Recording - June 2016 - 55

Continued from page 52
stuff has come out of it. I read that and I
thought, you know what, he's right.
Russell: Right, because the Forums are a
group of people who are TAXI-oriented. Being
in the Forums, you get a feel for what's going
on in the music industry. And you've got
knowledge and you don't have to explain

"Just being a TAXI member automatically, in my mind, puts you in a whole
different bracket than a lot of people.
Like whoever's not a TAXI member
just doesn't understand the way this
game works."
-Matt Vander Boegh

ness. They don't understand that, "Hey, we
need this done by tomorrow, and I've got to
produce it. So I need your vocals by tonight."
They just don't get it. So just being a TAXI
member automatically, in my mind, puts you
in a whole different bracket than a lot of people. Like whoever's not a TAXI member just
doesn't understand the way this game works, I
think.
When I find a collaborator, it's almost like an
investment. Like, you wouldn't just willy-nilly
go throw money into random stocks, or just
put a crap ton of money into a comic book
stand hoping that 10 years from now it'll get
you millions of dollars. You're gonna do your
research first, so I do that with pretty much all
the people I work with. Before I even reach

out to people, I'll almost like cyber-stalk 'em;
check out all their music on SoundCloud-I
don't do the Facebook thing. But I'll see if
they're a TAXI Forum member, because Forum
members-at least in my mind again-tend
to be more serious and dedicated. That could
be an overstatement; I don't mean to leave
anyone out of that. But the Forum people
seem to really have it on the ball. So that's
where I'll kinda find people. I'll listen to their
music, and then at some point you've got to
take a leap of faith and say, "Yeah, I think this
person's going to be all right." So you try
something, and if it works out, then you just
keep going and you do more. If it doesn't
work, then move on to the next one.
Read part 2 in next month's Insider!

everything to them like I have to explain to
people locally who don't understand
contracts, who don't understand what PROs
are and how they work. But that's what's
really cool about that. I mean, you just can't
bump into people like that-like-minded people-on Facebook. Where you've got to be to
do that is be where the people are that are
like-minded and doing what you're doing. And
[the TAXI Forum] is where it is.
We've seen thousands of people over the years
that have started careers because of that
Forum, and it's mind-blowing to me. I would say
it's probably not an untrue statement that as
many TAXI members get signed to deals and get
placements as a result of being on the Forum
and meeting other members, as they do from
pitching their stuff. So I'm your biggest fan on
that comment. You could not be more right.
Let me go to Matt on this. How do you get a
sense of who's going to work well with you in
regard to delivering on time and being responsible? Because there is that factor, especially in
our world, where we're working on deadlines all
the time. It's not like, "Hey, cool, let's hang out
and write a song." If we need to have a song
done in 12 days, isn't it risky to give up an idea
or half an idea to somebody and ask him or her
to collaborate with you? And now your fate rests
in their hands if they don't deliver something
good and on time. How do you know?
Matt: Yeah, that's huge. This is one of the
reasons why I really-aside from a few other
people-I only collaborate with TAXI members, because we're all serious. We know all of
the lingo and all the deadlines and stuff like
that, and we're serious about making this a
career. Some Joe Schmo off the street in Boise
that I could find that might have a great
voice, they don't understand the whole busi55

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