Taragirl

For the better part of this decade Taragirl has been a stalwart, compelling, and interesting voice in the crowded Philadelphia R&B Scene. Possessing a style and approach uniquely her own Taragirl continues to be the local Soul star on the rise.

In 2006 Taragirl released her debut record, The 26th Power. She is currently at work on it's follow-up and, fulfilling some live dates including headling at Philadelphia's revered World Cafe Live.

Recently our man on the urban beat Zilla Rocca sat down for dinner with Taragirl to discuss her career thus far. He came away with an incredibly insightful exchange concerning theory, influence and the ever-changing state of the music industry today. Taragirl proves that not only is she a master of song, but a unique and artistic mind and entity.

Zilla:How did you decide to sing? It's unusual to me for an artist in your position because you moved from New
York, where a large part of the industry resides, to Philly. How did it all begin?
Taragirl:I've always pretty much been singing. I grew up in Northern New Jersey, Orange County. When I was 18, I went to NYU. I stayed there for a bunch of years and then I came here to Philly. I was singing the whole time--I started off with a major in music, did musical theater, vocal performance. It was a really good foundation and I got a lot of good solid training but I started going nuts because it was not my thing. All of the style I have now, the soul and the R&B, got me in trouble at school. I was constantly put down and corrected! If I tried out for a play, I would never get called back. I just didn't fit in the genre of theatre. I graduated majoring in broadcast ournalism with a minor in politics and a minor in music. After a while, I just got tired of New York. A big reason I came to Philly was because the R&B/soul scene was getting big with Jill Scott and Musiq and the Roots and Black Lily. I'm a real indecisive person, so I can't pretend that even at the beginning, I was so focused. I knew I
always wanted to do music and I knew I wanted to sing but you get pulled in different directions. I always loved R&B but got pulled into jazz. I got really sick of jazz and how strange it was from a vocal perspective, so I tried out blues and gospel too. I was doing alot of covers and open mics, always waiting to be discovered. I thought someone would make it easy for me, like I would collaborate with somebody and I'd have these great songs and that would be it.
Z: At what point did you see the shift in that no one would reach out and grab you, to you doing it all yourself?
T: My senior year of college, I went to ALL the open mics in New York that were blues, jazz, or R&B. I held my own but I was really young, at these open mics going on after all of these respected known singers and people would still clap. I went on stage right before Stephanie Mills one day! I literally got off stage and they were like, "Hey we have a special guest here tonight." So I'd say about a year afterwards when I finished school, I was working and going to open mics alot more. I would get off stage and people would literally go nuts. I was usually one of the only white people in the whole place and I would do gospel songs. People never expected me to do any of the material I was singing. And all of these big people would approach me at the bar like, "Yeah we need to get together." But this is when it sunk in that people aren't going to do what they say they're gonna do. They are never looking out for your best interest, they are looking out for themselves. If you're gonna get anyway, you're really gonna have to do it on your own. There were alot of broken promises and missed opportunities and this was all part of the learning experience.
Z: One thing I noticed about your record The 26th Power is that you wrote every song. What was the arrangement with that and your producer? Did you write all the lyrics or the melodies or just the hooks?
T: I did not think I could write AT ALL! I'd been writing in journals and such since I was 10 years old but I was really scared to show any of my stuff to people. I wrote the songs and my producer (B. Gilbert) produced them. I did the majority of the songs on my own, the whole melody and bridge, and tried to match it up with music. I'm always looking for producers who can build a whole soundscape. A lot of the songs I did with Simon Illa (producer) were done in a process of chipping away at ideas. I came in with just a melody or lyric here and we ran with it. It was my first time out and I was still building confidence as a writer, so I know that my next project will be done way differently. I'm a control freak so I like to have everything decided before I get in the studio. Now I'm embracing the idea of "we don't know what's gonna happen next but you're gonna throw me something and I'll toss it back" and just collaborating more.

(waitress interrupts and says "That's the smallest phone I've ever seen." I tell the waitress that it's a recorder and that Taragirl is a massive pop star in Japan. She congratulates Taragirl on all her success).

