Tujarzz - Welcome to the 4th Kind
Interview with the artist Tujarzz via phone on 7.3.20
Interview by Nick DeVan
“...my music I want it to be otherworldly, hypnotizing, something that takes you up, and abducts you...”
Where are you from?
I’m from Dallas, but my people are from Shreveport LA.
When did you start making music?
I’ve been rapping and recording myself on the old portable tape recorders, man, I probably had to be about 13. When I started taking it seriously, it was around highschool. I was the person people would run and get to rap. And then I didn’t go into my first actual studio until I was about 20. And from then on I’ve been recording and slightly producing music and things like that with different groups.
What’s your recording set up?
Well, when I’m at home...I’m very passionate about audio recording, I just don’t have the time to be an artist AND record AND produce AND sample. But a lot of times people can’t get what I have inside of my head. I’m kind of a weird guy, in visions and things like that. So, I produce it here [at the house] and then take it to a studio. I go to a studio called Session Works, they’re pretty big here in Texas. And then work with the guy side by side, he hears the sounds and he tries to mimic them.
For your new album Welcome to the 4th Kind”, a couple of those songs you recorded at the studio, but most of the vocals were recorded at home right?
Yep
You design clothing as well?
Yes, that’s another thing that happened to me when I was very young. My mother, she was a model and she would take me to a gig. And I could remember slightly people walking down the catwalk. And she gave me a book that had these old fashion drawings where you could color them in. And I remember coloring in a highlighter, and I remember how that highlighter really sparked my brain and imagination. And I always loved fashion shows and modeling and fabrics and clothing and I just started designing.
Do you have people tailor the clothes or is it mostly screen print type designs?
It’s screen printed on high fashion garments. Like I will make a trench coat and screenprint the whole coat with either my logo or a drawing, or some art that I did.
Before Covid 19 hit, you were talking about opening up a Wellness shop?
Yeah, I was on my way right before this virus hit. But we need these things now more than ever, so I’ve been doing a little bit out of the house.
Talk about some of the themes on your new album Welcome to the 4th Kind…
Well, my favorite type of music was in the psychedelic era, and the performance era. I love music that you can sit back and get intimate with the audience. And maybe turn the lights down a little low, and everybody’s sitting there with you know, candles lit, drinking coffee or whatever. And it’s intimate songs, slow, where you can understand it, catchy. It’s a real cool vibe. And that’s actually how I found you guys. I think I was looking up “vintage hip-hop beats” or something like that. It may have pulled up a couple of different videos on youtube, but then one of your videos was the suggestion. The one with the guy skating. (Magic in Threes - Beatin’ tha Breaks) And I was just listening to the song and I ended up freestyling on it and I came back and I wrote it down. I was like, let me tag these guys and see if they actually like it. Because I know you don’t usually go about it that way when getting beats. You usually contact the guy first and then you work out something. But I was just feeling it so much at that time I just went on and recorded it. I thought maybe they’ll like it so I’ll just send it to them. Then I started looking up your guys videos and that vibe that ya’ll had is exactly what I just explained and what I like.
Can you talk about the owl theme on your new album?
Yeah the owl theme. Have you seen this movie The Fourth Kind? Everytime someone gets taken up or gets taken up or abducted by anything, or hypnotized by anything the first thing they see is an owl in their window. Then through being hypnotized they found out that it wasn’t an owl, it was an alien. So basically my music I want it to be otherworldly, hypnotizing, something that takes you up, and abducts you. So I felt like that theme of the owl went with the project. Funny thing is when I posted about this people asked if I was running a cult. I was like what are you talking about?
Haha right, people take that stuff seriously.
But what tripped me out was, the guy who asked if I was running a cult said “if you are, I want in”.
I’ll have to watch that 4th Kind Movie
It’s a horror movie. It’s just the things that I see in movies, to music, to the world, to art, nature, I get something else out of it that other people don’t. I get visions, I get songs, I get an idea, I get an album from it. So the movie is actually a horror movie but I’m not getting the horror part from it. I’m getting the part that I want people to be captivated by the music, and taken over by the music.
What other music projects are you working on right now?
I have a five song project that’s been sitting in DistroKid for like a month now. I’m tying to release that into digital stores later this year.
Tujarzz’s album Welcome to the 4th Kind is out July 10th 2020 on G.E.D. Soul Records
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