TOKO TASI INTERVIEW
Toko Tasi made quite the impact on The Pier when his debut album, Spiritual Life, dropped last year. It was instantly dubbed the most freshest reggae-influenced album release of 2007. We all wanted to know about him. Just who was this cat that was making some amazing music with the Skunk/Long Beach legends crew? Hopefully this exclusive interview will shed a little more light.
The Pier: What can you tell us about yourself in general and how did you get into music?
Toko Tasi: I have been living my life spiritually. I used to be on tour for snowboarding and skateboarding and I just picked up music along the way. I just had a self-belief that I could pick up and work any talent. I was born and raised in Hawaii and so originally surfing was my stick as those beaches were my backyard. I got sponsored and went on the AM PRO and did the same thing with skateboarding. I then went pro snowboarding and quit skateboarding. Got injured and then I found music. However, I was always into reggae and hip hop and I felt that I needed to have another career on my back so I might as well do music.
I actually started music in 2002 with Michael "Miguel" Happoldt and straight off the bat he told me it was going to be harder to get into music as a solo artist. It would be better to have a band, knowing me I don’t believe a word anyone has to say. I just had a gut feeling and told him that anytime in the future put me on Skunk Records, cause I am going for that solo artist and am starting to prepare for it now. I had hundreds of friends in the hip hop industry and I always pictured myself up there doing that.
I had a problem with drinking and that was developed through all my sports you know? I told Miguel that I was going to keep the recordings for Spiritual Life to ourselves. I didn’t really want to come out yet. But he gave it to a couple of friends and worked it around the industry and they came back to him wanting to know who I was. So he helped me out for a couple of years cause I wasn’t ready. I needed to have reassurance that if Toko Tasi the solo artist was coming out, it had to be me – Toko T. I needed to find 110% that this is me and nobody else.
The Pier: I first heard you on the Jesus Wore Dickies compilation CD, was that your first recordings?
Toko Tasi: Yeah they were. Lew Richards was the engineer cat that did those. He believed in my talent and just put me out there. It was great to be on an album with Tippa Irie and Snoop Dog.
The Pier: So musically what are some of your main inspirations?
Toko Tasi: I grew up on a lot of reggae and Hawaiian music. Very spiritual songs that have touched me and now I try to give that back in a different time and on a different page. Ahh Hawaii. I used to go back to Hawaii every other year and visit family, surf and enter contests and help fund raising activities. Since I have started doing music I haven’t had the chance to go back and touch that "Rock" for a couple of years now though.
The Pier: So tell us how did your relationship with Miguel start?
Toko Tasi: We started becoming good friends in 97-98. It’s hard for a lot of people on the street to know Miguel because he was that independent person you know? I just had spirit where I would hit him up to go surfing and I was always in the water between five and nine. So that’s how it all started. We would go out into the ocean and I would feel it out there - it is like this blessing and that I am being baptized in the barrel. So I would start freestyling and he started to pick that up and asked me when do I want to come down to the studio? He would put on some instrumentals and I would just flow on it. It just came out naturally, but it also had that Long Beach style that every band wanted from Sublime.
The Pier: What is it like working with Miguel in the studio?
Toko Tasi: He is a good mentor. He finds ways for me to make it a whole lot easier, through my path and through my recordings. He is also a really good friend so it’s never on that business type talk. It’s always friendship. I need to have some background on ya before we go into the studio together.
The Pier: What is the story behind the album name Spiritual Life? The lyrics and themes seem to certainly support a spiritual path?
Toko Tasi: From the first song to the fifteenth and last track that explains my whole story how I started. Each song is a certain step, a certain achievement. It all kind of came together like how Brad (Nowell) would take reggae artists verses and choruses for his songs, I wanted to grab each member of certain bands to fit my type. To capture that style that was stuck in my head. In the future I told Miguel he would start understanding more and so he started pulling everybody in and it took a couple of years to get everybody to hear the feeling of what my vision was. I am just glad it came out and in the future it is going to sound a whole lot better.
The Pier: Nice. So the song Pasquales is loosely base on a surf trip you took to mainland Mexico. What was so special about that trip that it was worth turning it into a song?
Toko Tasi: Yeah my birthday was coming up and Miguel took me out there to have a fun time and have an easy 10 days and I actually forgot it was my birthday (haha). I knew a lot of cats from the whole surfing industry and we bumped into them at Pasquales and that is the most beautiful time I have ever had in my whole life.
C’mon having a friend buy you a plane ticket and then just to get to chill out. It was great and gave me a chance to see the brighter side of life, cause I was going in a different direction in the skating world and I couldn’t see myself doing that. We had an acoustic night out there by a bonfire and I told them then I was going to write a song about Pasquales when I get home. It was a beautiful time and there are a lot of memories right there. Shit you not Miguel thought I was lying about writing it (haha).
The Pier: So who is this the "Trippa Slippa Chick" you mention in the track Love to Share?
