Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrei Kvapil.
Hi Andrei, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born and raised in Long Beach, and my love and near obsession for music began almost as early as I can remember. Both of my parents are artists and art educators with very eclectic tastes–so I was lucky enough to have an expansive soundtrack to my childhood. I grew up listening to everything from The Beatles, Charles Mingus, Steve Reich, The Talking Heads, Earth Wind & Fire, Stravinsky, Pat Metheny, Miles Davis, Steely Dan, Phillip Glass, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder… the list could go on forever.
My earliest definitive memory of music was identifying an instrument that piqued my interest in a song on the car stereo and telling my dad that whatever that was I wanna play it. He told me that it was a violin being played–and then I remember by 3rd grade I was in Elementary School music class, learning the Violin. I played Violin through the end of High School and picked up Guitar starting in 7th grade, which is around the time I also discovered my parents’ camera and began messing around taking pictures of my friends and I while we would practice doing tricks on our bikes. This was also the time that I began discovering Electronic and Hip-Hop music (artists from The LA Low-End Theory scene) through Youtube and Vimeo bike and skate videos, later becoming a heavy influence on me. It was around this time in Middle School that I started becoming more aware of music that I liked and had the autonomy to buy and/or listen to myself. One of the first CDs I can remember discovering and buying all on my own was Demon Days by Gorillaz. I had never heard anything like it before, and it was hard for me to figure it out what genre of music it was/is; and it’s still hard to pinpoint Gorillaz to this day. In retrospective, that became a foundational criteria for a lot of the music that I discovered and fell in love with on my own–music that I couldn’t describe easily or fit into any type of box or category. I went on to discover Prefuse 73 (sample-based electronic music), Flying Lotus, Crystal Castles, Nujabes, Radiohead, Bonobo, Dub Music (both Reggae and Electronic), and some other early 2000s runway-style House music on Youtube that I can’t remember the name of. So much of this music I found through Skate and Fixed-Gear Bike video edits or was shown to me through friends.
There was no real definitive moment where I decided I would center my life around music, photography, and the arts in general. It has always been what I do and what I just knew would be how I would move through the world.
I attended Bard College in NY State, where I was initially accepted as a Photography student and quickly declared as a double major in both music and photography. I studied photo with An-My Lê and began the Jazz Studies program with John Esposito, Erica Lindsay, and Thurman Barker. I only stayed in the photo program for one semester, with the demands of working in both the darkroom and the practice room, outside of my regular liberal arts studies, being too much to juggle. Later that first year, I found myself in a band with my close friends, where 3 of us, including myself were playing guitar. Realizing we needed a bassist, I volunteered to play bass, borrowing a bass and amp from a friend in the dorm next to me. I fell in love with the instrument, realizing the sonics and inherent role of the instrument matched my personality better than either guitar or violin. Next thing I knew, I was a full-time bass and composition student, studying Upright and Electric Bass with the incredible Ira Coleman (Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Sting, Monte Alexander, etc.) and composition with Erica Lindsay. My other key mentor that year was Dean Sharp, who was the resident composer and musician for the renowned dance program at Bard. Dean is a drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer/composer. He is a great friend of mine, and he taught me so much about the relationship between music and movement, as well as how to move through the professional world with uniqueness, passion, dignity, steeze, and an open mind.
After graduating in 2017, I decided to move back to Long Beach. I began searching for work and trying to reintegrate with friends and the Long Beach music scene. There are so many pockets to the Long Beach music scene, which is one thing I love about the city, and in 2018 things started to come together more. There are so many moving parts to a music scene, it feels like a body of water that’s in continuous and slow modulation, with the occasional wave that changes things drastically. I found myself in the center of a scene revolving around “Fight Club” at Que Sera and the 2nd iteration of the “Roxanne’s Jam” run by my middle-school friend Tom Kendall Hughes. I also joined two groups, Phygg and Soular System that year. Phygg later split into two projects–Fête, a working corporate cover band, and Phygg an original music project by Sophia Gentili. Soular System started as a Soul/Electronic duo between Tom Kendall and Anthony Lynn, with different friends filling out the band here and there for different shows. But in 2018, they decided to form a permanent band personnel, including myself and some of our closest friends in the LB scene. Soular System is currently Tom Kendall (Drums & Tracks), Anthony Lynn (Lead Vocals), Gracie Sprout (Harp & Backup Vocals), Jake Abernathie (Keyboards & Backup Vocals), Trevor Torres (Violin & Backup Vocals), Garret Dahl (sound engineering), and myself (Basses).
