Monster Taxi (Jason Klein) Interview-The Final on Vinyl Podcast

I always have so much fun interviewing musicians, and Jason Klein from Monster Taxi was a joy to talk to!

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Transcript

Speaker 0:14

Hi everybody, this is Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck with the Final on Vinyl Podcast, and today we are with Jason Klein, who is known as Monster Taxi. I recently got to hear his new track, which is called Japanese Ansen. And I would look at it as chill new age ambient instrumental. Perhaps Jason may have another explanation of what he thinks that is, but uh glad to have him on board today.

Speaker 2 0:45

Hey, nice to meet you. Thank you for having me. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Um the Japanese on Sen, um I call it kind of chill out electronic music. And um it's funny, about three years ago I was I was pretty well known for doing house music, like trans techno house music. But I've always enjoyed what I call trip-hop music and new age type music, and I just it kind of led me into this direction. What do you call it? Trip hop, new age, chill out, ambience. I've heard all kinds of different stuff. The new term now is a lo-fi. So um I don't know, it's just it's me making music and presenting it, and it's always interesting what people call it. That's how I look at it.

Speaker 1:38

As long as everybody enjoys it and you know can use it for a tool, uh, whether that be relaxation, meditation, or just simple enjoyment of listening, and job well done. That's the way I look at it.

Speaker 2 1:50

Well, thank you. Yeah. I really had a good time, you know, composing it. It's um took my son to Japan back in May, and and um even before the trip I was doing research and and the main melody within the song just kept sticking in my head. So I went in the studio and I I laid it down and I played piano, so I was playing around you know my keys and trying different sounds, and and that's the the main sound you hear.

Speaker 2:19

I see. So, what brought on this uh vision that you had of going to Japan? Is it something you always wanted to do? And how did that come about?

Speaker 2 2:30

I've never been to Asia before, and my son just graduated college, and we were talking about doing a trip with the entire family, which is me and my wife, and two kids. He brought up Japan, and um my wife's daughter thought, hey, let's let's split up, let the girls go somewhere and the guys go somewhere. So I've never been to Asia, so we went to Japan. Oh and um we saw a lot of interesting things and things that really inspired this song. Nice. I don't know if you got to watch the video, but a lot of things in the music video my son and I experienced, and my and my friend Danny Rain put the video together. I showed him various pictures from our trip, and he visualized it as if we were, you know, from classic Japan, way before electricity, and all the things you see my son and I experienced.

Speaker 3:27

Right, I understood that. I thought it was a great video. Um, it kind of reminded me of Samurai Jack. I don't know if you're familiar with that.

Speaker 2 3:37

Uh none, but I'm gonna check it out once we get off the phone, absolutely.

Speaker 3:42

Oh, it's a it's a great cartoon. Probably the best cartoon I've ever seen in my life. Absolutely. Um the graphics, the storyline, uh, I believe there was like four or five seasons, and I watched it with my son. Um he was in the early teens, all the way up to an adulthood, and they put out a final uh piece of a uh movie like many years later that we watched together too. So it just engaged me that way. And you know, the music's beautiful, of course. And this is but then my second opportunity to hear your music. Now, do you have a full album planned at any time?

Speaker 2 4:24

You know it's funny, I haven't put out a full album since 2006, and I kind of got this from being in the dance music world. I've always just put out singles. And then once once streaming came about, yeah, I have I've had in the last four years songs that would be more in this genre. And yes, I could put an album together, but I could also put together a playlist. I've thought about it, it just depends on where my head is. But um I haven't it's been a while since I've been thought about doing a full-length album. But I I enjoy the you know, every three, four months put out a new song.

Speaker 5:08

Well, eventually you could just take all the tracks and put out an album, you know.

unknown 5:12

Sure.

Speaker 5:13

For sure.

Speaker 2 5:14

So it's it's definitely been it's been suggested many times, so I'm not Yeah, I'm definitely open.

Speaker 5:23

Well, you have to stay in touch about that.

Speaker 1 5:25

Yeah.

Speaker 5:26

Well one thing that came to mind right away, I'm surprised I didn't ask you right away, was how did you come up with that name Monster Taxi?

Speaker 2 5:36

Well when you know, like twenty plus years ago, I was already getting hired to do a bunch of dance songs, and I had created a thing called Magic Sauce, which is me, an opera singer, and another producer, and I decided to make a remix of what of one of our magic sauce songs. I had to create another name. And I just happened to one day I'm watching an Asian show, I forget what show I was watching, and it showed some guys on a water taxi coming out of Hong Kong, and it said taxi at the bottom, but on the top it's it was something in Chinese. But from where I was sitting, it looked like it said monster, and I just I just said monster taxi. And it just kind of I'm like, that's a cool name, and it just kind of became the name. And then I would use it starting in 2002, it became I would get hired, you know, from pretty big artists, and it'd be like the blah blah blah blah, the monster taxi mix. And then I create Monster Taxi the Artist, which you know you can see on Spotify or Apple or YouTube, and the name just kind of stuck. And and even when I ventured from doing dance music and then into chill out music, I I kept the name because a lot of my heroes, whether it's Vangalis or Air or Moby or Dead Mouse, they they would use the same moniker regardless of the style of music. So that just became that's my moniker. It's my little alternative name.

Speaker 7:16

It's funny you brought that up because that was my first thought. I'm like, why is this guy calling himself monster taxi? Sounds like he should be a punk band or something. Yeah, no, I agree.

Speaker 2 7:25

I should be at CBGB's or something, just you know, motion or something.

Speaker 7:30

It just became a name. You look like a linebacker, you look like a big dude, so you look like a monster taxi.

Speaker 1 7:38

I guess thank you.

Speaker 7:42

You know, you mentioned um Hong Kong. I was there a few times when I was in the Navy, and I remember taking the the ferry across um over to Kowloon, which was so cool. Going to those little clubs they had over there, the jazz clubs and things like that. It's uh an experience I'll never forget. So if you ever decide to go to Asia again, I'd highly recommend Hong Kong, Kowloon.

Speaker 2 8:07

I think my son is trying to put in my head to go to um Korea. Um there's so many places I want to see. I'm only uh not even halfway through the bucket list of places to travel, but I'm sure everywhere. I mean, it it kind of became without me realizing it, in the last four years I would just go on different trips. So I I went with my father to Arizona, and of course a song came out of my head, and I did a song called Reflect. And it just seems that become like my it wasn't on purpose, but it kind of became my next three or four years of songs. It kind of became inspired by places I was seeing and cultures I was experiencing. Let's see.

Speaker 8:55

So you did mention uh a few of your your heroes for for inspiration in music. Do you have a lot of vinyl that you listen to with those groups, or are there some different artists that you like to listen to?

Speaker 2 9:07

I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't had a working record player in about 15 years. In fact, shame on you. Come on, I know shame shame on me. Even though I play a lot of analog synthesizers and pianos, um I I've even released my own music on vinyl, so but I just haven't had and it's funny, my actually, never mind, my son has a record player now. And so I could but anyways, um, when I was in Japan, I was impressed by the amount of vinyl that was for sale there. You would have Power Records and all these other giant record stores that we would see in the United States 20 years ago, but over there it's it's still a major thing, and it was crowded. I was watching kids picking up vinyl of whether it's Taylor Swift or Radiohead, you know, and everything in between. And a lot of jazz is being sold there, a lot of you know different kinds of music. I was very impressed.

Speaker 10:03

Well, Japanese pressings are excellent of quality, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 10:07

Right. They they love their music there, they're very passionate about the music there.

Speaker 10:13

They are, definitely. Yeah. So thinking about you as a musician, just like your alter ego during the day you're heading up a CPA firm and you have this alter ego that you see. I understand that because I worked for over 20 years as a recruiter and did my music reviews at night. So it's I can focus more on my music reviews now more than ever, so which is really cool. But when was the first time you were drawn to the keyboards? How old were you?

Speaker 2 10:48

Um when I was in I don't know, third, fourth grade, I'd watch my mom play piano, and I remember the the very first song I really learned, other than like the basic kids songs, I had a knack for hearing stuff, and I remember playing Funky Town by lips. Won't you take me to Funky Town? And that was like that, and then and then Van Halen Jump, and and and with the song Van Halen Jump, that that launched me into the musician stratosphere. And when I was in high school from like 85 to 89, even even in middle school, I was playing in a bunch of bands. You know, initially I was playing heavy metal, you know, I was a fan of Rush and Len Zeppelin and all the guitar players like Iron Maiden and Metallica, but like you know, I was a keyboard player. And it kind of led me into dance music later because keyboards are kind of wasn't cool in rock music, you know, unless you played like Bon Jovi or Home Sweet Home from Ollie Crew. But um yeah, I still have my synthesizer collection. I I still use a lot of those sounds on my current songs because it just means that you have a home studio? Yeah, in my home I have about six synthesizers. I got um it's a nice desk. I'll send you a picture of it. It's um it's nice, and and and there's times where, yes, I have my own CPA practice, but it's also because it's mine, I if I need to take off several days, you know, I'm working on music, you know, during the day, sometimes a night. And a lot of it is based on what inspiration comes in my head. It's sometimes hard to force a song, like, okay, great, I have one out now doing well, let me make the next one. And it's sometimes hard to just, you know, you gotta you gotta have some kind of inspiration. And that's what all of us creatives have. You know, a lot of my friends, you know, even musician clients, it's the same type of thing. It's it's about the creativity. You can't always force it, but when it's there, it's magic.

