Taboo of Black Eyed Peas to DJ in Istanbul

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Taboo, a member of The Black Eyed Peas will visit Istanbul to play a DJ set at 360 Istanbul on April 27.

There is no big secret to achieving success in the music business, except to make music that you enjoy performing, according to Taboo of The Black Eyed Peas, who is visiting Istanbul to play a DJ set at 360 Istanbul on April 27.

This will be Taboo’s second professional visit to Istanbul, the first having been with The Black Eyed Peas a few years ago. Taboo’s career with the band began when he met will.i.am and apl.de.ap at a club called Balistix in Los Angeles. “We shared a common interest in freestyle dancing, hip-hop culture and rhyming. I always knew in my heart that I would live my life pursuing a career in entertainment. But I never dreamed that The Black Eyed Peas would be as big as it has become. We were just passionate about music when we started,” Taboo said.

Taboo’s DJ project incorporates elements of dance, music, visuals and MCing. “I like to interact with the crowd. We have video sequences. It’s a little different at every show. I want people to have a good time and walk away feeling like they have experienced something different, something new.”

High-energy DJ set
He said the Istanbul audience should expect to see a high-energy DJ set and performance and that he always has a few tricks up his sleeve to keep people entertained. “Even if you just want to come and dance, I always keep the club moving.”

Taboo says that whether his audience is 10 people or 100,000, he is going to give them everything he has and put it all out on the stage. “I love performing, and it’s such a gift to be able to do what I love that I am always going to put on a show. I’ll jump into the crowd, or fly over them on a motorbike, whatever it takes to make people enjoy what we’re doing as much as we do.”

That is probably why he says “energetic, futuristic and magnetic” when asked to define The Black Eyed Peas with three words. Asked to list his favorite three Black Eyed Peas songs, Taboo said, “‘Where is the love?’, because that song changed our career and set us on a different course. We really came into our own with that song and it took our group to a new level of success. ‘I gotta feeling,’ because the song is undeniable. It’s a feel-good song from the opening synth and everywhere we go people go crazy for it. I think that song will be around for a long time. ‘Falling Up’ because it was the first song on our first album in 1998, and it represents where we came from. That’s why I titled my book ‘Falling Up.’”
Today, when many groups are splitting up, The Black Eyed Peas are managing to stay together. According to Taboo, the secret behind that energy comes from the fact that they are friends before being band members.