Through 2019 and early 2020 I was a full-time working Bassist, performing in shows small to large all around Long Beach, OC, and LA. I performed with many different friends, acquaintances, and groups, mostly within the lens of R&B and Neo-Soul, but Phygg/Fête and Soular System were at the center of my rotation. In late 2019, I began workshopping my own Jazz Sextet, including original compositions and arrangements of covers.
In March 2020 everything came to a screeching halt due to the Pandemic Quarantine. The shutdown of the music industry forced me to rethink my whole career, where everything centered around performing. I had some experience in recording and producing in my college studio and helping Tom with Soular System production in his lock-out space at ICS in Signal Hill. I got Ableton Live Suite, and I began obsessively bringing myself up to speed in Music Production and Engineering on my home computer, producing my own beat-focused Electronic music. Deciding to release my own music as part of the whole process, I came up with my artist name “taru taru” (playing on my middle/Okinawan name Taru), as I was also in the middle of an introspective journey into my Indigenous Okinawan history and heritage on my mother’s side of the family.
Today, I now share a new studio space with Tom, which was the center home of Soular System’s latest release “Day In, Day Out,” and a new collaborative album by Seafood Sam with Soular System, Executive Produced by Tom Kendall (set to release in 2023). “Day In, Day Out” is not the first release by Soular System, but is the first to be conceived and produced collaboratively as a whole band. The project is mix of material written before the Pandemic, material reworked during the Pandemic, and entirely new material written since the Pandemic. It weaves in and out between Psychadelia, Electronic, Groove, Jazz, and Soul/R&B. I feel like it’s something that is uniquely Soular System and also uniquely Long Beach.
Currently, I am working primarily as taru taru, producing, composing, and engineering projects for myself and collaboratively with Soular System, Seafood Sam, Phygg, akaMatisse (of Keys N Krates in Toronto), and am currently mixing my friend Eternal Kin’s (Ryan Sherman) album Forever Now, set to release in 2023 as well. Many of my current projects that I am producing are heavily influenced by late 90s/early 2000s Detroit, NY, and London Deep & Soulful House and Dub music. I am also currently reviving my love for film photography, incorporating it into my latest taru taru album artwork. I planning to begin releasing and selling photographic prints very soon.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There’s definitely been many bumps and detours along the way. Overall, I’ve had struggles pinpointing my identity as an artist from a philosophical standpoint. Am I Bassist, or a photographer, or a producer, or a DJ, or Mix Engineer? Do I make downtempo music, or do I make dance music? Am I still a Jazz musician if I’ve been mostly producing for two years? Do any of those things cancel out the other?
I find myself regularly in a dichotomy/paradox where I feel like a might be casting a shadow over one facet of myself if I start focusing on another, but at the same time not feeling whole if I don’t explore these different interests within music and the arts. I think this is something many artists go through, at least from the anecdotal evidence of my fellow peers and of my mentors. I sometimes begin to feel imposter syndrome clouding my thoughts when I feel like I’m not a master of one skill or practice; but I’ve been getting a lot better at confidently owning these many versions of myself and knowing that I wouldn’t be me–I wouldn’t be taru taru–if I was just one thing, one skill.
I’ve had several shifts of feeling like I’m starting from Square One over my life thus far.
The first notable shift was when I moved across the country to attend Bard College. I had only been to the East Coast once as a kid, and I didn’t even visit the school before attending, let alone know anyone else attending the school. Then by my Sophomore year, I switched to Electric and Upright Basses as my primary study and instrument, and I felt like I had to start from the ground up on my musical training. 10 years of musical knowledge felt like it just flew out the window, and I had to develop a whole new relationship with myself and this giant and physical instrument, Upright Bass. But I holed myself up in the practice room nearly every day for around 3-5 hours each day that year. And from starting with no experience on Upright at the beginning of my second year in school, I performed several songs, including some originals, on Upright Bass in my Moderation concert at the end of my second year.
I felt like I was starting all over again when I moved back to Long Beach. Even though I was back in my hometown, I had very little connection to the musicians that had been developing, working, and bonding in the scene for years while I was in New York. I owe so much to Tom Kendall and our rekindled friendship and relationship as musicians and collaborators. Tom has been a keystone piece to the scene in Long Beach (bleeding into LA as well)–he seems to know nearly everyone who has a relationship with music in Long Beach and the surrounding area. He helped me fall back into place in my hometown and into the community that I deeply love and cherish now. I put in the work, and I let my playing and musicianship do as much of the talking and networking as I could, but I owe a debt of gratitude to Tom for opening the door for me to connect and rebuild.
