“The internet is a huge part of what we do now – most artists collaborate on Twitter. It’s never through management, it’s very rare that it happens.”
Regan “Reggie” Matthews, aka Ta-Ku, surprises Brynn Davies with his laid-back attitude to music and the real meaning behind Meet In The Middle.
Regan Matthews “never really learnt how to play an instrument. Like, even now I don’t know how to play an instrument — I just kinda winged it and faked it until I made it.” This process seemed to work for the beat maker, nabbing him a coveted position at the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona. “When I got accepted into [the program] I didn’t really believe or understand what was going on. When I got the email saying that they wanted to bring me out to Barcelona I was pretty much in shock, no one really believed me until they saw me leave the country,” he jokes.
Matthews has blown onto the Australian music scene in a big way over a short period of time, from releasing his debut EP Songs To Break Up To in October 2013 to touring around the country as part of Listen Out Festival and collaborating with big names like CyHi Da Prynce [G.O.O.D music], John Robinson, Raashan Ahmad [Paper Chain labelmate], Joe Scudda, Outasight and Chet Faker among others. “[The collaboration] was very organic. Most of the people I’ve worked with didn’t happen in a grandiose way, it was just done via the internet really. The internet is a huge part of what we do now – most artists collaborate on Twitter. It’s never through management, it’s very rare that it happens,” he explains.
Another contributing factor to his rise to success is social media. In a previous interview, Drapht used Ta-Ku as an example of a fellow Perth artist who made his mark purely through social media. For Matthews it was simply an accident. “I think it just kinda blew up, I mean I didn’t really put a lot of man hours into it. I like to show different sides of me. I was putting my photos out there and expressing myself through photography, which was handy — Instagram is a photo-based social platform. I never put anything up or out that I didn’t see as me, and hopefully people saw that and connected with it.” His photography takes precedence over his music in many respects — he is known for his desire to keep music as “just a hobby”. “I’ve been doing a lot of photography and music has definitely taken a back seat for the last year or so. I don’t see [music] as my full-time job. It’s more about trying to make art and make something that I’m proud of.”
For the moment, Matthews is enjoying a bit of on-stage time as part of Vivid, accompanied by young talent Wafia. The title track from their collaborative EP Meet In The Middle explores a highly personal experience for both artists — that of their relationships with their fathers. “It’s definitely about a compromise. For me it’s my relationship with my dad, but in the song it sounds like it is a compromise in love — it can be anything you want. Me and my Dad have an interesting relationship… There are times we haven’t talked, but lately I’m reaching the age where — I always thought how much wrong you think someone’s done to you and how much you think you owe them — but it doesn’t really matter if you’re willing to be at peace.”
Originally published by themusic.com.au
