Atlas Flux Meets: TAF ROYALE

Last week, I sat down with a local rising artist, Taf Royale. Straight from the off, he’s a talkative, polite, and completely open-book character. Taf has a perceptive and philosophical approach to most of the questions I ask, and on around question 2 or 3 he says, “I’m just gonna keep talking if that’s alright”, the interviewer’s dream. We discussed self-belief, weird hecklers at shows, and what his career will look like in 2033. This is a truncated version of the full transcript.

FH: l’ll let you introduce yourself to the readers, and let them know how you define yourself as an artist and what kind of music you make.

TR: Thank you - my name is Taf Royale, originally from South West London but currently living and working out of Norwich. I make, I guess you could say hip-hop, neo-soul. Hip-hop, obviously, as a young black man, has a huge influence on my life. It’s hard to put definitively into genre but from a sonic perspective it definitely centres around those two genres.

Why music? When did your journey start?

I’ve sort of just always done it right from when I was growing up, it’s always been a part of my life. But ‘till the last few years the self-confidence to actually start doing it properly just kinda went for a while when I was like, 13, and it’s only since I was like 17, 18 that I’ve put my full focus into it.

Your first single on Spotify is “Soul Music”, released earlier this year - it seems like a very accomplished and cleanly produced track for a debut, did you dive straight in with this or did you have releases on places like SoundCloud before?

So I started with SoundCloud, and you can still find a bunch of my old tracks on there, but Soul Music I actually wrote when i was like 17? And I sat on that for four, five years…

Wow. Have you made tweaks in the years since or was it in its fully-finished form back then?

It was fully finished, man. And I just didn’t really have the belief in myself as an artist to put it out there, you know, I just stopped caring about music in high school ‘cause I was tryna impress girls, you know, and I didn’t think that was cool at the time. But then, my sister, who obviously also makes music, had an opportunity to take me to a studio in Holland Park, where we made the song. And I was performing at that time, and I performed in front of Wretch 32… literally performing in front of Wretch 32 and I still didn’t have that belief in myself. And that kinda changed when I first went to UEA, and I was like 18, and obviously as you know we didn’t even know if that was happening, ‘cause of Covid and stuff. But I ended up moving to Norwich and living with a bunch of musicians, a bunch of creatives, and I literally think I was drunk or something and I just thought to myself, I’m just gonna play them Soul Music, and they were like, this is sick. From that point on, I’ve just not looked back really and I got that growth in belief.

You’ve got a gig tonight and another one tomorrow - going back to that theme of self belief, what’s that like when you’re performing? That would absolutely scare the fucking shit out of me, do you get nervous?

It’s less about nerves really - in terms of that gut-wrenching, scared feeling you associate with nerves it’s not like that, because I’ve been performing since I was like, six, in front of what feels like a thousand people when you’re that age. It’s a bit tense though because, it’s like, there’s two parts to it - firstly you have to show an audience your art, and see what they think of that, and then you have to perform it to them. But I feel like when I’m performing, that feels more natural to me than, I dunno, even just holding a conversation.

I’m interested in the demographics of your audiences. Obviously you play at club nights in and around Norwich fairly regularly, but you’ve also been known to perform at open mic nights at pubs, like the Pear Tree, where obviously the audience is a bit older. How does that change your performance?

I am so glad that you’ve asked me that question. ‘Cause I’ve got a story, and I guess it sort of feels like a vulnerable story even, but I was performing at Mojo’s [the club in Norwich] one night and you know, I’m just on stage getting introduced, having a good time, and this f*cking girl - right by the stage, front of the crowd - just shouts at me, like, “no one gives a fck about you, we don’t wanna hear your f*cking SoundCloud music”, or something. And I’m just standing there shocked, ‘cause I’m just so taken aback at someone coming to my show and saying that. And she hasn’t even heard me perform one line of one song yet, so it’s just entirely based off the fact that she doesn’t know me, she doesn’t know my music, and for her that’s enough to get angry and shout something like that. And it’s ‘cause it boils down to the fact she’s never heard my stuff. If Santan Dave gets up on the stage and starts rapping my stuff word for word, she’s gonna be all gassed and screaming just ‘cause it’s someone she knows and she’s there for the person, not the music. But when I perform in front of more older, middle-aged audiences at stuff like open mic night, it’s the complete opposite. Someone showed me this recording of one of my performances at an open mic night and you can hear an older guy in the background just amazed, he’s like “oh my god, this guy’s actually really good”. And it’s because they don’t really have any preconceived notions of the genre as a whole, so they’re hearing stuff like this that they don’t normally hear and they’re going in with like, fresh, unbiased opinion. And that’s refreshing, you know? So the vibes are actually sometimes nicer at more low-key, open mic-type nights.

How do you even react to that [the incident at Mojo’s]? Does that give you a wobble or can you just shake it off, firm it and perform?

It more just took me by surprise, it was just completely out of nowhere. But end of the day, I don’t dwell on it ‘cause I know her opinion is meaningless, it doesn’t affect me, ‘cause she’s not even criticising me based on the music, it’s just a weird projection and she’s shouting at me before I’ve even opened my mouth. I’m just focused on growing and growing and being able to perform up and down the country. That’s something we’re planning on actually, not like a “tour” but more just going to different spots around the country and, you know, having a good time, growing the audience.

Let’s talk about growth, then - where do you see yourself in one year, and where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Wow. So one year… to be honest, I kinda just wanna still be in Norwich in a year. I like it up here, I like the scene up here and I’m enjoying making stuff and performing right now. It’s a great community and I’ve got a bunch of musical friends making waves too, and I’m growing and I’m feeling good about staying up here. Ten years… oh wow. So I’m 23 now, so when I’m 33… I think I just wanna be in a position where I’ve accomplished all these goals that I have right now, and have a bunch of new goals to work towards.

“I just wanna keep improving, I don’t see myself standing still, I wanna be motivated by new stuff.”

— Taf Royale

What are those goals you have right now?

So right now, where I would ideally like to be in 10 years is, I wanna go global. I wanna keep improving, I wanna be at the top of the UK scene, and then I wanna have opportunities in America, and try break into the market over there. ‘Cause that’s tapping into a whole new world, that’s a different level. And yeah, I wanna be global. I wanna be performing big events, big crowds, big festivals. And there’s people from the UK that are doing that right now, there’s a way.

Within that neo-soul/hip-hop kinda lane, who are your top three influences?

As you were delivering that, I was changing my mind on the spot. I feel like, ‘cause I get asked this a lot, and every time it’s a different answer ‘cause what I like and what I’m inspired by is just changing all the time. Top three. Hmmm. Right now, Fugees, definitely, and The Roots. And for the last one, it’s very different from the other two but I’m gonna have to say I’m really a huge fan of Travis Scott. It’s not purely the musical side either, it’s almost like I can’t even say what it is precisely.

I suppose he’s not solely revered for the music - it’s his presence, his place at the top in so many ventures, so many industries, his fans are crazy.

Yeah, and his shows are crazy. I think it’s like you say, it’s just that presence, that influence within the industry in way more ways than just hip-hop. But yeah, those three are probably the top three right now, but I’m listening to a lot of Jay [-Z] at the moment, and you know what, there’s some Bob Marley, some Michael Jackson in there. And they all started from somewhere. They didn’t get there without that self-belief.

Do you have a full-length release you’re working on at the moment, or are you gonna keep carrying on with the singles?

“I’ve got 2 EPs I need to drop in the next year, I’m working on them both right now.”