about caffeinated corner:

Caffeinated Corner was created to replicate the feeling of chatting at coffee shops with new friends. From the warm taste of coffee, the slightly chaotic energy of the espresso machines, to the life stories shared, caffeinated corner aims to replicate this environment online. Join me as we talk with different artists about their favorite things, stories from their childhood, and new projects on the horizon.

Read along to my interview with PØSTERCHILD here:

Sidney

Alright, I am here with Taylor Mapes, aka PØSTERCHILD. He’s a longtime friend of mine.

Taylor

Yes!

Sidney

How have you been?

Taylor

So good! Haha.

Sidney

Good! So, just before we get into things–aside from music, what’s your day-to-day life like? What do you do outside of music?

Taylor

Hm…outside of music I like to ski. If I’m not working on music, I spend my mornings skiing. I also a serve in the evenings a lot.

Sidney

I totally feel that, haha. I’m floating in the same boat with you on that.

Taylor

Yeah, exactly. I DJ as well, especially a lot on the weekends.

Sidney

Nice! What are some of your favorite things right now? Like, TV shows, music, coffee order? Coffee orders are a big deal for us right now.

Taylor

Hm…coffee orders…I mean, because I’ve been serving a lot, I’ve started to learn how to make my own coffee, like cappuccinos, lattes, and all that stuff. I like stuff like that. As far as music, I’ve been really getting into older music, but from the 90s and early 2000s, particularly trance music and early EDM. I find that music to be really cool and inspiring. Instead of trying to look at newer music, I’ve been trying to focus on looking at older music and getting inspiration from there.

Sidney

Yeah, that’s nice.

Taylor

And like I said before, I’ve been asking a lot lately. It’s springtime in Alaska, so the sun’s comin’ out!

Sidney

And never sets again, haha.

Taylor

Yeah, literally.

Sidney

So, speaking of Alaska, what is it like being a House/EDM artist there?

Taylor

It’s cool. I mean, the scene here is super small, but a few DJs and I are up here doing our thing. There’s not really a big infrastructure for us, though. We don’t get to play big club shows or festivals all the time, you know? 

Sidney

Right.

Taylor

Yeah, I think so.

Sidney

Is it more competitive or are there just not enough venues?

Taylor

I just really think there are not enough venues. There’s not a consistent place where people are throwing raves in Alaska. You know, the bigger places…they do it, but they also host every other genre like rap, pop, things like Emo Night, everything. So you kind of just have to wait for certain opportunities to come, unless you’re just doing your own thing like reaching out to smaller venues and restaurants to play there. In the past, I’ve thrown some renegades, like doing forest raves just trying to make things happen. Just trying to bring the music here.

Sidney

Yeah, definitely.

Taylor

The scene here is small, but it’s definitely building up. You can see there’s a lot of potential electronic music. It’s a big open market, and people are gonna run it up.

Sidney

I saw that you recently DJ’d at Sitzmark in Girdwood. How was that?

Taylor

It was so good. Sitzmark is a smaller, iconic venue in Alaska. It’s part of the Alyeska Ski Resort. The previous owner of the resort used to book all these legendary artists there, like Grateful Dead, lots of jam bands, lots of larger bands but there hasn’t been hardly any electronic musicians playing in the venue. So, it was so cool to do my set and bring that really high energy music there.

Sidney

Yeah, I bet, since it’s practically a historic music venue.

Taylor

Yeah, exactly. And the people really responded to my set well. It was a Thursday, but people still showed out and were going so crazy. There was so much energy in the room. It just felt like this was long overdue. Now I’m playing there again next month, which should be cool.

Taylor

I just really love seeing how people respond to the music I’m playing. Like, when I’m playing something I love, and I see that they’re connecting to it, dancing so hard, and they just feel it with me, it’s awesome. It’s really a connection thing for me. 

Sidney

Yeah, I’ve always been curious about a performer’s point of view. Some of my favorite or most memorable concerts have always been those where I felt really connected with the crowd’s energy, whereas some of my worst concert experiences have come from the lack of energy or connectedness from the crowd as well.

Taylor

The best sets are the ones where you can feel the connection. When everyone in the crowd is just loving the moment, dancing, and feeling all together, and the DJ is connecting with the crowd, looking at them, reading the energy, and just going off of that. As far as DJing goes, connection is the biggest thing. 

Sidney

That’s awesome. Really interesting. So, even though your career started once you moved back to Alaska, you lived in New Orleans for a while. We both went to school together. You dabbling a little bit into music and DJing at the time…did New Orleans have any influence on your career so far?

Taylor

Definitely. It got my foot in the door. Throwing parties when we did stuff at the Axiom Art Gallery, doing tiny pop-up shows, playing at college and house parties, etc. We were just hustling trying to make shows happen for ourselves. That energy is what I still try to bring to Alaska. While I was in New Orleans, I also felt like I was surrounded by so many great musicians. We were all in the Music Industry Studies program, and it just really felt like it shaped who I am. I’m very collaborative as well. In college, we would all be doing stuff together like making the flyers, throwing the events, and whatnot. I’m still the same way now, like reaching out to smaller artists, trying to collaborate, trying to do shows and DJing with my friends. It’s the same energy. It all started in New Orleans.

Sidney

Would you say that there are any differences between the shows that you put on in New Orleans versus the shows you put on now in Alaska? Other than performing in actual music venues.

Taylor

I think the pop-up shows I did in New Orleans versus Alaska are very similar. They’re the same energy, honestly. It’s a really fun party where everyone’s main goal is to have fun, listen to the DJ, dance, and go crazy. The same energy at the pop-up shows in New Orleans are very much like the renegades I throw in Alaska. The main difference though is that New Orleans already has a scene with a ton of amazing DJs in it. It’s small, but it’s even smaller here in Alaska. I mean, in New Orleans there’s stuff going on at The Rabbit Hole, there’s consistent bringing in national acts flying in, performing shows where local DJs can support. The scene is actually bigger there, definitely.

Sidney

Yeah, we even finally got Boiler Room to pop up here in New Orleans, which was a huge deal.

Taylor

Exactly! But here, the infrastructure is missing. In New Orleans, there’s music everywhere–on the streets, at houses, people blasting music from their porches, smaller venues, big venues…they have it all. 

Sidney

Yeah, I totally agree. However, you have been doing a lot trying to build the EDM community in Alaska, so tell me about that.

I basically acted as the promoter, but I was on the lineup as well. I booked all of my DJ friends to play.

Sidney

That’s awesome. It seems like Alaska is super important to you, as well as being extremely influential to your career so far. What would you like to see in the future–maybe like the next 10 years or so?

Taylor

I would definitely like to see more venues. 

Sidney

For sure.

Taylor

More venues that are specifically focused on electronic music that are throwing consistent shows and are giving the local artists opportunities to play all the time. I think that in itself will really help establish the scene. I think in 10-15 years there’s going to be, you know, someone like me when I was younger that really wants to DJ and will be killing it, you know? I want there to be a bigger infrastructure in Alaska, more DJs, more collaboration. Alaska is just so cool, and we should be having more events outdoors. That’s kinda what I’m going to be pushing for. Creating community, growing the scene by showing off how cool Alaska is, and releasing music are pretty much my main goals regarding music right now. 

Sidney

That sounds amazing. Going off into a slightly different direction…you just recently released your second single, “Heaven is a Rave.” What inspired that song?

Taylor

Yeah, that song came about from me feeling isolated in Alaska and not having access to going to a show listening to techno at the club. I was missing the experience of reaching a level of euphoria when you’re dancing really hard and time slows down. Just this rave energy. That’s what I wanted to channel in a track–that feeling. It ended up turning into this abstract soundscape. I thought it authentically represented the moment I was in.

Sidney

What is your process when you’re making songs like these?

Taylor

I would say, it’s really just finding certain samples and making sounds that trigger certain emotions. I try to put together a rough collage and then make an arrangement that brings it all together. As far as what gear I use, I just use my computer. I don’t have any outboard gear. For this song, I just used one Sylenth and some samples and just tweaked it until it sounded good. 

Sidney

That’s really interesting. “Heaven is a Rave” sounds a lot different from your last single. What inspired that change of sound?

Taylor

My first release was originally just an instrumental dance track. There was no intention of getting a vocalist on there. My friend Gaines from New Orleans hit me up and asked me what music I was working on, so I just sent him a bunch of beats just so he could listen to it. One of those beats was the “Piece of Me” beat. A few weeks later, he sent the “Piece of Me” beat with his vocals on it. It was totally unexpected, and I was blown away. I felt so lucky to have such an awesome vocal on left-field dance track. “Piece of Me” inspired me to make more dance tracks that revolve around vocals, but have more of this underground feel. That’s been my vision for a while, but being in Alaska, I don’t know a lot of artists that are wanting to dive into more of an electronic space. Hopefully that will change soon, but that’s kinda what’s been going on. “Heaven is a Rave” kind of just poured out of me. At first, I didn’t know if I wanted to release it because it didn’t have a vocalist, but I ended up just deciding that it felt good, so people should hear it.

Sidney

Do you think you’re going to tap into the more of the sound of “Heaven is a Rave” going forward?

Taylor

Yes. I’d really like to explore what vocalists would sound like on up-tempo, high energy, euphoric beats.

Sidney

Nice. I know the year is still so young, we genuinely have the remainder of 2023 ahead of us–what are people going to expect from you this year?