Z: I've listened to your record alot and I really liked "Voicemail." Tell me more about the album now that you are more experienced as a writer and performer.
T: I can't believe that, by the way! I was totally surprised by that even though I don't know you at all. I imagined people coming from a hip hop background would like stuff with faster beats or something harder. The reason I put where it was on the album is that I thought it was the weakest. It was one of the first songs we did for the album and by the end of the recording, I thought it didn't represent me at the time as much as the later songs. It took me so long to get those songs down. I like the energy when you get an idea and cut it right away. Some of the songs are lyrically about a relationship I was in after college. They were dated. The most recent song I wrote before we finished the record is the song that became the single "Come On." This was
me going out on a limb and it was really new and I wasn't sure if it fit but I liked it. My newer stuff ended up being my best stuff. I'm a little bit aprehensive, like "I'm not sure..."
Z: You said you were really self-conscious about being a songwriter. But now that you've done it, what's the process for you from the time you get the idea until the time you lay it down.
T: I constantly start writing songs based on titles or concepts. I like things that are really pure. I'm a writer who can't write about things that I'm not going through. I just write about what's happening at the time. If I'm not in love, I can't write about love. I can write about wishing I was in love. The three songs I just started are all about "keeping your head up" and "relationships are hard." It's funny but it's very much me. It's hard for singers because you come up with the melody, then the bridge, the lyrics. As a singer, and I'm not taking this away from anyone else, like a rapper...
Z: We have it WAY easier!
T: And that kills me! Rappers will be like, "Yeah I just cut 5 songs in the studio" and I want to kill them! Some R&B songs are pretty straight forward but I like to do songs with arrangements and moods and layers. I'm very adamant about not keeping the song at the same BPM for the whole thing and changing up the tempo. I come up with a lot of vocal riffs, invert them, twist them up. I don't just write to 4/4 beats and the producers are like "Ok, what can we do with this?" I hate boring. I never want to be boring. I have to go back and take away from songs because sometimes it's too much or too distracting for the listener. And that's what drives me.
Z: What are you trying to do on your next album? Have you started on it yet? And considering where the
industry is and where it may or may not go, what is your approach?
T: I'm really excited on what I've started. We're working on three songs right now. I'm not necessarily looking at an album. The way the industry's going right now, it's not album oriented anyway. I feel like people don't even give a crap if you have an album. It's sad for artists because we like to tell stories and sequence certain songs to create a mood. Now it's like "Well, here's a single and if I don't like it in 60 seconds, I'm done and moving onto the next thing and I'm never gonna hear it again." It's really scary because you don't have the flexibility of an album to get deeper. I could do an album but I don't know if I want to do a 10 song album--maybe a 6 song EP. I think it's a lot easier as an independent artist to sell something for $5 or under. There's not as much risk and it's like "Oh I saw you live and I'll buy 3-4 copies." It's hard to make fans like independent music because hey're bombarded with big stars and you have to compete with that. I watch people really, really rack their brains to decide if they want to spend $10 on your CD when they just paid for five cosmopolitans!
Z: The thing I learned is that you have to build that brand loyalty over time where people will just fork over the money for your CD. Chrisette Michele just dropped on Def Jam, she's on Nas' album, Ghostface's album, Jay-Z's album. She's got videos out and I'm even like, "Well...let me see what else she's got before I spend my money like that." Whereas someone like John Legend, you already have that relationship because he cut his teeth a few years ago and he gave you a good product so now you're less hesistant to spend money.
T: Yeah like I just put up a free download of an Aretha Franklin song "Blue Holiday" on my MySpace page and people are really liking it! I'm giving that away as much as possible. I did that on a whim too and I'm really liking the results!
Z: Speaking of Aretha, I was looking at my massive, nerdy collection of records and realized "Wow, I don't have nearly enough female artists in here." I have Lauryn Hill, and Portishead, and Minnie Ripperton, and Fionna Apple and what I realized is that female artists probably get TONS of male groupies because the industry is run by males.
T: I think that idea works in a hip hop setting, but in R&B and such, I have to work that harder to get women to like me. R&B is geared towards women. I'm very concious of that and I make sure I'm always warm and inviting, not disrepecting yourself by the way you dress, because women hate other women who do that! Most of the places I find myself in aren't frequented by many males, so I have to make sure the chick in the front row isn't hating on me! Male artists can be fat and horrendous looking--that doesn't work for women.Missy Elliot is an anomoly in regards to that with women.
Z: How do you feel about getting your name out in the hip hop world via your features with Reef the Lost Cauze and Poesh Wonder (and hopefully Zilla Rocca)?
T: I find it so funny I'm getting asked to be on these hip hop bills because I don't sing at a lot of hip hop events. I've worked with so many rappers but I don't hang out at alot of those events. R&B and hip hop crowds are different. People are starting to say my name more often in the hip hop community like "Who is this chick? Is she any good?"

Purchase Taragirl's The 26th Power and download her version of "Blue Holiday".

Catch Taragirl soon:

Feb 21 2008 9:00P
The Cutting Room (NYC) New York City

Mar 8 2008 9:00P
World Cafe Live Phila

Mar 14 2008 7:00P
The Bowery Poetry Club New York, New York

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