The name Jesse Tal is the combination of names from the two grandparents who died before I was born. My maternal grandmother was known as Jesse and 'Tal' was the nickname of my grandfather on my father's side.

Used to go to piano classes for a while when I was much younger and played lead clarinet and was the Drum Major for the Bahamas Scout Band briefly in the late eighties/early nineties.

Hopefully, the internet will continue to be a valuable resource in helping to 'level the playing field' for independent/unsigned artists.

Definitely.

I started messing around with mixers and my parents' stereo and old record collections around '89, when I was still in high school. Bit by bit I got more gear, but still mainly stuff for playing music, not for making my own tracks. That all changed when I completed my college and university studies in the US and UK (especially in the UK -- where I was introduced to many styles of popular and urban music I'd never even heard before, and where there was a healthy marketplace for music production equipment). I would use a couple of casio SK keyboards, cassette deck (and a 4-track machine eventually), a Yamaha RY8 drum machine and SU 10 phrase sampler to painstakingly piece together my soundscapes. A whole new world of possibilities emerged with the purchase of an E-mu ESynth rack module workstation in 1998 and has continued since with a more computer-based focus. I consider my 'sound' to be dark, sexy urban music that focuses on texture to make its impact. My main production tools are Apple Logic Studio, Ableton Live, Propellerheads Reason, my Akai MPC1000, and a few other pieces of hardware (microphones, a Korg ESX-1, some other stuff) and tons of software plugin instruments and effects.

T Connection, Dr. Offfff, Eddie Minnis, Pat Rahming, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, Puff Daddy, Dr. Dre, Jermain Dupri, Polow Da Don, Neptunes, Just Blaze, Timbaland, Kanye West, etc.

Nassau, Bahamas; London, UK; New York; Atlanta

Mainly computer-based setup. However, I still have that E-mu ESynth from years back, those same old Casio SK-series samplers, the Yamaha SU 10, and an Akai MPC 1000. My favourite software applications are Apple Logic Studio, Ableton Live, Cubase, and Propellerheads Reason for sequencing and Amadeus Pro, Bias Peak LE, and DSP-Quattro for editing.

Like so many artists featured on this site, I just simply enjoy making music.