Taylor

I think people are going to expect lots of shows, especially this summer. I’m getting booked up, but everyone should be expecting more new music from me as well. I’ve been thinking about curating a really nice mix for people to listen to with a bunch of my unreleased music in there. But, yeah. Who knows? Maybe something even bigger. It’s just the start of the year.

Sidney

We love to hear it. Very excited for you.

So, before I let you go, we’re going to make a quick little playlist together. I’m going to ask you a couple of questions, and you’re going to respond with a song that first comes to mind. 

Taylor

Yeah, let’s do it!

Sidney

Alright, the first one is: favorite song from your childhood.

Taylor

“Rapture” by Avicii. I had that on my iPod Nano, and it was one of the first electronic songs I could think of that I was absolutely obsessed with. I don’t even know how I got that song, but it was on there. I don’t know, it’s just a great record. I even remixed it myself because I just love the vocals in that song.

Sidney

Oh my God, the iPod Nanos, haha. The second one is: somebody passes you the aux, what are you putting on?

Taylor

I have been obsessed with DJ Heartstring, like they’re these two techno/trance producers coming out of Berlin, and I’d probably play something by them if I had the aux. I’d probably pick their “Open Air” remix.

Sidney

Nice. The third one: a song you’d love to sample.

Taylor

Yeah, so there’s this song called “Energy” by Melissa Manchester. I love that record. It’s already been sampled by Duck Sauce and A-Trak, but I love the way they sampled it, so I kinda want to figure out how I can put my own spin on that sample because it’s so great. I played the Duck Sauce remix at my Sitzmark show, and it was so epic, so I kind of want to do my own thing with it. 

Sidney

Mhm. Alright, next one: a song that reminds you of a favorite memory.

Taylor

Yes, definitely “Five Hours” by Deorro. My friends and I would go on a big camping trip to my cabin every summer when we were growing up. We would have giant bonfires made from driftwood that we collected on the beach. We snuck in some alcohol that we were hiding from my parents–we were like 15–and we were just drinking and bumping “Five Hours” nonstop for hours just going crazy. Running around the beach, jumping around the fire, riding on the four-wheelers…we were lit, haha. That song is definitely the soundtrack to those early summers at my cabin. 

Sidney

That honestly sounds so fun, haha. Ok, next one up: if you could listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Taylor

Man, that’s so tough. Soooo tough. I would say…you know it’s kinda funny that we were talking about that memory because “Walking on a Dream” by Empire of the Sun was another one of those songs we’d just blast on repeat at the cabin. It’s such a feel-good, summer song. It also just never gets old. 

Sidney

Honestly one of my favorite songs too, so timeless. Here’s another one: your favorite pregame song?

Taylor

Anything by X-CLUB. They’re these techno DJs from Australia, and they make the hardest dance tracks right now. Their music is so aggressive and energetic and ravey. I always bump them when I’m working out or pregaming. I’d probably pick “Inna Trance.” It’s such a crazy song, haha.

Sidney

I know you’re also really into nature, so I wanted to throw this one in: a song that reminds you of nature.

Taylor

There’s a lot of music that reminds me of nature in Alaska. I would say… “Joy” by Icarus. I played that at my last renegade in the woods. It’s a really ethereal, atmospheric dance tune, and I really associate that song with nature and dancing in the forest. 

Sidney

To branch off of that: what is your go-to song when you’re skiing?

Taylor

“Heaven is a Rave!” Lately I’ve been bumping it when I’m skiing, and it hits. I find that song to be not so much a casual listen, but more of a track that gets my energy going. I like to bump it when I’m skiing. It’s super atmospheric and has a lot of energy. That’s the kind of music I like to ski to.

Sidney

Haha, I don’t blame you. It’s a good one. Here’s a fun one: your guilty pleasure song.

Taylor

Anything by Rihanna, dude. Rihanna slaps, especially her old stuff. “Only Girl in the World?” Banger. “S.O.S.?” Fire. There’s a lot of good ones. “Umbrella.” She’s a queen, haha. But I’d probably say “Only Girl in the World.”

Sidney

Haha, honestly, not a single one of her tracks disappoints. Alright, finally: your favorite song from a movie.

Taylor

“End of Line” by Daft Punk. That’s from the Tron movie. They did the score for the whole movie, and I think they did a perfect job for that movie. I love that movie so much, and that song is just so badass, like an evil villain theme song. It goes so hard, haha. 

Sidney

Nice! Well, alright. That is all I have for you today. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to sit down, talk, and catch up. 

Taylor

Yeah, of course. This was so fun!

Sidney

Well thank you so much again. Enjoy the rest of your day, and I’m excited to see what’s in store for you!

Taylor

Yeah, thanks. I’m pumped!

Listen to PØSTERCHILD’S mixtape here: