Burlington born rapper Luxe Taylor is home from his first solo tour across Canada’s east coast following the release of his long time project Pipedream. The tour started on July 31st in Toronto, ON and ended in Dartmouth, NS on August 8th.
Taylor started this album in 2014 after the break-up of his band The Heavy Heavies and wanted to put out a project that didn’t have any limitations when it came to the sound of the music.
“The overall concept of Pipedream is kind of like the pursuit of happiness. There are songs that look at different aspects of “happiness” and what people try to cling to, to give their life meaning (validation, money, fancy cars, girls, parties, beauty, relationships, drugs). These are all things I struggled with over the year, or saw people dealing with and it made me realize that the only thing that would ever truly make ME happy is pursuing music…Often people get so complacent or scared to pursue their dreams, and they settle for security. So in a way this project is saying no dream is unachievable if you’re fully behind it and put all your energy and positivity into it,” says Taylor.
Describe who Luxe Taylor is and what motivates him.
“I grew up in Burlington, Ontario. My motivation has always been to continually progress. Not only in my art, by writing a better verse than the last song or making a better beat, but also in my life as a whole.
My childhood was definitely dope, but I also grew up in harder conditions than my friends around me and definitely dealt with a lot of things my friends didn’t really understand happened where we were from. I think this made me closer to my brothers and sisters because we kind of all know exactly what we all dealt with because we had it the same. They definitely motivate me because I want to see us progress.
I want my music to get me in a position where I can not only help out my family and friends, but also a person who might be listening to a song I wrote and it helps them out in a way. Maybe someone is going through something similar to April Showers and something clicks with them, or they feel less alone. That feeling I’ve gotten when someone says a song or lyric I wrote means something to them is possibly the greatest feeling to experience as an artist. That’s motivation.”
How did you know you wanted to pursue rap?
“I’ve always been drawn to lyrics and rhythm, so it always made sense. I remember the first time I heard College Dropout by Kanye. It was the first time in my head where I started seeing myself as a hip hop artist, and maybe not just a guy in a band like a drummer or bass player.
I started making beats first and worked with a couple rappers. I was getting frustrated with it not sounding how I heard it in my head though. I started showing these rappers these broad ideas I had for the verse. At one point, this rapper I was working with at the time was like “Why don’t you just spit this verse?” I recorded the verse that day and from that point on I was writing, producing and recording my own music.”
Who influences you?
“My family, definitely. I owe a lot of my musical interest to my older brother. When I was younger, he was my source of everything I listened to. I’d borrow his CDs and play them in my disc man.
Other artists like Kanye, who are down to push to boundaries and not conform to a certain “sound” people expect from them.”
What will this tour mean to you?
“This is kind of a big deal for me because it was my first full solo tour. This first tour was definitely a learning experience. First, how big this country really is. After Montreal, it’s like a 10 hour drive until the next playable city. Also, you can’t expect the first couple tours to be sold out venues. You gotta pay your dues and build a fanbase slowly.”
Taylor’s next couple of projects include the second part of the Pipedream tour In September with Tech N9ne, getting more studio time and a possible U.S. tour coming in the winter.
Check out Luxe Taylor’s latest video release for “You Right” and his soundcloud for the entire Pipedream album.
IG and Twitter: @luxetaylor
