Self-taught musician building his career from the streets to the recording studio

Starting out as a one-year-old, Taiyo Marchand’s mother would often find him using chopsticks and a bowl as a drum kit. He was dancing to the tunes of young buskers on the Manly Corso as soon as he could walk and then went on to start busking himself at the age of six.

Now a fixture of the Sydney busking scene, the Year 7 Northern Beaches Secondary College - Balgowlah Boys Campus student’s talent and devotion to music have earned him the 2022 Edstart Achievement Award in the Performing and Visual Arts category.

Born to play music

Taiyo has shown his natural talent and versatility as a performer from impromptu jam sessions in his family kitchen to entertaining large crowds on the streets of Sydney. Learning a variety of instruments by himself without formal training, he has grown into a dynamic musician playing percussion, wind, and string instruments.

While he initially learned to play the djembe shaker, playing the bongo drums is what led him to really explore his interest in his music. Not long after, he made his own didgeridoo which he used with the bongos to first busk at Eumundi Markets in Queensland.

With the goal of becoming a multi-instrumentalist, Taiyo is continuing to expand his musical skills. Taiyo has taught himself to play the piano, which he plays every day and is now his main performing instrument, and has also recently picked up the bass guitar.

Spreading a positive message through his music

The thing Taiyo loves the most about music is its ability for people to express themselves, relate to, or just dance. Encouraged to perform after seeing teenage buskers as a young child, and that power to connect with strangers is the main inspiration for creating his original music.

When performing in public wasn’t possible during the pandemic, he recorded his first album in a professional studio after raising funds on Kickstarter. Taiyo took the opportunity to use his music to spread a positive message to young people facing hardships over the period.

Back in the recording studio

Determined to make it big as a musician, Taiyo is planning to once again work with a professional producer to grow his abilities in harmonisation, tempo, loops, and the recording process. As a winner of the 2022 Edstart Achievement Award, Taiyo has received a $1,500 grant to continue building his momentum and fund his next professional produced record.

Including the title single ‘Horizon’ which contains a message about finding what makes you happy, and a second song about not feeling intimidated by bullies, Taiyo hopes to empower other kids who are feeling anxious about starting high school.

Along with his catchphrase "be you", Taiyo's advice to other aspiring musicians is "Do what you love, do what you feel like, just be you. Because you can't really do anything if you don't love what you're doing."

You can follow Taiyo’s journey @TaiyoMarchand as he releases new music and continues to charm crowds with his talents.

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