Speaker 12:55

So currently in in today's world of streaming and so forth, um, are are you discovering new artists? Are there new artists that really stand out to you currently?

Speaker 2 13:07

Let's see. If I go to my I'm in my Spotify, and I actually have a playlist on Spotify that I use to while I work, and I add songs every week to it. And I happen to love new music. I guess some of the bigger artists would be Lana Del Rey. There's a group called the Maria's. I'm gonna go see a group called Men I Trust in a couple weeks, and also a group called Um Cronata and Justice. There's a lot of different music I like, and um becomes very inspirational. Just recently, I was watching the old movie Midnight Cowboy. I love the John Barry soundtrack in that movie. That was very cowboy. Oh wow. Yeah. Yeah. So I could talk about the new stuff and I can go old. But you know, I I did learn jazz at first years ago. You know, I'm I wouldn't say I'm a jazz um aficionado musician, but you know, I could hold I can hold my own a little bit.

Speaker 14:10

Pretty complex music compared to uh you know playing new age synthesizer-based music, huh?

Speaker 2 14:17

It's kind of funny, so I have a bunch of musician friends, they're like, you know, they're watching what's going on with me with this new age music, and I have you know, this one particular friend who's a really accomplished piano player. I had to tell them politely, on your left hand, you play one note. On your right hand, just play three notes and keep it simple. And you gotta imagine you know somebody's laying on a mat or they're laying in the pool or they're just chilling out. Because us jazz enthusiasts, if we play too many notes, it kills a certain vibe. There's a different vibe to it, but it's interesting how I've had to learn, especially me growing up with bands like Rush and Emerson Palmer and Yes, where they play a million notes, you learn to start to play less, and there's this term less is more. It has it could be much more impactful with just certain notes that just you know really people feel it. It becomes an emotional thing. True.

Speaker 15:17

You know, those bands, you know, um, if you look at old reviews, people would call it bombastic and they go on and on. And you know what? Listening to those recordings, it doesn't sound that way to me. I imagine it might go that route if you saw these people live and they just improvised, but hearing that music, it doesn't sound like they were too far out there to me.

Speaker 2 15:41

Look, uh just the other day I was listening to an old classic, Frank Zapu's Joe's Garage.

Speaker 15:48

Oh my god, I had that, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 15:51

Yeah. And it's just like, you know, here I am 30 years later listening to it again while I was just going for a walk. And I mean, there's some Vontoe songs in there, but the musicians just crazy. Yeah, they play a million notes. And but I don't know, that's what makes it fun for me. So, like when I'm making songs, I have inspirations coming from so many different angles. I may I happen to love Genesis from the Peter Gabriel era, so I love those chord structures. They're almost like church sounding at times. Like it has there's a certain tone to it that's incredible. Then I'll hear, you know, I love the band Air. I just took my son to see Air. They they're on they're doing a reunion tour. And there's just so many music from so many different levels, even country music, um, you know, opera, you name it. I I've learned to really enjoy so many different movements.

Speaker 16:42

I'm the same way now. And you know, because we're older, we have different ears too. Our interpretation is entirely different, right? Coming from a different level now.

Speaker 2 16:51

Yeah. I'll tell you, when I'm when I'm doing like my day job at counting, you know, as much as I love jazz, if I start hearing more than six chords in a song, my mind starts to wander, and there's certain music I like to listen to while I'm working. But I don't want to be too, I don't want to say boring, but I don't want to be too ambient because it may put me in a zone. But I have like, I don't know, I I try to find that like right middle ground of chill songs. You know, Casey Musgrave's great for that. I listen to a lot of her while I'm working, or crumbing. And you know, I just it's just nice. And of course, a lot of music I'm working with, or you know, I've been I've been very it's been nice meeting a lot of other new friends that also do similar music that I do, and you know, becoming fans of theirs as well. Just, you know, hearing different things. But I love music.

Speaker 17:45

I'm what I like about your music and many other artists out there that I cover is that there's this subtle layer of synth going on, kind of like a cloud floating, and then there's other things on top of it, and here comes something else, and here comes something else, and it's like it, you know, I I mentioned earlier that it's not as complex as jazz, but it's also you know, not easy either. There's all these different elements that come into play that to make up one composition, right?

Speaker 2 18:16

Right. I mean, it's and the thing that's interesting about it is especially what the Japanese on I worked on, it started out with the Japanese shimizen, which I kind of just was messing around different sounds. It's when I play on a keyboard, you gotta bend the notes a certain way and play it a certain way to make it you know sound like it's the real thing. And yeah, I know people who may use I'm not ripping on those who use AI tools or other stuff, but like for me it's I just like the whole the the song you heard is a lot of it's a happy accent, just me messing around in the studio. And okay, this is inspiring. And then next thing you know, I want to add a synth pad to it, but it has to be kind of mellow. You know, I there's one sound I use, I call it the Han Zimmer pad sound. You know, there's there's so many different um elements I use, but a lot of it I don't know until I I I I start working on the song, and oh that's that's that sounds cool. Let me let me put that over here and make sure it's not too loud. It was funny. On this new song, I was I was actually in touch with the Japanese musicians to play you know the Japanese flute, I can never pronounce the name right, the shakahasi or something. And and and the more I kept thinking, let me add more and more of this and that, I decide to, well, less is more, and I decide not to put more stuff in there. Let me just keep it simple. And and I was I was happy the way it turned out.

Speaker 19:51

Well, if you think about it, everything's free for them until it's done, right?

Speaker 2 19:55

Yeah. And I I'll be the first to say um a lot of my other um musician friends who create music, you know, we'll go back and listen and then we're like, oh, I should have done this instead. But you know, I've always learned the second it it goes it gets out, it's out.

Speaker 1 20:12

And I've been very happy.

Speaker 2 20:14

But I've been very happy how it turned out. But you know, but I guess the creative in me is always like, you know, I would have had I maybe would have added this instead, you know, but that's that's the nature of our creativity.

Speaker 20:27

That's right. That is the way it works. Yeah, you can always go back and do more or take out and you can go on forever, right?

Speaker 1 20:34

Yeah.

Speaker 20:37

So you mentioned vinyl earlier, uh Jason. How do people get a hold of your vinyl?

Speaker 2 20:44

So um when I was doing mostly the dance music, we would actually we run about a thousand and two thousand vinyl just to give to the DJs. Because at that time the DJs would actually use vinyl. And then starting around 2003 or 4, they forget about the CD, they started switching to MP3. And even nowadays, the dance artists, the dance DJs, they may have vinyl parties, but they're they're gonna tend to play vinyl from the 70s or 80s. And so a lot of dance guys just kind of got out of that. Um let me see. If I go to eBay, I know Don Manuel Figaro.

unknown 21:33

Yeah.

Speaker 21:34

Are you looking up something on eBay now?

Speaker 2 21:36

Yeah, I'm looking at seeing, I see some like vinyl on eBay. Uh I had put together something called Don Manuel and Figureau. We did like a dance version of the classic Barber of Seville. Figaro. And um, you can get the vinyl there. Um some people are selling it for like one person selling for $2.95 plus $5 delivery.

Speaker 21:57

Oh my God. That's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 22:01

Yeah. It was funny.

Speaker 22:02

You have copies, I hope. I hope you have copies of all of these.

Speaker 2 22:05

No, no, I still have some copies. I have that, plus I did a remake of the disco classic Foxy. get off, so I saw some vinyl from that. And I'll firstly send you some vinyl since you love vinyl.

Speaker 22:17

Oh I would love that. That would be great.

Speaker 2 22:21

But uh actually the greatest vinyl I ever did, and let me see you can stay, it was me and DJ Grego did remixes of Earth Wind and Fire Fantasy. This came out like in 2000 2001. I have a copy um you know hanging on my wall but we did Brazilian Baticada and like samba party remixes of the song Fantasy. That's cool. That was really cool. That uh you know I'll send you a link to that and I think you'll like that. Okay. I've I've definitely got to work on some very interesting stuff throughout my life.

Speaker 23:02

Well it's been a great conversation Jason I really appreciate your and your artistry. Thank you sure anytime. I just want to remind people that Jason Klein is Monster Taxi and his new track is Japanese onsen and he has a wonderful video to go along with that and I'll be posting that in a few minutes actually and thank you again sir. I hope we get a chance to do this again sometime.

Speaker 2 23:30

Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Speaker 23:32

You too take care