TALA Music and Consulting is a dynamic agency founded by Vancouver-based R&B/HipHop/Songwriting duo DRB. Comprised of DayDay and Mizzy, TALA is redefining what support looks like in the local music industry, approaching each client in a tailored way to fit their needs. Offering support in the shape of artist management, consulting, songwriting, producing, festival production, grant writing support, and much more, TALA is guided by stars, driven by passion, and aims to serve as many communities as possible.
Among their successes, DRB have produced major festivals such as BREAKOUT and Turtle Island Fest (which they also headlined). They love to collaborate with other artists by producing and writing with them in the studio, recently co-writing “Solo” by Hayley Wallis, which reached number one on the Indigenous Music Countdown hosted on Sirius satellite radio. They also love to give back to the community as much as possible by helping to develop youth by offering mentorship, resources and infrastructure for them to build their skills and confidence.
We spoke with Mizzy to learn more about how TALA began, how it’s evolving, and how it’s helping shape a more connected and accessible future for artists in British Columbia.
TALA offers such a wide range of services. What inspired you to build a company that supports artists both creatively and administratively?
What inspired me to do this was knowing what it feels like to be an artist and need help on the business side of things. I was fortunate enough to go to school for Music Business Management and always handled the business side of things for all of the groups/touring teams I was a part of. I quickly saw how integral this part of the industry is and the gaps that lots of creatives were facing. TALA wants to be able to provide guidance and services to cover these gaps for artists.
On the creative side, I am a music nerd and love to create myself. It’s always been a therapeutic experience and there aren’t many places in this life that feel like the studio. My business partner and partner in rhyme, Day Day and I love to work directly with artists and give them honest insights to help better their work. The overall goal is to add capacity for the people we work with, let the artist truly be the artist as much as possible and not get bogged down by things that may be stressful or not of interest.
How do you approach tailoring services for each artist or organization, especially when their needs and visions can be so different?
This is completely up to the client. TALA is just a vessel. If you come to us with a problem or gap you’re facing, I’m going to find a way to fill it. If our team can help you do that, we will. If we can’t, I likely know who can and will point you in their direction, no questions asked. We move from a place of abundance and believe sharing knowledge, resources, and contacts will only help make a more vibrant and sustainable music industry economy.
Image credit: Devan Head.
You’ve produced major events like BREAKOUT and Turtle Island Festival. What’s your philosophy when it comes to creating impactful live experiences?
I was part of the BREAKOUT team, handling festival transportation and afterparty productions. Shout out to my mentor and Vancouver live show OG, the most humble industry guy I know, David McCulloch, who is the one who really made BREAKOUT happen . This man is incredible at scouting industry talent and giving them opportunities to grow and build their skills. Without his guidance and knowledge being shared, we never would be able to produce Turtle Island Festival in the way we do. TIF fka CIRCLES were all quite the experience to produce but were great achievements showing the TALA team that hey, we can build a festival site and produce an entire fest from the ground up. Not an easy task by any means but a rewarding one!
My philosophy on creating impactful live experiences is that the early prep work is the most important. I’ve told many folks over the years that producing live events is just like being a firefighter, if we’ve done our job right leading up to it, we are just there to put out any small fires that happen. If we’ve done our job well, the day of the show can be the easiest part. I also believe there is a misconception from the general public that artists just show up and play for an hour and it’s that simple. Festival planning requires hundreds of emails and hours planning to ensure it all goes by smoothly. The key is foresight in being able to see any “fires” that might start and extinguishing them as soon as possible. From a curation and talent side, it’s just making sure the talent is comfortable and has good hospitality at the event that allows them to focus on giving their best performance.
What have been some of the most important lessons you’ve learned since launching TALA?
This industry is cold, so try not to take anything personally. There is a lot of scarcity mentality and fear of loss within the creative industries, to which I can somewhat understand but our life philosophy is moving from a place of abundance. I know what I do is strong and know I can replicate it time over time. This is why I’m willing to give lots of free info, resources, and connections because I just want to make sure people have the best opportunity to thrive.
I’ve watched my colleagues and been taken advantage of on several occasions and that has led to some tighter controls. I used to like to work with artists/companies on a verbal agreement but after being burned a few times, I know contracts and written proof of everything is very important to protect what we are hopeful to build. The craziest thing is people burning me and not just discussing it with me at all. I’m huge on open communication and discussing the tough things in life and make that very clear to all my clients. I’m probably one of the few people in the industry that you can have tough, honest convos with and say, “hey, I want to go this way, I don’t want to create with you anymore and want this grant money to work with this person” and I’ll hear you out and oblige if it’s what makes the best sense for you and you’ll likely never hear about it again. At the end of the day, I don’t want to hold anyone against their will or have janky contracts…that’s why I like the tailored/more project management approach. We move from a place of love and abundance and why we choose to go against the grain of how most industry moves. We are a bit anti industry in the way we approach it but I guess this is the battle of working in an industry full of people who are in it for clout reasons and not for the love the game, the art and artists, like we are. Clout culture is dying…so consider that as you make your moves people!
