Blue Sky Black Death

Blue Sky Black Death.

It's not what it sounds like. Along with their many fans, music magazines such as "Pitchfork," "SPIN" and "URB"  agree this band with Healdsburg roots is red hot and very much alive.

Ian Taggart (nicknamed Young God), a native of Healdsburg, along with co-producer Kingston Maguire of Washington, supply listeners with a mix of live instrumentation and unique, melodic synth sounds, mastering the art of "sampling."

The Hip-Hop/Dream Pop production duo, abbreviated simply "BSBD," is flooding the underground hip-hop scene with their 15th album release.

Currently based in Seattle, BSBD teamed up with relatively unknown emcee Nacho Picasso (birth name Jesse Robinson) for their second full-length LP release in the last five months.

This one, titled "Lord Of The Fly," was stategically released on Friday the 13th of January.  For those who are unfamiliar, Nacho has "been a weirdo since Ring Pops and slingshots" (his words).

In the Internet age of free music, it is much easier for artists to get their work into the ears of listeners who might not normally take a chance on an unknown group of musicians. Let it be known, the current music industry is not necessarily a place for steady income.

In the rare interview below, Ian Taggart tells about his experiences in the music industry, quitting his day-job in this economy, and a third Nacho Picasso release:

PATCH:

Listeners can hear massive jumps between your albums' different sounds and styles. Do the same artists influence you now that influenced you when you first started making music?

TAGGART:

The first CDs I was actually buying were a lot of jazz artists, which I would also get from my grandpa, so that's mostly what I had as a young boy.

But it is when I actually started heavily getting into hip-hop in my junior high school years, listening to East Coast artists such as Nas and Wu Tang Clan, when I realized how much it really influenced me.

I'm always trying to listen to whats going on and what's new and I definitely get inspired by new [stuff]. It would kinda be a disservice to myself just to listen to old [stuff], because I would end up sounding maybe kinda dated.

Now, I like all regions, but I'm probably more influenced by southern rap, definitely in the past five years or so. Even on our instrumental releases, not just recordings with rappers.

PATCH:  

What sort of muses do you have for creating music?

TAGGART:

As far as our instrumental stuff, I like them to basically be like stories, like each track is a little bit of a story, creating an album. It's safe to say each track is a specific story that has happened, with a beginning, middle and end.

The music goes places, and the listener can kinda apply their own experiences to it. When we made "Late Night Cinema" (2008), the song “Ghosts Among Men,” we used the vocal sample of some World War II type thing, and I was doing another interview where the guy asked “So, it's about World War II then?” and I was like “Well...I mean... it can be...” (laughs). It's instrumental music, so its way more open to interpretation.

PATCH:

You quit your day-job to focus solely on making music. After releasing two albums in the last few months, what is your level of motivation right now?

TAGGART:

Well, I'm more motivated right now, more than I've ever been. Everyday I'm doing music. I quit my job a few years ago and I just got really lazy, watching "The OC" on daytime television. (Laughs).

Sometimes I feel like I just need to have a job, I feel a little bit anxious not having a job for so long. So it's kind of an on-and-off thing -- plus the income from music isn't steady at all, and it's not really getting much better since the industry is so terrible.

PATCH:

After 15 album releases, what are you expecting from taking this on as a “career”... Do you think it's something you will do forever?

TAGGART:

Well, I think one way or another, yeah. I mean, I have to because I don't know what would fill the void if I stopped doing it. I mean, I guess I could do something else where I could be creative in a different way, but I feel really weird if I don't do music.

Since it is really hard to make money off of actually selling music and touring and stuff like that, I feel like eventually I could get into film scoring.

I already have so much material that would suit movies perfectly. That's gonna give you a lot more money than the music industry at this point. So that would be another goal, it's just really hard to kinda get your foot into that door.

PATCH:

What would you say is your personal favorite album you have made, or the one you are most proud of? Maybe one for all generations to check out?

TAGGART:

For a long time, I felt like "Late Night Cinema" (2008) was kind of our greatest achievement, but, now I think the song crafting was better on "NOIR" (2011). I guess "NOIR" would be the one I'm most proud of right now.

