Zaytoven

I know it sounds funny coming from me, 'cause I produced it, but that's one of my favorite bodies of work. That's what 'Beast Mode' was when it came out and still is.

When your dad is a preacher and your mom is a choir director and you're in church all the time, as a youngster, you've got to find something to do. That's where my musical background comes from.

When I work with Future, it's almost like a work of art.

If I'm spending more than 15 minutes on a beat, I'm not feeling it.

Music is about feeling.

There's no record that you done heard me produce that I spent more than ten minutes on.

I was listening to Young Jeezy and Shawty Red, and to me, the trap music they had was something special.

If you listen to my early music, I didn't know how to mix. I barely knew how to record for real, and I didn't care.

When I think of trap, I think of something that is unrehearsed. It's something that's edgy, not too well put together.

When I think about 'Beast Mode,' that's what I think about. I don't think about just a hard project; they just created some art together.

When my dad retired, he moved to Georgia, but I stayed in California. I was in San Francisco: that's where I first went from being a musician to making beats and producing. I was 18, 19. It started going pretty good for me out there in California, so I stayed in SF while my parents moved to Georgia.

I'm the type of guy where, if I see, like, 20 songs, I don't even wanna listen to one of 'em 'cause it's too much.

It's been a blessing that I can provide for my family just by doing music. I never thought this would ever be my occupation.

I'm always up for the challenge of doing more and doing different things. I love being inspired like a new producer all over again.

Trap is being added to everything. It seems like every genre wants that bit of trap to what they're doing.

My formula is not thinking about what I'm doing; it's about still having fun and making music. I don't go into the studio with a thought pattern or certain goals in mind - sometimes I'll start with drums, other times I'll start with the piano - but it's all done spontaneously, so nothing is premeditated, and nothing takes a long time.

Now, I made the most money I ever made in my life with 'Papers' - I think my first check was like $101,000, my folks couldn't even believe. At this time, this is like 2010, I'm still in the barbershop cutting hair, still being the regular Zaytoven because I felt like after 'Papers,' it wasn't going to get any bigger than that.

When I was in high school, the girls used to tell me I looked like Usher, so to be doing a song with Usher was mind-blowing.

I feel like every time I make a beat, and the Migos rap on it, it's gonna be fire.

I approached my career like a rapper. I would go to every open mic, every studio session, bringing my beats. I would almost do exactly what a rapper would do to get on.

Future's the guy, like, where, if I send him some beats while he on the road, and there's a pack of beats that he really like, if there's a new vibe or new wave, he's like, 'Man, keep feeding me more. Feed me more of this every day.'

Atlanta can do crunk music, it can do snap music, it can do swag music. Atlanta has it all.

I like to introduce people to each other, especially in the hip-hop community.

When I approached my own movies, I went in it real innocent. I didn't pay attention to nobody else's score. I was just going to do it with how I feel it should sound. To me, that's how you create new things.

A lot of people want to blow up as a producer, but what helps you blow up as a producer is an artist that matches well with your music. When that artist gets popular and blowing up, and people start knowing them, that's when they start knowing you.

I'm a church musician. I play gospel music; that's what I do. I never had a chance to produce gospel music, and I did a full album with Lecrae that's the number one Christian album. It's super-big for me.

Guys like Future and me, we help create and shape the sound of music - not just Atlanta music, but music all over. If you really pay attention to the music being made, a lot of that is very heavily influenced by the stuff that we created. I listen to so many songs that's like, 'Damn, this sounds like my music!'

Future is a real workaholic, so he's the type of guy that's gonna do more than enough songs to make sure you got everything you need.

I've been doing two things my whole life: I've been cuttin' hair, and I've been playing the organ at church. Those two things are what I looked at as my life: this is how I'm gonna make my money, this is how I'm gonna make my living... It helped me to be stable in what I do.

What's so crazy is I always looked at Jay Z and guys on the caliber of Jay Z like they just the big dogs. I didn't think they listen to my music or even know who I am.

Gucci is a guy that promoted me to the fullest. It don't matter where we go.

The music business, a lot of times, has a big finesse mentality to it.

When you work with Drake, you don't really work with Drake. You send him the song, he rap on it, then y'all done worked together. So it ain't like me and him sitting in the studio.

I feel like I'm an okay piano player. To the music world, to people that's in the hip-hop culture, they probably look at me like, 'Zaytoven the greatest piano player in the world.' I'm okay.

You can always know, when it comes to a Gucci Mane or Migos project, there is no such thing of them putting out a project without me being a part of it. These are guys that I'm really close with, and we built a sound together, and we got a certain chemistry.

'Birds of a Feather' is on Netflix, and it did big for me. For me, it was a trial and error thing. I never thought about being an actor. I just felt like, in the music industry now, anything you said can go. So now it's a part of what I do. I make movies now.

I'm the type of guy, I make a lot of different beats, but sometimes I might stick to a sound for a little while.

In Atlanta, I went to barber school. That's how I met everyone I know in Atlanta, by cutting hair.

The most memorable part of filming 'Finesse,' I'd have to say, was the kissing scene. It was just so odd for me.

Most artists value my opinion a lot, and I think that's due to 'Beast Mode.'

Just the instrumentation of the whole 'Beast Mode' made people open up and respect me in a whole other way. With Gucci, I don't use as many instruments. I don't play the piano as much because that's not really the style of music that me and Gucci have built.

People looked at me - people still look at me - as 'this is Gucci Mane's producer.' But the music that me and Future put together was so different than what me and Gucci do, it just made people look at the music like, 'Hold on - Zaytoven is the real deal.'

To me, my studio is my trap house. That's where I trap out of; that's where I hustle. That's where I make my money.

When I was a youngster, I might have been about 17 or 18 when I first started making beats.

When I actually first moved to Atlanta, I was cutting hair. I was making beats and making music out in the Bay Area. But I came here to make - you know, I had to get my barber license, so I was cutting hair.

I listen to a lot of music... but there still hasn't been a project yet that touches me like 'Beast Mode' has.

'So Icy' is always going to be one of my favorites because this is a song that blew my mind. I was just making beats for the fun of it. I went to the club and heard the song being played, so I asked the DJ to stop playing the song, and the whole club started rapping word for word.

Trap music, to me, is hustling music.

I have a church background. I've been playing piano and keyboard and organ all my life in church.

I was a military brat. My dad was in the military, so I was born in Germany. I moved around a lot; I was in church a lot.