Image credit: Devan Head.
Mentorship and youth development are clearly important to TALA. Can you share a moment or story that highlights the impact of your work with young creatives?
This is everything to me. Being the support that we never had as young artists is so key. If we can help any artists, industry professionals or creatives to avoid any of the things that negatively affected our career, we will! Sometimes this means working in kind but there probably aren’t as many people or companies locally who kick free games and consult in kind like TALA has for the localized infrastructure.
There are too many stories to count but one thing that is consistent has been helping artists who have limited budgets or no budget and helping them navigate and position themselves for growth in their career. What’s a couple hundred in my pocket if that could take the artist further, has always been my approach. I know that money will come back around in the future if we work in a good way. On many occasions these artists have come back to us and hired us, or have said “hey you helped me figure out or connected me with XYZ, how can I repay you?”. Our approach often is telling them to pay it forward and help build a better community. It’s also surprising how many times I’ll get a random text or call that says “Hey, I’ve paid it forward in this way” and those texts are the most rewarding. Helping build community is the foundation of all of this, without building the community from inside the industry and outside of it, we would be just running in a hamster wheel.
How do you ensure that TALA remains accessible and relevant to emerging artists who may not have traditional industry connections or resources?
We stay within the community, you’ll see Day Day and I at almost every major industry event and a ton of live shows, whether local or international touring. I mean, if you’ve seen us out or been around us, you’ll pick up pretty quickly that we are approachable and just love to have a good time, smiling, dancing, singing and rapping all over the place. All it really takes is for people to reach out because we really believe in the talent of this next generation of artists and industry professionals. This reminds me of when I reached out to the legendary DJ Kemo about our rap group working with him and asked “what would it take to work with you” and he replied “you just gotta ask!”, that has always stuck with me. Shout out Kemo, he’s one of the realest cats I’ve worked with. Basically, if you have something that is stressing you out and you think we can help relieve it, and we have the ability to, we will figure out a way to do that. The common theme in these answers is we move in the law of abundance and I’m not scared to hand over any contacts or resources that’ll help the client grow. I believe that we are great and that we can replicate the good work we’ve done again and again. We are trying to be the change we wish to see in the industry and remove that scarcity mentality, and provide proper guidance with good intentions. We prefer to consider ourselves gate openers, not gate keepers….a lot of the industry can learn from this.
Image credit: Devan Head.
How do you stay inspired and continue to grow as both an artist and entrepreneur?
It’s kind of simple, we really just love this with our entire being and I believe in the talent of the next generation…these kids are so talented and smart. I always tell the young kids I’ve mentored and worked with that you really gotta love this industry, if you want to be successful in it. It’s long hours, not always fun work, and has its own unique challenges at times. There aren’t always huge deals on the table, sometimes it’s a huge grind but we always seem to have been rewarded for this grind. Spiritually, I believe that Creator/Bathala has our back through this and if we move in a good way, we will be rewarded in this lifetime for the work we’ve done. You can lie to me, you can lie to the fans but you can’t lie to them, they see all…choose wisely.
From an artistic perspective, we also just love to create and even though being the artist isn’t really the focus for me at least these days, I’ll always love to create in the studio and build art, help impact artists careers…and hopefully sell people a few songs along the way!
Aside from the actual music industry inspiration, my kids and wife are a huge guiding force in my career and keep me very motivated. I love being a father and husband first, I’m lucky that my wife Seaira and kids appreciate the work I do, even though it’s often non conventional to a regular family life. Without their love and support, none of the success means anything to me.
If you could give one piece of advice to emerging artists trying to navigate both the creative and business sides of the industry, what would it be?
Listen to the Manager’s Playbook by Maurico Ruiz…seriously! Listen to all the mentors you can, who are willing to guide you in an honest way. There are lots of scammers and grifters and you gotta cut through some of the noise but overall, find mentorship and ask as many questions as they’ll allow. Use their experience to guide you to make informed decisions, the industry is still the industry and shifts quickly but many of the inner workings are still the same. The other piece is truly falling in love with the grind of building and creating, not all the vanity numbers like monthly listeners and TikTok posts/reels. If your goal is to go viral, make sure you have a vault of things ready in case this does happen so you don’t have a quick moment and then fade just as quickly. I also feel like the industry and listeners are craving more authenticity these days, so be authentic in who you are and be honest with where you’re at and what you need. This will take you way further than keeping up the internet facade…it’s almost as if artists don’t realize that industry professionals can spot this in an instant and have tools to do so. Create real fan bases through a genuine connection. If you get 500 fans that are willing to spend $100/year on you (which isn’t much to spend these days!) that’s $50k in revenue a year and can help you build better in your next moves. Focus on those people who truly support everything you do. That wasn’t one piece of advice because I’m a long talker but I think a lot of that works in unison.
Learn more about TALA on their website and stay up to date with new announcements on their Instagram page.
Cover image by @blestviews on Instagram.
