Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier
Oct 8, 2026 · 37 min · 8 segments
I’m a 19-year-old college student and composer learning how to build a life in music by talking with incredible musicians who have already built one. Today, I’m talking with Taylor Eigsti, a jazz…
Taylor EigstiGuestVonn VanierHost
[upbeat jazz music] Listening to Plot Armor, I felt like, uh, it's really cool to like include that on what, you know, you'd probably describe as a, a jazz album, where it has this sort of like Eastern st- like influence almost to me it sounds like.
What's, what's kinda interesting about that is, you know, I, I, I, I kinda always stay in this world of vagueness.
Like other people have mentioned that a lot, where it's like, you know, the, the, the, the kinda tonal center and, and what's happening in that kinda feels like it has that flavor.
That, that song was b- just a bassline that I wrote that I labeled beef, and then I went and, you know, had a variety of like s- recording sessions to try to see, you know, play over loops of that and things, and see what would happen and everything.
But a lot of that music just really came together because of those, um, specific musicians, um, in particular Oscar Seton and DJ Guinyard and Charles Altura, who I used to play all the time with in, um, Terence Blanchard's E-Collective band, and they were the core rhythm section on this one.
And, um, they just have a way of, you know, orchestrating things in the moment that, um, really helps, uh, expand and develop the idea in the moment.
It, it's something that I, I enjoy making music that, um, is a little bit hard to fit into one specific genre box in, in a way.
It's always a nightmare anytime I'm like in an Uber or something like that, 'cause the, you know, the, if they ask, "Oh, yeah, you're a musician.
Well, what kind of music do you play?" And I'm like, "Uh," [laughs] "well, I guess jazz." But, you know, there's like, there's so many different, um- ...
ways of looking at it, but the music does involve improvisation, so, you know, I guess it's some branch of jazz.
It, it, it was, it all came, you know, the source might've come from that, but, you know, maybe the flavors come from all sorts of other things.
And on Plot Armor, we had a lot of, we had a great, rare luxury of just so much time to work on it, so, um, that was, that was, it allowed some of that organic nature of, uh, the development of some of those tunes to happen.
I, I mean, that like, that tune in particular, it's, it's like the ba- it's like a sick bass line.
It, it almost feels like you could rap over it or something, like with that, that drum beat, too, but yeah.
[upbeat jazz music] Listening to Plot Armor, I felt like, uh, it's really cool to like include that on what, you know, you'd probably describe as a, a jazz album, where it has this sort of like Eastern st- like influence almost to me it sounds like.
What's, what's kinda interesting about that is, you know, I, I, I, I kinda always stay in this world of vagueness.
Like other people have mentioned that a lot, where it's like, you know, the, the, the, the kinda tonal center and, and what's happening in that kinda feels like it has that flavor.
That, that song was b- just a bassline that I wrote that I labeled beef, and then I went and, you know, had a variety of like s- recording sessions to try to see, you know, play over loops of that and things, and see what would happen and everything.
But a lot of that music just really came together because of those, um, specific musicians, um, in particular Oscar Seton and DJ Guinyard and Charles Altura, who I used to play all the time with in, um, Terence Blanchard's E-Collective band, and they were the core rhythm section on this one.
And, um, they just have a way of, you know, orchestrating things in the moment that, um, really helps, uh, expand and develop the idea in the moment.
It, it's something that I, I enjoy making music that, um, is a little bit hard to fit into one specific genre box in, in a way.
It's always a nightmare anytime I'm like in an Uber or something like that, 'cause the, you know, the, if they ask, "Oh, yeah, you're a musician.
Well, what kind of music do you play?" And I'm like, "Uh," [laughs] "well, I guess jazz." But, you know, there's like, there's so many different, um- ...
ways of looking at it, but the music does involve improvisation, so, you know, I guess it's some branch of jazz.
It, it, it was, it all came, you know, the source might've come from that, but, you know, maybe the flavors come from all sorts of other things.
And on Plot Armor, we had a lot of, we had a great, rare luxury of just so much time to work on it, so, um, that was, that was, it allowed some of that organic nature of, uh, the development of some of those tunes to happen.
I, I mean, that like, that tune in particular, it's, it's like the ba- it's like a sick bass line.
It, it almost feels like you could rap over it or something, like with that, that drum beat, too, but yeah.
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