Today we’d like to introduce you to Cyrus “NOIS” Taghipour.
Hi Cyrus “NOIS”, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been around music my whole life, growing up in the Bay Area I sang in the choir and played a few different instruments from elementary to high school. I made my first real beat in Garage Band in my Junior year of high school and from that moment on I always knew I wanted a career in music. After high school, I moved to San Luis Obispo where I went to college at Cal Poly. I wasn’t able to major in music so I ended up getting my degree in Business Finance, but the whole time I was making music, putting out records and planning on ultimately making it to LA.
After college, I moved to LA where I got a job at Wells Fargo and continued working on music during my off time. While I was working at Wells, I met Ricci Rierra from the producer duo Produced by THC, and eventually, I stared interning at his local studio, working late nights after my bank shifts just doing whatever I could to help out and soak up game.
Although I tried my hardest to maintain both my day job and my internship, but eventually I started feeling like I was missing out on too much opportunity. A lot of bigger artists had been starting to come around… Mac Miller, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q, SZA, etc. and I wasn’t around for the sessions despite being the intern that was there the longest. Also, MixedByAli who was a close friend of Ricci had gotten involved with the studio and was working on mixes out of the main room pretty much daily,
It was at that point in March of 2016 that I made the decision to quit my day job and commit to spending more time at the studio. I wasn’t getting paid yet at this point so I basically decided that I’d wake up early like 4 AM, drive uber in the mornings, and then be at the studio by noon and spend the rest of the day there. It wasn’t ideal, but it would allow me to be available for all the sessions that were happening.
Two days after I quit my job I got a call at 2AM from the studio manager that SZA was coming in and wanted to record. I ended up locking in with her for a week and we recorded some records that ended up being on CTRL. A few weeks after that Ali asked me to assist him on a new album his friend Mac Miller was working on, and that was the first major album I was around for.
That was about 7 years ago and everything after that essentially was just history, I started mixing records with Ali and we went on a run working on some of the biggest and most influential records to come out over the past ten years. From “DAMN”, to “CTRL”, to “Victory Lap” to Summer Walker’s “Over It” and countless others.
All those years spent mixing and rubbing elbows with some of the greatest artists of our generation helped both Ali and myself develop a real understanding of the industry, and we now have a new label No Name Recordings under which we’ve signed two up-and-coming artists, Malik Moses and Shady Blu, both crazy talented, make sure you keep an eye out for them.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The road has definitely been bumpy lol. Making your way through any industry especially when you’re brand new to a city with zero connections is inevitably going to be an uphill battle. For me, I was really fortunate to have found a mentor and friend in Ali who helped me navigate through everything as gracefully as possible. That said, I’ve experienced all the usual hardships engineers and producers face along the way… Not sleeping for days at a time, not knowing if I was going to have enough rent to get by, working unpaid as an intern for years, not getting properly credited on records I was a part of. It’s all just part of the recipe to success in my eyes. Sacrificing my 9-5 with a comfy salary to put myself in the right rooms while I was still young was a major leap of faith that paid off.
I came up with the name “NOIS” in high school. It stands for “No Obstacles In Sight.” I remember I was a little iffy on if I loved it at the time, but it ended up sticking and I’m glad it did because every day since then it’s only become more and more true. It’s the foundation to my mindset in this industry. You just have to stay positive, always keep the bigger picture in mind, and truly believe with all your heart that things will always work themselves out.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a GRAMMY Winning, Multi-Platinum and Diamond Mixing engineer, as well as a producer and songwriter. And my latest title as of last year is Head of A&R for NoName Recordings, a new label started by myself, MixedByAli, and Dan Maynard. We currently have a JV with Interscope and we have two artists Malik Moses and Shady Blu.
Notable mixing credits include Kendrick Lamar; DAMN (Love, Loyalty, Fear), SZA; CTRL, Nipsey Hussle; Victory Lap, Roddy Ricch: Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial, Summer Walker; Over It
Diamond Certified Record – The Box By Roddy Ricch
Mix credits on Grammy Winning “Best Rap Album”: Damn
Grammy Nominations: SZA Best RnB Album CTRL, Nipsey Best Rap Album Victory Lap, Cordae – Best Rap Album The Lost Boy, Kendrick Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers – best rap album/album of the year, Roddy Ricch – Best Rap Album. PEMFBA
Mixing has been my bread and butter for the past 7 years since I quit my day job, but now that I’ve gotten a little bit more established, I’ve been able to dive back into my original passion of producing and songwriting. All that combined with helping develop the NoName Artists keeps me pretty busy, so I’m still in the studio 7 days a week. Not sure if that’s ever gonna change.
I’d say I’m most proud of staying the course and delivering on a promise I had made to the 16 years old NOIS. The industry can be wicked and being able to find some stability and build lifelong friendships all while working on timeless music is something that’s priceless to me. Could have gave up a thousand times but kept at it and finally made my way through.
What makes you happy?
Creating.
Across the board, at the end of the day, I’m a creator at heart… Mixing is a little different because ultimately you have to deliver something that the client approves, so you never have full creative control.
If I’m just mixing for months on end without producing/writing/ or just exercising any truly creative outlets I feel like my mood takes a noticeable nosedive. I think that’s really important for people in my industry, to take a moment and really analyze yourself and what makes you happy and make sure you make time for that just to keep yourself from going insane. I love mixing and I still get lost in records for hours on end, losing track of time, which lets me know that I’m still passionate about what I do. But it’s still just a part of the equation.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.noisrecords.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/yaboynois
- Twitter: twitter.com/yaboynois
- Other: www.nnr.la