I know this is something everyone on the planet agrees on now, but I must mention the whirlwind and struggle of navigating the Covid and Post-Covid (can I say that now?) landscape. I think a lot of people can say that they feel like they had to start over during and after Covid, but with the music industry being at an almost standstill for nearly two years, my whole career came to a standstill. With my life in music built upon live performing at that point, I had to rethink and start over. Though I was bitter for a while, I would not be the more wholistic artist, producer, musician that I am today.
Before Covid, I had struggled with identifying as, or being labeled as, just a Bassist–I always felt like I was more than just a musician who played Bass well. I’ve always had a deep love for many types of music, including Electronic music. Even through my College career studying Jazz, a lot of the music that I was listening to was Electronic music (Flying Lotus, Nosaj Thing, Prefuse 73, Nujabes, Bonobo, and many more), and that inevitably ended up influencing my compositional style in Jazz.
For some reason, I never made Electronic music then, even though many of my peers did. With so much of my musical education being founded for over a decade on instrument studies in a school, and with my focus on getting up to speed on Jazz Bass in College, I felt like I was too far gone to switch and learn a new practice again. I even felt the same after school while working confidently as a Bassist in Long Beach–it was hard to dedicate so much time to starting over again.
When the shutdown happened though, there was almost no other option. Had it not been for the Pandemic, I’m not sure if I would’ve allowed myself the time to just focus on producing and making Electronic music for almost 3 years. I felt like all my years of musical knowledge went out the window again, but this time it felt more exciting. Whatever I made in Ableton in early 2020, even if it was mediocre, I made it, and I was composing music that felt fresh to me. Now, I don’t think I can see my life in music any other way. Writing, Producing, & Mixing music is that full, whole, and entrenched life of creating music that I’ve been searching for my whole life. I never quite knew it clearly, but I’ve been searching my whole life how to be at the center of music, fully immersed in it.
Though I’m still mastering my craft in production and engineering (and still composing, arranging, and bass playing)–I do feel much more in touch with a more whole version of myself/taru taru. If it wasn’t for any of these challenging moments of feeling like I’m starting all over again, I wouldn’t be the producer/artist that I am now, and I wouldn’t be involved in any of these amazing projects that I am currently working on. Starting over again has so many challenges, but I believe there is something beautiful about allowing yourself to just be a student and discover new ways of thinking through and overcoming new experiences and challenges.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My foundation is that I am musician–a bassist at my core (Electric Bass Guitar, Upright Bass, and Synth Key Bass). I make music in all senses of the term Musician.
I am ultimately an Artist at my core. I use music and sound as my voice to respond to and participate in Life.
Currently, my work is mostly focused and specialized as a Producer and Mix Engineer. A lot of what I have worked on this year, and am currently working on now, is not going to be released until 2023 or later. But my most recently released work is my own mixtape, “Taru’s Mix,” as taru taru; and the album “Day In, Day Out” by Soular System. Those projects, I believe, are a good snapshot of the foundation and sound that I, and my peers, have created and established–but I think what is being worked on at the moment for 2023 is much more refined and exciting.
I’ve been working on finding my own sound for years now, and I feel like I’m starting to find the right lane for myself in the past year. This sound of 2022 seems to be what I am beginning to be known for amongst my peers and collaborators. I ultimately try not to be bound by one genre, but overall my sound tends to lean towards a nostalgic and ethereal mood, but still with head-bobbing rhythm and booty-moving bass. Even before I began studying bass as my primary instrument, I’ve always loved music with a deep groove and bass. There’s something about the low end that is magical to me–how even just the right bass line by itself can move a whole room (especially late 90s/early 2000s Timbaland and The Neptunes productions). I can never seem to escape the presence of strong bass in my own music. Ultimately, I am attracted to music that I can get lost in–lost in the texture, lost in the groove and pocket, lost in the space and vibe, lost in the world that is being created. Lately, it’s dance music that is hypnotic for me.
Even though not much of it has been released yet, I feel like I’m starting to be known for my sound and style in creating moody club and House music. I am weary to use the term EDM, as the term has a certain connotation to a sound that I don’t really identify with. Lately, I’ve been focusing a sound that is heavily influenced by the Detroit and East Coast House and Techno pioneers of Moodymann/KDJ, Theo Parrish, Marcellus Pitman, Kerri Chandler, Glenn Underground, Robert Hood, and I can’t leave out J Dilla (even though he’s mostly known for Hip-Hop). I’ve been taking all those alongside more modern influences like Rochelle Jordan, Channel Tres, FKA Twigs, Byron the Aquarius, Kaytranada, Dawn Richard, Kris Wadsworth, Knxwledge, Sango, Andy Stott, Machinedrum, Honey Dijon, Floating Points, Teebs, Octo Octa, and many more.
I’m trying to create dance music that has that deep vibe and groove but still with a West Coast swing and air. My sound and goal is to make music that can hit you emotionally in both a club and driving down PCH at sunset.
These types of club rhythms and grooves are not quite as evident in my latest release “Taru’s Mix,” but I believe that “Taru’s Mix” does capture stages of my journey for forming a mood and texture as a primary point of my sound.
What are your plans for the future?
I just finished working on album that Tom Kendall Executive Produced. It’s an album by Long Beach rapper, artist, and homie Seafood Sam, in collaboration with Soular System, that is set to be released sometime in 2023 under a label (I am not sure if I can disclose much more). I contributed co-production on two tracks, some mix consulting, and bass playing on a large number of the songs, even some guitar and cello playing. The sonics for the album were inspired by the aura of 1970s Great American Soul Music, but as the process evolved the project took on its own special sound and character, one that I don’t think has been heard or created before. I’m super proud of this project and proud of everyone who was involved and imprinted their soul into the fabric of it. I really believe that this record will push boundaries and stand the test of time.
I am currently working on a remix project with Seafood Sam as well, where I am doing some dance floor remixes of songs from both his already-released, and to-be released catalog. We are talking about working on some original collaborative music as well.
I am also helping my dear friend Phygg with finishing production and mixing on her next EP. She is similarly very ethereal and genre-less but with lots of Electronic influence. I am also currently mixing my homie Ryan Sherman’s album, of which I have 2 tracks that I have produced. He makes a lot of Reggae Dub-influenced music but is ultimately genre-less as well. He goes by “Eternal Kin,” and the album is titled “Forever Now,” and will also release in 2023. We have many other future projects in the works, including a possible Dance Club forward, House-flavored project that I will produce.
I am also collaborating with my friend akaMatisse (of Keys N Krates in Toronto) on a more downtempo track set to release next year. It features V.C.R. and Leila Dey on vocals.
I’m really looking forward to 2023 and the release of all of these projects. But I am also looking forward to many new projects that may push my artistry in ways that I cannot predict. 2023 will be a year for refining the sounds that I and my friends/peers/collaborators have crafted and created in our studio from 2021 through 2o22.
Tom Kendall and I share a studio space, and we are in the process of turning it into a full production-house studio for artists to work out of and collaborate alongside. Current working title is M.G.R. (Make Great Records) Studio.
Our studio can be a one-stop shop for artists in Long Beach (and any artist who wants to work with us in Long Beach) where you can work alongside Tom and I and get the benefit of both of our sounds as Producers and musicians. As a drummer and bassist respectively, and both multi-instrumentalists, we can produce and record a live foundation for any song, alongside our known skills as Electronic producers. I handle the mixing, and Tom handles the mastering. Through our studio, anyone can have a fully realized production from conception to deliverable Masters without having to bounce between different studios, engineers, or producers. We plan to launch in 2023.
Pricing:
- Song Production — $400 per song
- Song Mixing — $250 per song (incl. 5 edits)
- Song Mastering — $100 per song (incl. 5 edits)
- Prod., Mix, & Master Bundle — $750 per song
- EPs & Albums are negotiable based on # of songs and bundle combination (Production, Mixing, Mastering, etc.)
Contact Info:
- Website: tarutaru.bandcamp.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/__taru_taru/
- SoundCloud: https://open.spotify.com/album/454WuPPBZiBGrQBOBGhyEN?si=zO-VunuEQ72KHeMcVUEBbA
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1oRGxCsnEHCNd3Bn2dD3XM?si=HbR1CDTEQUKbRDMkOv5xMw
Image Credits
Brandon Yee Ava Kvapil Linnea Rohdin-Bibby Andrei Kvapil
