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By now you've heard "Chocolate Rain"...but you haven't met the man! HHNLive.com sits down for an exclusive interview with YouTube sensation and Internet phenomenon Tay Zonday! WARNING - This interview is not what you're expecting!
"CHOCOLATE RAIN"
NOW MEET THE MAN...YEAH, WE SAID MAN...
HHNLive: Can you give us a brief background? Where are you from? How old are you? What is your background?
Tay Zonday: I live in Minneapolis. I’m 25 years old. I’m not sure what you mean by “background.” Is that a code word for “race?” The straight-faced answer is that I’m Martian. They don’t have a box for me on the census form. I’m the write-in candidate that the government leaves no space for when you have to choose your race.
Seriously, is race something you choose? The whole point is that I don’t choose it. It is somebody else’s shortcut to my soul. So journalists ask “what’s your background?” like I’m supposed to retell someone else’s story about me as though it’s a fact of who I am and where I come from. As long as I talk about myself in fiction that someone else wrote, I might as well write my own fiction: I’m from Mars. Most believe the story that I’m a black mulatto.
HHNLive: For all the ladies out there, is Tay Zonday single?
TZ: Oh c’mon, relationships are so twentieth century! Why do we imagine ourselves in these pairs? There’s the economic reason: If I don’t have a partner to take care of me in rough times, I might not get through. So when things like Katrina happen and you know the government isn’t going to be there . . . you’ve got this insurance policy of a loving partner who will take care of you. When you can’t afford the surgery you need, you’ve got this insurance policy of a loving partner to take care of you because you have no healthcare. You can say it’s love. You can say it’s sex. But economics and getting by day-to-day are the main reason to label yourself based on the relationship you are in. You better have a committed lover there for you when your government isn’t.
So when Rush Limbaugh talks about the dangerous breakup of the family, and when gays are talking about recognizing same-sex relationships . . . they are actually talking about the same thing. The Human Rights Campaign (pro-gay marriage) and the Christian Coalition (pro-traditional family) agree: We need to spend our lives labeling ourselves based on what relationship we are in. But when you stop being afraid that nobody’s going to be there to support you if you become disabled; When you stop being afraid that you can’t live a decent life without two incomes; When you stop being afraid that life is so hard that you’ve got to have an ally at your side just to stay afloat . . . then you stop worrying about relationships. You stop labeling yourself according to your own relationship. You stop worrying about what other people are doing in their relationships. It no longer matters whether Tay Zonday is single.
I’m not dogging stable relationships. I think they can be fantastic. But when relationship status totally dominates the way we think about each other, there are bigger reasons than love and sex. Heaven knows those can happen without a relationship. You asked this as a very simple question. But I connected the dots. In music and life, you’ve got to connect the dots to see how simple things relate to power.
HHNLive: When did you first start recording music? And what prompted you to begin doing this?
TZ: I started playing around with recording audio when I was thirteen years old. I got a brand-new Pentium 90. I goofed off with Windows Sound Recorder and the awesomely cutting-edge MP3 file format. About two years later, I noticed that a friend of mine used actual sequencing software to edit MIDI and record audio. So when I upgraded to my next computer, I got a higher quality sound card and imitated his rig. I don’t think anything in particular prompted me to explore recording music. My Dad has always been a gadgeteer. Tinkering with the limitations of the hardware in front of me was standard behavior in my family.
HHNLive: Who are some of your musical influences?
TZ: You aren’t going to believe this: I have never really listened to music. (Wow, my critics will quote that one). What I mean is that some people buy an iPod and they will listen to that thing in every spare moment of life: Walking to the bus. Riding on the bus. Walking to their job. Doing the dishes. Or they’ll have the radio blasting as they commute in the car. It has never been my practice to make music the backdrop of daily living. Part of it is that my parents were very strict as I grew up. I was not allowed to listen to a lot of music. Even in my late teen years as I approached adulthood, if it wasn’t classical music or Disney music, then it wasn’t really welcome in my house. I never watched MTV or VH1. I never watched rated-R movies. I grew up in a very intense pop-culture and pop-music isolation.
My only outlet was the internet, where my parents could not see what I was doing. So I would download MP3 files of music that I played in my headphones. But back then, you couldn’t just grab the Tupac Discography in one download. There weren’t even entire albums in, say, 1997. Most people were still on dialup modem connections. You only found MP3s of top singles and top hits. I cobbled together a modest MP3 collection that my parents could not hear. But because it was just top hits and not albums, I never came to identify strongly with any particular artist. And, of course, it wasn’t like I could put up posters or go to live concerts.
In many ways, I feel like a musical orphan. I’m not sure who my influences are. Growing up, I learned to hide the fact that I had any passion or enjoyment for music or life. Being “influenced” to laugh or dance was always a sickness or pathology. It made my parents fearful that they were losing their kids. To this day, I’m not sure you could get me to admit that I was influenced by anything. It’s just beaten out of the way I think. Perhaps people call my music “unique” because I don’t feel beholden to any influences.
HHNLive: Are you a fan of Hip-Hop? And if so, who are some of your favorite artists?
TZ: I guess I just respect any musician who puts themselves out there. I don’t believe in genrea. Musical genrea are invented as a shortcut so you can walk into the store and stand in front of a bunch of albums that are supposedly similar to each other. Genera are invented so that marketing scientists can profile us and say “Hey! This type of person likes this type of music!” So then they try to blanket that type of person’s life (e.g. the suburban teenage male) with advertisements that promote the music-type which marketers conclude he will like. He grows up surrounded by these ads that lock music up in categories in order to produce him as a predictable consumer.
Then the world starts calling this consumer democracy. “Hey man! You’re ‘living in free market democracy! You can choose between thirty different types of music that marketing experts define in order to predict your behavior.” At some point, the consumer starts to doubt these categories. I just respect music, period. Categories never meant much to me.
HHNLive: When did you first start uploading your videos to YouTube? And why did you begin doing this?
TZ: I started in January of 2007. I don’t know why I started. Video sharing sites are a fairly new thing. It’s not like I was sitting around in 2003 going “one day, I’m going to upload videos of myself to the internet that are easy for other people to watch!” Like most other people who post videos, Youtube is something that happened to me. It wasn’t in anybody’s life plan to become V-loggers or Youtube musicians. The opportunity just presented itself.
HHNLive: Since everyone is asking, is any part of your videos, look and/or sound meant to be a joke? Like are you trying to become an Internet star (a la Reh Dogg, Mr. Pregnant, etc.) or are you a serious musician? Can you see why people might think this is a joke?
TZ: In a nutshell, you are asking whether it is my goal to be an artist or to be an entertainer. Why does this matter? There is no way that I can “win” this question. If I say I was trying to be serious, and everyone laughs at it, I lose. If I say I was trying to make people laugh, but they only see a serious message, I lose.
People should not worry about what I was trying to do with my music or my videos. They should just experience it in the way that is real to them. It is not my job to understand why people experience my art in the way that they do. I just make the art and people find what they find in it. Leave it at that. We spend too much time in this world trying to be each others’ psychiatrists. Does what I was trying to do with the music, or my imagination of how other people experience the music, actually make a difference in what it means to you?
HHNLive: "Chocolate Rain" has EXPLODED online. Are you surprised at the response? And what do you think it is about the song that is making it so appealing to everyone?
TZ: The version of “Chocolate Rain” that has become popular was basically a concept mix. It would be hard to even call it a demo. If it was software, it would be in the early alpha stages. So I’m in a strange situation where an experimental preview has become popular.
I’m pretty sure the “Chocolate Rain” attention started as a joke at 4chan.org, an image board that is credited with starting lots of popular internet phenomena. It spread to a general audience and people started uploading spoofs. I don’t know what causes people to listen to my music. If I could speak it, there would be no reason to write songs.
HHNLive: Following "Chocolate Rain", what do you think your next hit will be?
TZ: I don’t know. It’s easy for me to write pop hits. I uploaded “Internet Dream” last week. Being a pop hit machine is not all that I can do, but it may be what I’ll get the most attention for.
HHNLive: Have you fielded any offers yet from TV shows, record labels, radio shows, etc? And if so, who?
TZ: Yes. I don’t think it’s polite for me to talk about specific solicitations. A lot of people invite me to New York or LA. Since these cities are where most radio and television appearances take place, and I can’t presently afford that kind of trip on grad student income, I tend to pass many things up.
HHNLive: Your cover of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" is a personal favorite of mine. Why did you decide to cover this song?
TZ: It was requested by lots of people and I decided to do it. The song has deep cultural significance in some internet circles (particularly the forum I mentioned earlier) . . . so it became a hysterical accomplishment that I actually did what people had asked me to do. The problem with this was that it suggested that whenever hundreds of people spam my comments and messages asking me to do a cover, I’m going to do it. That’s not how it works. I’m thankful for every fan that I get. But people who try to set conditions on what I do, as opposed to respecting what is real to me whenever I do it, aren’t real fans.
HHNLive: Tell us about your singing voice. Has it always been that deep?
TZ: Well, no. It was not deep when I was younger. Every day, about twenty people send me messages asking if my voice is a hoax. Someone who has produced acts for major labels even messaged me a few weeks back, declaring that they found proof in one of my videos that my voice was fake. Or people analyze my mouth movements to declare that I’m artificially deepening my voice. Or they hear me over the telephone and say “Hey! Your voice is not as deep as in Youtube videos!,” as though people audition for Carnegie Hall with grainy cell phone audio.
It’s the most bizarre thing when not only the average Joe, but accomplished producers and other industry folk wonder if I’m doing something to fake my voice. Not a single person who has met me in “real life” and watches my videos finds my voice to be the least bit contrived. Some people still can’t get over my voice when they are face-to-face with me, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at internet conspiracy theories.
HHNLive: Being that your voice is so deep, have you ever thought about doing voiceovers for commercials, movies, etc.? Would you want to do this?
TZ: Sure. I’d totally be interested. I just haven’t had time to pursue it. You often tell yourself in life that “just as soon as I get my stuff together, I’m going to do that!” Pretty soon, you’ve been getting your stuff together for years. That’s me and voiceover work.
HHNLive: Where would you like to be in five years? Where do you see this whole ride taking you? What's the ultimate goal?
TZ: I don’t know. I take it a day at a time. How do you ever know where you would like to be until you get there and look back on it? If I say I want to be somewhere in five years, I may get there and not like it at all. Does that mean I lied? I don’t like talking about the future. The margin of error is too high.
HHNLive: Do you record at home? In a studio? What equipment do you use?
TZ: At home. I use a PC with an EMU 1616M interface. I sing into a Pacific Pro Audio LD1 condenser and/or a Rode K2 condenser, neither of which I really like. Most tracks come together in FL Studio.
HHNLive: If you could have any artist sing on a song with you, who would it be and why?
TZ: I honestly have no idea. I often think it would be nice to have some female backup singers and some choruses. But no one in particular comes to mind.
HHNLive: I've read that some people say you look like a member of the Jackson family Agree or disagree?
TZ: I get lots of Janet and Michael comparisons. I take them as compliments. But I also think there’s a deeper cultural reason behind them.
Any young black man in pop culture who isn’t hypermasculine is held to a racist double-standard. Because Aaron Carter is not hypermasculine. Clay Aiken is not hypermasculine. None of the boy-bands were hypermasculine. But there’s this idea that because I’m a young black male, I’ve got to look hypermasculine. I’ve got to look “urban.” I can’t just be the wholesome, ordinary, bleach-blonde boy-band singer.
Comparisons to Janet and Michael partly happen because people have a limited vocabulary of what young black men can be. So they think “Hmm . . . who’s a young black man who was not hypermasculine? Michael!” People need to ask themselves why young black men don’t have the same freedom to present themselves that young white men do. Because many young white men choose to be hypermasculine. But as soon as a young black man chooses the ordinary suburban-kid look, all of a sudden he violates the prejudice of pop culture.
But you can’t blame this prejudice on everyday people. Because the fantasy that all young black males must be hypermasculine, whereas young white males can be wholesome boy-band members, is promoted by business interests that need categories in which people will be predictable consumers. People are sick of these categories. They see themselves in the eyes of pop music marketers and know it’s not who they are.
This is why corporate sales are down across the entire industry. It’s not because everyone is stealing music. It’s because they woke up to the fact that musical categories, racial categories, and all these other things that are sold to them as their identity, are contrived. They are just the most reliable way to grow the next economic quarter.
The comparisons to Michael and Janet are flattering. But I think they come from people who are trying to hold onto a sense of category in a world where everyone is making their own categories. I defy category. I’m the new route to the next economic quarter. My demographic isn’t black, white, brown, young, old, straight, gay, or any of the above. It’s real people. People who don’t need labels as shortcuts to who they are.
HHNLive: What has been some of your most memorable feedback from fans?
TZ: A mom messaged me yesterday. She told me about how her two-year-old-daughter was sitting at the piano. All of a sudden, she started singing “Chocolate Rain” and hitting the keys.
I get a lot of messages saying stuff like “You are God!!” or friend invites on Facebook that describe the relationship as “went to heaven and came to Earth again.” That just scares me. My favorite feedback is the anecdotal letter that someone writes about how the guy in the next office cubicle is always playing “Demons On The Dance Floor” over his lunch break. I like testimony about how I enter everyday living and thinking.
HHNLive: Where can people contact you?
TZ: If I put an e-mail here, it will be spidered and spammed. People have been using the MySpace message system, which is better and more secure than Youtube’s. It will be a big relief if I eventually choose representation to outsource correspondence to. I could spend twenty-five hours a day answering comments and messages.
HHNLive: Are you looking for management representation right now? A publicist? A label? etc.
TZ: Yes. But I have a day job. The interest has been too crazy for me to handle. About two-hundred-fifty artists have messaged me wanting to collaborate. People in Europe, Florida, California, and New York have sent me messages about managing tours in their regions. I have not even performed live where I live. I am not in a rush to find an agent, label, a publicist, etc. All of those things are like looking for an apartment. You never move into the first one you find. It’s worth it to take the time to get it right.
HHNLive: Do you have any special message for all the Tay Zonday fans out there?
TZ: A lot of people feel some need to hype themselves to their fans. You read their MySpace profiles and it’s like they’re an action hero.
“From the rolling hills of Happyville, the most astounding new talent to hit the airwaves since has been turning heads! Winner of the 2007 , Cookie Monster has been featured by , , and . Praised as “an awesome fusion of and ,” Cookie Monster has brought this unique vibe to audiences from to . The future is full of possibility, and Cookie Monster is finishing a new hit project that’s expected in .”
Tay Zonday is above self-hype. I can’t stand it. I don’t market myself like an action hero. A message for my fans?
I’m glad that you found something in my music.
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