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HANNAH BUTLER talks to Tah Mac about his musical influences and how his education was key to his success as he prepares to launch his album in the UK

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ll the way from Brooklyn comes the latest sensation to hit the UK. Tah Mac has already worked with an impressive list of stars ranging from soul legend Arethra Franklin to superstar chanteuse Leona Lewis. Whether as a producer, songwriter or co-performer, he already has an enviable CV and is not some upstart pretender to music biz superstardom.

His single ‘Lavish Lifestyle’ and album are just out in the UK. He hopes by coming to the UK to showcase his talents he’ll “gain access to the rest of the world. To be able to make good music, you have got to embrace all of the difference out there and the UK is the best place to do it from.”

This attitude encapsulates Tah Mac’s philosophy about making good music and how it’s about grasping every influence out there to blend your own, unique sound. “The album itself was written all over; in the UK, Germany, France, America and that has enabled me to address as many sounds as I can”. His music roots stem from street hip-hop and bit by bit he has been introduced to Garage, r ’n’ b and rock and roll which he has “dibbled and dabbled” with to produce this really distinctive sound of his own. “The state of the music now is all over the place. Where I came from, we learnt from a formula and I want to grasp and make people happy again. In today’s climates, people are only thinking about what’s going to happen tomorrow and I just want people to get up and dance. I’m not here to save the world, but I am here for a purpose.”

With these firm aspirations in place, Tah still knows how to keep his feet on the ground and he put a lot down to his dad and his upbringing.

“My dad sat me down and asked ‘what’s your plan – you don’t live here for free’ and so I went to school. I attended Nassau community college in Hempstead New York, studied a straight sixth month course and came out with a diploma. Education is first and you’ve got to know your stuff. You never know when you are going to need to use it. You only need to go to downtown LA where I sometimes volunteer.

Without education, loads of people are so lost and some of them are the most intelligent people. Education is key.”

Tah’s route to British chart domination starts on the all-important University tour. Tah promises to be “playing in the smallest of small venues to the biggest of the big ones”. Check out his line up out on www.myspace.com/tahmac

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THE LATEST IMPRESSION TO BE MADE ON THE MUSIC SCENE COMES FROM THE NORTHWESTERN MUSICAL CAPITAL OF MANCHESTER, WHERE A GROUP OF FIVE LADS HAVE BEEN BUSKING AND WORKING EXTREMELY HARD TO ACHIEVE THEIR PERFECT SOUND IN THE CREATION OF BEGGAR JOE VIRGINIA LAMBERT

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hatting to Jon Kenzie, who fronts the band on vocals and guitar, he details how he, Justin Shern on keys, Andy Brown on double bass, Rome Mosabbir on percussion and Chris Butler on drums all came together and how they have achieved their dream.

The guys all met whilst studying music at the University of Salford - all very varied music courses and tastes but joined by a passion for music and a brilliant university experience; “It’s a fantastic uni, we all loved it and it’s great for music. Normally what you find is a basic

choice between Jazz or Classical but Salford is really open-minded to all genres of music. I did Popular Music and there is Punk and loads of good stuff on offer”. The location was also something that will remain really important to the band...

BUSKING ALONG On the streets of Manchester they became admired and very recognised buskers, allowing their popularity to grow. Jon explained how, whilst at uni and once he had graduated, he pledged himself to making a living out of

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We have to keep the diary filling up with gigs

music. “I was busking to pay bills and then on top of that doing session work, playing in cover bands at people’s parties - completely skint but making my money totally out of the music. We are all still skint now and it just means that we have to keep the diary filling up with gigs.”

The bands inevitable and pending success will be due to raw talent, lots of persistence and the experience they have all combined.

Jon alone, soon after leaving uni, had already played three to four hundred pub gigs, travelled all over the world with his music and has been under two different managers.

The band have worked very hard for this - for the sake of their sound, they took themselves off and shut themselves away; “We went to France to stay in a small cottage for five weeks. It was in the middle of nowhere and we took the minimal equipment to enable us to create a studio. We would wake up every single morning to jam out the tunes to perfect our music. There were moments of cabin fever, but it was something we had to do, at home someone is always off to see a mate or a girlfriend - but we had nowhere to go but the studio where we living and breathing our tunes.”

Beggar Joe is a very driven and versatile band made up of five different guys, each bringing their own unique tastes, styles and passion to a very talented troupe. They have been developing their craft over the years, have now found their precise sound and are creating very good music. Their diaries are full with gig dates and to check out when, where and to have a listen go to www.myspace.com/ beggarjoe.

Beggar Joe’s excellent self titled album is due for release 5 October 2009

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