Man, I Gotta Lay Off The Peyote...
We were lucky enough to have the chance to speak to Peyote. A producer who's worked with artists like: 6ix9ine, Trippie Redd, UnoTheActivist, Xavier Wolf and more! Check out my personal favorite production of his: "Wake Up"- UnoTheActivist.
Where are you from and what age did you first make a connection to producing music?
I'm from Palm Springs, 2 hours away from the LA. It's the city where Coachella Fest takes place. I've been a musician since I was way little. My mom got me started with a classical piano so I was heavy into that. From there I got into high school and learned the guitar on my own and then started a band like soon after. After that, I took some time off and didn't know what I wanted to do in music cause I started attending a university (non-music). 4 years ago I started producing and I'm still going strong. My first placement was with J $tash and Lil Yachty.
When did you want to decide you wanted to pursue producing as a career?
I first realized it 4 years ago when I hadn't been making music since I wasn't in a band anymore. It was the quickest way to make music because all I would have is to depend on myself or at least one other person. I started making instrumentals with my homie Cody and at the time we didn't know what rappers or artists to work with but we were just making them. Then I was on my own and I already had a good idea of what direction and who I wanted to work with. Kanye to me is the biggest influence because he changed the entire game in the 00s. The way he was sampling and molding stories from his beats were godly, I had to learn.
What's your producer tag? How did you create it? What's the importance of having a producer tag?
Love this question cause I love my producer tag lol. It says "Man, I gotta lay off the Peyote" and it's actually taken from the movie Talladega Nights. Will Ferrell's father in the movie says it to him as a kid so I just had to take that. It's so very crucial to have a tag especially these days when eyes are also on the producer, not just the artist. It'll set you apart like literally it'll boost your beat and make it stronger if you have one that stands out but not so OD.
In your process of making a beat, what's the easiest and hardest part of making a beat?
The easiest part to me has to be coming up with the melody for the beat to start it off just cause I'm originally a pianist so it comes easy to me. The hardest part for me is to finalize the beat and get it done with the perfect arrangement but I've recently been getting better at this with practice. Sometimes we might over think the beat and try to get it so perfect before realizing that it's sounding good already.
How did you first connect with Trippie Redd? What was it like working with him on"Never Ever Land"?
My homie Peter who raps and also directs music videos introduced me to him. Pete had directed the video for Trippie Redd's Love Scars so during that same time he brought Trippie to my studio in LA and we went over the beats I had at the time. I accidentally started playing the Never Ever Land beat which wasn't done at the time and so I was like oh my bad not this one and then he stopped me and told me to pull it up again. I finished the beat up for him on the spot he told me to send it to him and then he recorded it the day after. It was just a fire ass turning point in the scene when he had just popped up. There was a shift going on.
How did you first connect with 6ix9ine? What is he like in the studio? What was it like working with him on "Alright"?
I pulled up to a studio session of Trippie's to cook up for him. In the middle of it, Trippie had to leave to a party so I stayed back to cook up at that studio. All of a sudden 6ix9ine walked in and heard me playing the beat I Was making for Trippie. He's like let me get on this so we said yeah why not. He was really solid, had his head on his shoulders like no ego or anything. The song leaked out a year and a half later because so many people were trying to get to it so right when that happened I dropped it on my Soundcloud.
When did you first experience success?
Just seeing the comments, tweets, and feedback on Never Ever Land which is always about people's love life, breakups and relationships. That made me realize how impactful something I made had on people's lives all over the world. Soon after my record with Unotheactivist came out, "Wake Up" and all the feedback on that was about how it was inspirational and motivated people in their daily lives. Ever since that, I've been pouring my heart into my music.
Do you work solely as a producer or do you engineer as well?
I'm more so considered a producer than an engineer which I'd like to keep it that way but I can engineer too. It's something I picked up since I have my own studio so when the rappers I worked with would come through, the surefire way of getting them on my beats was recording them myself. You'll go a very long way if you can handle both fronts and your price will go up.
What do you do in your free time when you're not producing?
Honestly, if I'm not producing, whatever I do outside of that has to contribute to inspiring my production. I smoke a ton of loud and I also like playing video games on this big ass projector at my stu. Fortnite and Apex lol.
What's on the horizon for your music career in 2019?
Got a lot of unreleased music that's about to come out. There are also some new artists I've been working with that I'm helping shape up their sound, that's a powerful thing to me. So many blessings to come.
Check Him Out: