Feature: Tai Verdes
Words by: April Bredael
Photo by Franz Mahr
In only six months, Tai Verdes has managed to take the world by storm. From practicing his voice for ninety minutes in his car every day to writing music and posting snippets on Tiktok, his rise to fame (and perfecting the Tiktok algorithms) has erupted. Initially asking for one thousand likes on a short clip of “Stuck In The Middle” in order to release the track, he was shellshocked when he received over eighty thousand. Since then, the track has taken off, growing his monthly Spotify listeners to nearly 2.7 million, and the track alone garnering over 50 million streams.
After being rejected from popular singing TV shows five times in a row, Tai shares that he no longer believes that ‘opinions are real.’ The singer-songwriter wants to do things for himself based on his own self-belief and drive to pursue music.
“If people have hate .. What is it? I can’t even touch it. If a producer at American Idol is like I don’t like your song that you sang to me if that happens? What does that mean? Can you hold my failure? No, because it just doesn’t exist. I’m going to keep on living.”
Despite not being recognized by some, Tai has become quite popular by Tiktok fans, with his tracks being used throughout the world. Trends appeared around his single ‘Drugs’ and his track ‘Stuck In The Middle’ is sitting at number one on Tiktok’s ranking of most used audios. Recently hitting one million followers on the app, Tai continues to be a trailblazer in the music scene and create something no one else has done.
With his new track, ‘we would have some cute kids.’ Tai shares that he is most proud of the fact that when you search the title in Spotify, there is no one else in the world that has created a track with the title. Pulling inspiration from Billie Eilish, Tyler The Creator, and Harry Styles, Tai aspires to create a brand around his music and create an image surrounding his tracks. He uses Tiktok as a platform to showcase his personality and music combined to a wide array of audiences and hyperextend his reach. With ‘we would have some cute kids.’ Tai puts into words the feeling of seeing someone and pondering their potential futures. His cathartic writing style combined with his unique and developed voice creates a track like no other. Although faced with rejection and adversity throughout his life, Tai is happy to finally be right where he wants to be and looks forward to the journey ahead. On what he would choose to tell his twelve-year-old self, Tai shares:
“You are fucking right. Do whatever you want to do. Everything that you’re doing is great. You’re about to be exactly what you thought you would be and exactly not what you thought you would be at the same time. Just have zero expectations.”
So what can fans expect with the remainder of 2021? Tai shares that the debut album, ‘TV’ will be dropping in May. The album name is derived both from his initials, as well as the cinematic aspects of his life. He shares that each track is like an episode on the TV series that is his life.
“Each song is an episode in that show. Me dropping out of school. After that, going to LA and experimenting with some ‘Drugs.’ Meet a girl, get ‘Stuck In The Middle.’ The relationship doesn’t pan out. And then you just realize that you’re okay with yourself, and the last song is called ‘A-Okay.’”
Photo by Franz Mahr
Tai reveals that once it is safe he plans to tour everywhere. He wants to go all over and meet all of the ‘dope people that follow and listen’ to his music. He wants to go to as many places as he can go and meet all of the listeners he can. He shares that he ‘doesn’t really have fans, just people that listen to his music and that they must be pretty cool people because they already have one thing in common, that being listening to his music a lot.
His best advice for others hoping to break into the music industry is to utilize rejection and use it to improve yourself. After facing rejection himself, he worked on his voice for an hour and a half every single day to get it to where it needed to be in order to be taken seriously. After that, he learned to market himself using popular apps such as Tiktok and center his music career around self-branding and allowing his image and personality to be visible to fans and followers. From his initial Verizon videos to his celebration of hitting one million followers, Tai is authentic, down to earth, and wholeheartedly true to himself.
“Life is not short. Life is long, and it is way too long for you to be doing shit that you don’t like. And also you’re going to die. So you want to be doing stuff that makes you happy, and follow your dreams.”