A lot of people have told me that even like their parents are into it. People like to use it as "working music," they can be productive listening to it.

Maybe also "Slow Burning Lights" (2008). But, honestly, the rap stuff I'm producing right now, I'm definitely having the most fun. It's serious, but it doesn't feel serious, because its just “not-so-serious” rap music. (Laughs).

PATCH:

You've had plenty of experience making music for years now, so would you say that you have a pretty good grasp on creating at this point, and your ability to just kinda... [fool] around with it?

TAGGART:

At this point, I'd rather just do stuff that's really fun. I mean, on any certain day, I can make any type of music. Just a couple days ago, I posted up a 13-minute-long ambient track called “Thirteen,” just straight up ambient music, there are no drums or anything...just pure heroin. (Laughs).

PATCH:

Your production style has always been more unique: Did that kinda drive you to working with a unique, relatively unknown hip hop artists such as Nacho Picasso as you did in your past 2 releases?

TAGGART:

Yeah, for sure. I'd say we're respected in our genres. But at the same time, we don't have a lot of rappers trying to work with us, cause our [stuff] is not the most straightforward type of stuff.

But I think there's more kind of a market for our sound now, and there are more rappers rapping over the type of beats we produce.

With Nacho, it's super easy because we could play him anything and he'll rap over it. His persona has an ego, but his working ethic doesn't. So that's been a huge factor. There have been so many rappers we've worked with who just have huge ego's and they're flaky, we'll give them like 20 beats and they'll pick one, and its the weakest one.

PATCH:

How did you find Nacho Picasso?

TAGGART:

Well, before I even moved up here to Seattle, Kingston already knew him, he was already friends with him. Nacho also happened to be Rashad's [producer known as Raised By Wolves] cousin, and Rashad had already done work on our albums such as Jean Grae's "The Evil Jeanius" (2008) and toured with us and Cunninlynguists in 2011. It was a while before we even started doing music together, he was just friends with Kingston, and once I moved up here, I became friends with him too.

PATCH:

What was it that finally made you decide to make an album with him?

TAGGART:

Well, Rashad was really campaigning for Nacho, who only had one mixtape before we started working with him. Rashad produced the whole thing, and recorded Nacho and didn't really have any experience in recording so it sounded kinda lo-fi.

He didn't really have any experience in actually putting out music either and getting it to the people who need to hear it. And then just once we started actually doing songs with him, we were really into it, and just his attitude and personality is really likeable, so those we all big factors. He comes over here everyday to write and record. It has been really easy.

PATCH:

Do you plan on working with Nacho more, or do you see this being a long-term music relationship?

TAGGART:

Well, yeah...we're already like seven tracks into the third release. From the beginning, we were kinda cultivating him as an artist and everything was really in-house. The artwork, the videos, the releases, kinda just how we wanted people to perceive him.

So, it was almost more satisfying than anything we've done because it was 100 percent ourselves. You know, no label, no PR, no nothing. So, I think we have a lot invested at this point, so I see it being a continued relationship for a while.

PATCH:

You guys are really pumping out music at this point. All of your fans, reviewers, critics, etc. are really going to expect releases on a regular basis, is that something you see yourself being able to deliver?

TAGGART:

Yeah I think so. I felt like, with the "Lord Of The Fly," we really knew how we wanted it to sound and it really only occurred to us by the end of making "For The Glory," how we wanted the whole aesthetic to sound.

And so now, the third one, I guess is going to be a continuation of that. We always try to outdo ourselves, so people can expect that to happen. We always try to deliver. In the rap industry these days, you kinda need to be putting out new music frequently.

With the Internet, people's attention spans tend to be kinda short, and fickle. So that's kinda why we are pumping music out, and we just wanna keep this buzz going. So far, so good!

[Kyle Cott has known Ian Taggart for over 20 years.  They grew up together in Healdsburg.]

Check out the wide variety of music produced by Blue Sky Black Death at:

www.BSBDmusic.com which links to their Facebook, Youtube, and Vimeo where you can watch their music videos and even download free music.

Follow them on Twitter: @BSBDmusic

Check out Nacho Picasso at www.nachopicasso.bandcamp.com and download the free albums.