Lifestyle: "late Nights"

In case you missed it, check out our last Discovery.

This is a special edition of Discovery about how we came up with the concept.

And then what happened next.

In the beginning I was writing reviews for OLE MASON JAR about shows and other events I had attended, but I wanted to bring music to people in a different format besides the more traditional path of making Soundcloud or Spotify playlists. From the start, I wanted to create a music project called Discovery. I had this whole idea and concept formed that would feature new music in a mix that would be edited to a way in which I thought would sound cool.

The project failed, horribly

I couldn’t find the right sound I was looking for and my mixing skills were very bad. I thought the project was a bust. I didn’t work on it for a long time, but it was always in the back of my mind.

The meeting

In November, I flew to North Carolina and had a meeting/dinner with CEO Bradley Rhyne and COO Filipe Ho discussing everything from clothing, branding, and of course my end, music & lifestyle. On the flight back is when I officially decided to create the music blog for OLE MASON JAR called Discovery; We were already writing the blog, it just didn’t have a name.

Discovery

I found several songs I thought would be cool to record, but I didn’t have any direction of where to go with them. So, I just featured anything I found on the blog...until I came across a producer/blogger named Auram. Musically, Auram was doing exactly what I wanted to do with songs by making mixes with a concept attached to them. His sound was heavily ambient. He created a mix called “Lost” in which not only did I want to feature on the blog, but I wanted to use for a new solo project called TɅJ.

Late Nights

I used two of Auram’s mixes and started editing rigorously. At the time I was working at the hospital and my shifts didn’t end until 11:30 pm. When I arrived home around midnight, I would begin working on a mixtape appropriately titled, “Late Nights”.

“Late Nights” is the combination of mixes titled “East Coast”, “Cloud City”, “Stranded”, and “Lost”. The project was a joint effort between myself and Auram. Auram recorded the first part of “East Coast” and the entire mix for “Lost”. Auram uses a lot of darkwave techniques in his mixing and I wanted to add something with heavy lyrics but with a lighter tone. This is when I made “Cloud City”. “Cloud City” is about heartache and abusing medication really. Personally, I was going through a medication change which had me in a crazy haze. But it was the fastest I’ve ever recorded something. I think it was done in two takes.

Stranded

“Stranded” was an overnight hit, but it didn’t come easy. I did the most editing with this mix. I knew I wanted a M83 meets Kanye West darkwave sound, but I also wanted it to sound big, and tell somewhat of a sad heartbreak story. But instead, I went back and attempted to make a follow-up to “Cloud City”, which at the time, was the most played mix that I had released under TɅJ. I e-mailed DJ/Producer Alie Layus for concept art and she provided me with the cover shown above.

In this mix I used a new song from Vanic/Tove titled “Boarderline” and mixed it with Drake’s newest single titled “Know Yourself”. When I woke the next morning, the mix already passed “Cloud City” for number of plays. And I also had a message in my inbox.

“Hey?”

The message came from Vanic. Vanic is a DJ/Producer from Canada that a lot of people do not know of, but they have heard of his work. Each song he has released since last summer with various artists has reached over a million plays and counting. He is the man behind the scenes. But he had announced that he would be coming out of the studio and performing more live sets.

When I first opened the message I thought Vanic’s management was going to ask me to take “Stranded” down for copyright reasons. But instead Vanic himself asked if he could use “Stranded” in his live set, especially the ending. I mixed the ending with Drake, Ellie Goulding, and Rich the Kid; produced by MISOGI. It’s a brilliant track.

Late Nights to Sunrise

This made me wonder if I were ever to play a live set, using my work and the tracks that I like, what would it sound like. This particular morning, my audience was a sleeping cat, but while the sun was rising from yet another late night, I created “Promises” as a bonus live mix for “Late Nights”. Who knows where we’ll go next, but I certainly need some sleep!

You can find TɅJ on Facebook, Soundcloud, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr for all updated news and releases.

Until Next Time,

Music & Lifestyle

Taj Simpson is OLE MASON JAR's Director of Music and Lifestyle who lives in Las Vegas, NV. Always dressed for the right occasion, Taj also has a keen ear for the right sound...keeping us at the forefront of the music scene, and in tune with the freshest tracks and artists you may / or may not have heard of.