Meet Tag Shai and his new single with Grasps_, What Happened To Us

We've expelled plenty of figurative ink on the figurative pages of this figurative publication about our beloved Sydney homies Sidechains. The uber cool crew run some excellent parties over on the east side, along with pushing some supremely excellent future club music from the likes of Recluse, Fresh Hex, Grasps_ and more. And today we want you to meet another of their mighty crew - Tag Shai, who's just released a new tune made by the latter of that trio we just mentioned. But rather than us blather on about him, why not let the man himself give you the lowdown once you've taken in What Happened To Us, below:

Tell us about yourself?

I’m a 22-year-old male from Sydney, Australia. I make music with people that I met on the Internet and now we are best friends. I tend to keep most of my music-life online due to the fact that a lot of my real-life friends aren’t into the music that I make. That’s one of the reasons why I cover my face with my image.

What kinda tunes we talkin’?

Rap music laced with atmospheric production that makes you feel like you’re on the moon. The producers that I work with are very talented individuals. One day I want to drink Herradura with them when I have enough time to go visit them in Europe, or if they ever come to Australia.

Production/writing process:

The song process begins with my producer friends sending me beats that they have tailored for me. I’ll then open up my music software and spit a generic flow off the top of my head over the beat, whilst having the feedback turned on so that I can hear myself. More often than not, the flow will have made-up words that aren’t even English. I’ll then go back through the flow and re-write the lines with logical sentences and phrases until a banger is made.

I get influenced a lot by images that I see on the Internet, or little things that my friends say to me that may not have any significant meaning at the time.

What do you do outside of Tag Shai?

I just finished a degree in Business. I’ll soon be wearing a suit and tie, catching the train early in the morning if anyone wants to hang out and drink coffee with me. Other than that, I play video games on the regular and hang out with my friends.

Any shows coming up?

Nothing planned but I might link up with my friends at Triple One, a rap group in Sydney, again to put on another show. We did something small last year and only like 40 people came, but it was fun.

And releases?

I normally just bang singles out when I have the time. Sometimes I get pretty busy when it comes to my real-life stuff, so I don’t have enough time and energy to create something big like an album. We’ll see though.

What’s the rest of the year have in store?

More music and weak visuals. I might go overseas and perform somewhere, since the majority of my fans are based outside of Australia. Just depends if anyone wants me I guess.

Where can we hear more of your music?

You can find me on SoundCloud or YouTube under Tag Shai. Some of my Russian fans made a VK for me, but I don’t operate it and can’t read Russian so I don’t know what’s going on there. You can also illegally download some of my songs on some random music hosting sites as well.

Follow Tag Shai: FACEBOOK / SOUNDCLOUD