Producer Terrorgav Talks His Recent Project and How Sound-Engineering Helps Him Make Hot Beats

Gavin speaks with Boyd about his recent project, Vol. 1, and the rappers featured on many of the songs. His favorite track on the project is “Market”, featuring frequent collaborator Evlo. It’s a bassy track, with a minimal beat underneath Evlo’s variant-flow verses. They also discuss the rapper Funds’ feature on the track “Wet Em,” with Gavin saying, “I never heard anybody sound like that.”

Gavin’s entrance into the music game differs from some of the other previous guests on Monday to Monday. He was a “fake manager” to friends in high school, but he says he “didn’t start making music until [he] was around 19.” “I never knew that I wanted to do music, though. I just knew that I loved it,” he tells Boyd on his genesis as a producer.

Gavin knows what he wants and he knows how he’s gonna get it. Boyd asks him about the future, and he’s got answers ready. “I just wanna build up Ev. I wanna build up Fu (Funds). And I just wanna find new talent, man.” He loves working with up-and-comers, rather than trying to get in with already developed talent. “I wanna be the person that’s constantly breaking new talent. And I just want to allow that talent to do whatever they want to do. Help them paint their picture,” he says.

He also has helpful advice for how to navigate the industry without a manager. Gavin’s incredibly personable, and his ability to connect with people has been one of the biggest reasons for his success. “I don’t consider it networking, I just talk to people and try to bring value to what they have going on, and, y’know, see if it’ll help me out. And a lot of the time it does,” he says. The producer emphasizes humility and working hard, and opts to save the bravado for getting hyped up in the studio. 

The Harlem-raised producer provides some unique—and funny—insight into the producer grind. “It’s freaking boring sometimes bro,” he says before laughing. It can be boring to be alone in the studio all the time, but he tells Boyd that, lately, he’s been really enjoying having lots of people in the studio while he produces: “I think that it just gives me that extra push to perform better.” He also has little challenges he gives himself to improve his production game. “I like to time myself. How fast can I make a good beat? Not just a beat, a good beat. How fast can I make five good beats? How many beats can I make in this amount of time?” he says.

There’s no need to paraphrase what’s up next for Gavin, as he already has the plan in motion: