TAILOR JAE INTERVIEW: Introducing one of the hottest and most exciting female DJ-producers emanating from London right now, Tailor Jae. The rapid-rising beatmaker and DJ has been steadily forming a reputation as one of the most exciting new talents in dance music, experimenting with blends of Bass, Grime, Dubstep and Jungle. Get familiar…

What five words define your sound?

Raw, Gritty, Authentic, East-London, Unapologetic.

Who or what first inspired you to make music?

To be transparent, I felt pressured to make music, a lot of people in my ear telling me that’s what I need to be doing to get further in my career, I didn’t like that pressure but started anyway. I’ve always dabbled with FL, Logic etc just for vibes but once I became Tailor Jae the expectations were a lot heavier. Now though I’m learning to love it by doing it on my terms and trusting my own ideas. I take inspo from some of my faves who weren’t afraid to try things and create their own lanes within a sound, like Prince Rapid, Darqwan (Oris Jay), Digital Mystikz, Dexplicit, Sir Spyro, Wiley, Skepta – they all have distinctive and recognisable traits in their productions, I love that. I want to find my lane and hopefully connect with people that resonate with the same frequencies as I do. 

You have a wicked new release called ‘Diss One’ can you tell us about the creative and production process?

When it comes to the instrumental, I’m sure the initial idea came fairly quickly, maybe in like 20 mins; I can’t quite remember, it was like almost a year ago. I just know I was going through a bit of a dark time so I guess subconsciously that’s how the track came out. I don’t really go into sessions with a set idea, maybe a bpm i wanna try but that’s about it. My ideas generally come late at night for some reason so this kind of happened during one of those nights when I just started playing around, maybe trying to distract from my feelings at the time who knows. My process is fairly simple: don’t think, just do. I have to keep momentum when producing, if I stop I lose interest in the idea fairly quickly. I made the main bass sounds using a plugin called vital and the drums are a chopped up audio loop, the rest is atmospheric sounds to add depth. There are very few elements in the track. It’s really refined and simplistic in nature, I like that. 

It features Grime legend Manga Saint Hilare, how did this link-up come about?

I played the beat to my manager and he said we need to get an MC on this. He suggested a few names and we sent the track to Manga, he loved it and said he would vocal it. Of course being a huge legend in Grime I was gassed that not only did he rate my efforts, but that he was willing to feature on my track. Proof of his humility as an artist, I was honoured. He captured the essence of the track perfectly and brought it to life so nicely. Impeccable pen game.

What’s the inspiration behind the song title?

I’d love to give you a real in depth thought out story but the truth is, after we got the vocal back from Manga, I sent it to my mate to listen to it and he named it [laughs] we went with the words Manga used in the chorus. However when you listen to it, it makes sense for the track. 

You have started your own brand called HOTB, can you tell us more about this?

Yep, Heavy on The Bass is my brand extension. It’s homage to my DJ tag line – genreless at heart, heavy on the bass. It’s a space for exploration without rules, the way I’ve always operated. It will consist of music, merch and will eventually look at working with brands and festivals with curation. It’s all about authenticity. I’ll be exploring, collaborating with artists and hopefully building a platform that fosters genuine connection and realness. There will be live sets, events with a heavy emphasis on visual content.

Personally, what’s the easiest and hardest part about being a DJ?

The easiest part for me is, I guess knowing there’s only one me. I hear music my way and deliver it accordingly, my mixing ability is unique to me and I know that, so I always feel confident in delivering my style. The hard part is the pressure to always keep up on socials, adapting to the new way things are consumed. Now we are often marked as a worthy DJ by our social numbers as opposed to the actual work we’ve done. I’ve done so much credible work, been on big stages and lineups, been consigned by huge artists but often find that the assumption is that my social numbers are a reflection of my ability and worth. I don’t like that, but it’s the way things are moving and can be hard to grapple with.

What are some of your favourite tracks to play live?

I’ve been enjoying playing mine tbh I always wanted to get to a stage where I could do that. My edit of ‘Murder She Wrote’ – it’s doing damage after it went viral online when Frisco spat on it. Benga and Coki – ‘Night (Tailor Jae Edit)’, Tailor Jae – ‘The Wheel’, T Williams x Tailor Jae – ‘Bruk Out’ Honourable mention to these though – bangers, Toura – ‘God Forgive Me If I buss My 909’ J Beatz and Logan – ‘General’, JLSXNDRS – ‘PP2G’, ML – ‘Ah Ah’.

Can you tell us about some of your career highlights so far?

Playing Paleo festival last year which is Switzerland’s largest open air festival, 300,000 cap. The line up consisted of Burna Boy, Sean Paul and more. It was a massive pinch me moment to be on a line up with such names. I was put on a huge stage too, I cried after, it was surreal watching the footage back and hearing the crowd chanting my name. My b2b with T williams and Jammz hosting at All Points East on the BBC 6 Music Stage . It was a perfect combo of old skool and new skool, we were able to play music authentic to us and the reception was great. I think it’s my favourite set I’ve done to date, just straight crud. We closed the set with our track ‘Bruk Out’ off our collaboration EP ‘Bruk Out’ released on UTTU and it went off, very surreal! Being called to open for Chase and Status for their ‘What Came Before’ album launch at Koko. I’m a huge fan and when that happened I couldn’t believe it, I always wanted to work with them and since then have been called by them to support them at Outernet, MK Bowl and their latest RTRN II Dance shows in Ibiza and Tenerife. Having my debut solo release, ‘The Wheel’, selected as Mary Anne Hobbs near future track of the day on BBC 6 Music. It took a lot for me to find the courage to release it. I got so much support from MAH as well as several plays on BBC Radio 1 so that meant the world after having all those fears about sharing it.

What do you have coming up this year that you can share with our readers?

I’ll be playing at Rampage in Belgium alongside Sir Spyro, Joker, Sicaria and more, so looking forward to that set. I’ll be supporting Goldie for his live show at Razmatazz in Barcelona so that should be fun! More new music incoming on a really cool label and quite a few collaboration projects in the works, one namely with Scratchclart which I’m excited for. It’s a bit different and pushed me way out of my comfort zone [laughs], so excited for people to hear it. The Diss One Remixes may appear at some stage too, so keep an eye out!

Where can people keep in touch with you?

tailorjae and hotbldn on all social platforms.