your greatest inspirations or influences?

When we talk about influences or inspirations for artists, most of the people think about art, music or whatever but I got to say my main influence is everyday life. Waking up, reading about the world we live in. It doesn’t mean that everything you do is completely influenced by geo-political events but I’m a human and a citizen of the world before being an artist, so I use the music to express my feelings.

Of course there are plenty of other inspirations, movies, books maybe before music itself.

How do you see the world changing from the pandemic moving forward?

The Pandemic is just a particle accelerator. It’s not a pure emanation, it’s a kind of predictable accident on a dangerous road, a result from a process & just an episode before the next chapter if we don’t take back control.

To be honest I’m way more scared about the economical crisis that will impact the weakest populations in a few. But about this pandemic even if I said it was predictable, I talk about specialists of course. I was in Paris a few weeks ago in a big station, just watching people around me with masks. I’ve realized that anybody who would have put this scenario on a table one year earlier would have been called a sad collapsologist...

What is your musical creative process like?

I’ve always been obsessed with sounds & texture. I quit never compose before making sounds with old samples; i recreate my own instruments and it’s really the foundation. I’m really obsessed about some music periods in history like the late 60’ for this reason, because I love the sound and the way they were mixing instruments. For the same reason it’s very difficult for me to enjoy a great composition from most of the 80’s because I hate this sound. I deeply believe in the power of this sound evocation & I take a lot of time working on this part of the music.

Anything else you would like to share?

Got a new album release, January 08, 2021 « The Shadow Of Their Suns ». I’m really proud of this album, I’ve been working for more than 2 years on it. I think the direction of this album, its mood resonates with everything around us, I was in this process way beyond the pandemic & everything around but not makes even more sense at the moment. I’m also working on a new live show, with a tour planned for late 2021, can’t wait to get back on stage.

Leila: Yes, me too!!! Thank you.

Photo Ronan Siri