Toko Tasi: That song actually reminds me of back home. Cause on the "Big Rock" everyone wears slippers you know? It’s on the good side, you know where you need money to maybe be intoxicated to invade a party, or to pay for the rent, or to have money in your pockets for smokes, wax or whatever and your chick ends up trippin’ – even though she has got me and there is no love affair. I just picked that phrase out to get it out to the island so they know me (haha).
The Pier: How did you feel about using a vocal sample of Brad (Nowell) on that song?
Toko Tasi: I actually made that call. I wanted to bring in Brad because between me and Miguel we would have a lot of bonfire nights and that's when I would think about Brad and I would wish that fucker would still be here and I wish he had changed his ways. Cause I would try and take him snowboarding when he was on tour and I was on tour for snowboarding. I wanted to fix his spirit that he was taking down a steep slide and I just wanted to try to help him up an easy slope. So as I was doing this album I would think about him and I thought I needed to represent him. I asked Miguel for whatever he had and if he didn’t have anything that was cool, but he was down with the whole project. It was done just for the true love of him.
The Pier: So what was your relationship with Brad?
Toko Tasi: It wasn’t too close, cause I was that sideshow to him, that fan to him and he was always working on music and I hadn’t even thought about doing that yet. I didn’t understand his passion, but I knew how important it was so I never got in the way. So we would drink here and there, but we were all on different pages and at that time I wasn’t really involved with it. If you went to a party you would get to chill with them but then you wouldn’t get to see them in a couple of minutes which would turn into days or even months.
The Pier: Back to the album, it must have been amazing to have a special guest like Half Pint featured on there?
Toko Tasi: Half Pint is like the root of my soul. I started playing Half Pint when I was six years old back on the “Rock.” I love his music and while I love every reggae artist there are certain ones that I take under my wings. My whole family adjusted to me playing his music and it drew attention to me and I never got to meet him till I met him though Lew Richards (Jesus Wore Dickies) and you know everybody told me he don’t smoke. Well he asked me for one (haha). He is a cool mentor to me. We actually had to do that track in Cali and send it off to him.
The Pier: You have also done a lot of work with Philieano. How did that relationship start?
Toko Tasi: I have known Phili for a long time and his brother Opie Ortiz (LBDA/Dubcat) and the whole Long Beach crew. Me being sponsored through skateboarding and him not being a bad athlete I would hook him up with shoes and boards and that’s how we got to chill and know each other. At that time to me he was just this young kid. Me and him working together on music, well a lot of people can’t really collaborate with me for certain reasons. Phili though understands me and the certain paths I have been through. We work on a lot of instrumentals together just cause we connect. We are both fully aware of how we can make it sound good and he inspires me to write.
The Pier: You were also featured on the new Slightly Stoopid album (Girl so Fine). What's it like working with those guys?
Toko Tasi: Those cats have been around for a while now and were always true to themselves. They give it all they got. It’s cool with Slightly Stoopid cause of how I work with Kyle. He writes that beautiful music that I can understand and it will fit my style, like Phili. I just hope in the future it just keeps on going with me and those guys.
The Pier: I have noticed there is a lot of demos and extra tracks put up on your MySpace. Have you done a lot of recordings that did not make this album?
Toko Tasi: Oh yeah. What I will do is call up Miguel and from personal notes I will play stuff for him. In the end I think the songs are not ready to come out and we just have to wait a little. Sometimes Miguel won’t feel it and he will tell me off the bat that we need to wait and brush them up. I have the patience to wait with those tracks and then use them to help identify me on the second album.
The Pier: So have you started thinking about the next album already?
Toko Tasi: Yeah I am actually working on 12 tracks right now. Some of those will be a definite yes and the album is going to be more reggae and more of me identifying myself. Maybe also a little punk rock on there. Like with Pasquales you didn’t hear the original song, it was a straight punk jam and it was tight and beautiful. When we got working to it on the album it just came out all soulful. So there will be some punk rock and acoustic style too.
Toko Tasi - Babymilk Video
The Pier: Do you ever plan to tour? I heard rumors you were starting to prepare with a live band in Miguel’s studios?
Toko Tasi: Yeah that is correct. We actually just started doing this, but have talked about doing it for a while. At the moment I just spin CDs to sing over. I can’t wait for the band cause it will sound more like the album. The band includes Marshall Goodman, and Aaron Owens coming direct. We have got some shows coming up in Hawaii, where we will be playing all the islands out there. So that will be fun. We are getting lots of requests to come and play around the US. Everything is all there for the band and it sounds so good. I am also going to go out to Japan soon with Philieano and play some shows just backed by the CD.
I just want to keep on going and adjusting to this new course in my life and get the music out there for all the young kids. I love watching the little ones bumping this music. I adore that and for all the haters I love them too (haha).
Much respect to Toko Tasi coming by The Pier and providing us with the opportunity to get to know him a little better. Also thanks to Miguel for helping set this interview up.
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