We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tavion Dixon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tavion , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

Honestly, at first I didn’t know what to do. I just knew that I loved music and at a early age, I wanted to do what the artists I was listening was doing. I would study the music i would listen to then kinda recognize elements in the sounds. I found a way to make my own music around the age of 8 when Guitar Hero 3 was just released. They had a music maker mode and I would spend hours just messing around on it. Then my parents would gift me a beat machine 4 years later, seeing how I was so interested with music. At that point, I was able to make my own sounds but at first, I was imitating the music that I listened to. As time when on, I found myself getting better with the craft just by sticking to it, practicing and immersing myself in music. I got even more better in the craft by realizing that I didn’t have to do what everybody else was doing and not holding by limiting myself, but experimenting more with different sounds. If I knew what i knew now, I would have told myself to not care about people’s opinions at a earlier age, keep being unique and keep myself locked in the music. I think the skills of having a open mind, being a good listener and my musicianship were essential skills. Being in middle school and high school band help trained my musical skill to be in top form. The only obstacles that stood in my way was myself because I was the only one holding myself back. Sure I had some people and life situations to try to discourage me from the music but I was the one in control of my craft. So I pushed past the noise and the box they tried to put me in and kept going.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Tavion. I’m 24 years old, I’m from Winterville, North Carolina and i’m a creative human that makes music under the name Supa Dupa. I produce, mix and master, engineer my own music but also other artists that I collab/work with and i’m open for collaboration as well. I feel like one of the traits that set me apart from the others is that I try to push outside the status quo of my music and anybody that’s working with me. I always trying to see what I can bring to the table or push people out of their boundaries to make something they haven’t made before. I got into music at a very early age, thanks to my parents and grandmother. Music was always playing wherever we go in our family and my parents both loved music and played in the band as well in their youths. Every christmas in my youth, we would go to my grandmothers house and she had a huge sound system she would be blasting music out off in the living room. She loved Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Al Green and anything that had a groove. When I was 5 years old, I remember always hearing Pharrell’s “Frontin” on the radio and that would be the first song I could never get out of my head, I would get my interest in music from there and explore it into my own world. I started discovering more genres of music as I would get older and broaden my music knowledge. Pharrell, Timbaland, J Dilla, Kid Cudi and Hudson Mohawke would become my biggest influence in music-making but the name “Supa Dupa” comes from my love for Missy Elliot and Kid Cudi. “Supa Dupa Fly” was one of the songs I used to listen to the most even before making my own music and Kid Cudi was one of the artists that I found that I’ve been listening to ever since I started making music but he had a verse in his song “Down N Out” that made me choose that name, before he blew up, he had the ad-lib “Supa Dupa” that he would always say before hopping on the track as well. One thing that i’m proud of is my own process and how far I’ve came and how far i’m still trying to go. I’m proud of myself for continuing to stick with the craft and to keep pushing it further beyond. The main thing that I want people to know about me is that I want them to chase their own dreams and never settle for less (as long as their dream isn’t harming anyone else). Nothing’s impossible and it can be achieved through passion, dedication and hard work. Never quit. KEEP GOING.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The goal is to make my dreams in music come true so that I get the young generation and people like me to make their dreams come true. If you have a love for something, you should go out there and chase it because at some point in life, you won’t exist anymore so I just want people to live their lives to the fullest and do what they love.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Support your favorite creatives by BUYING their products/art/things and showing love. The industries can be evil and money-hungry so always try to support the artist by purchasing their products through that certain creative.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/mrsupadupa
• Instagram: @IAmSupaDupa
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2re-DrJxb-ohSW-bMt3CoA
• Other: Bandcamp – mrsupadupa1.bandcamp.com Soundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/mrsupadupa

Image Credits
Zion McKnight