Photography by Kathy Tran.
“My parents made me do it,” Donovan Jones says.
Raised in Waxahachie by two Christian music ministers, he was required to play piano starting at age 7.
When he was about 15, they let him switch instruments. He joined the high school jazz band as a bass guitar player and found pathways to secular music.
“My parents had MTV blocked, but they didn’t have BET blocked, so I would listen to whatever was on there in the ’90s,” he says.
The Nickelodeon show All That had musical guests like TLC, Monica and Aaliyah.
“I would record those to VHS so I could watch them,” he says.
Dallas had a Christian hardcore scene at the time, and he could convince his parents to let him go to those shows, “because they were technically Christians, but it was this really aggressive, heavy music.”
Certain elements of religious music remain embedded in his artistry.
“The repetitiveness and the strong chord changes, that’s all very much a part of me,” he says.
Jones, who lives in Oak Cliff, performs and has recorded two albums as Black Taffy. He’s signed with Los Angeles-based Leaving Records.
Heavy Blog Is Heavy described his 2020 album Opal Wand as blending “lo-fi hip-hop, classical music, the occult and vaporwave.”
“It has a sense of nostalgia,” Jones says. “I’m sampling stuff that’s really old usually, mostly classical music, which was made for like, really rich jaunty people. And then I just kind of take the things I hear hooks in and turn it into hip-hop or bangers.”
Ironically, he’s never worked with a rapper. He does a lot of collaborations with female vocalists such as Dallas’ own Mattie.
Before he was Black Taffy, Jones toured and recorded for eight years, from 2008-2016, with the Austin-based band This Will Destroy You.
That band played all over the world and at big festivals. They toured in Europe and Iceland many times, and they went to China and Australia twice.
He went from working at Urban Outfitters to seeing the world, but Jones says touring can be a grind and is not always fun.
“You’re just kind of like a furniture mover,” he says. “You load in, sound check … then play music for an hour, and then you pack up again. It’s a lot of sitting in a van, or driving a van, and dealing with people that you may not want to deal with on a day-to-day basis.”
Before This Will Destroy You, Jones was in a Dallas band called My Spacecoaster for two years, which he loved. They played all over Deep Ellum and had a weekly in Fort Worth.
He also took music composition and performance classes at Cedar Valley College but dropped out when he found out that a degree would require four semesters of recital classes.
Even at the height of This Will Destroy You, Jones says he had to have side hustles and a retail job back home. He receives royalty checks, and when they come, it’s nice, he says.
“I can pay some bills, but I’m not sustaining myself on those,” he says.
Paying rent requires him to hustle in retail and vintage resale, but that’s not the job.
Black Taffy is working night and day on sounds.
An unforgettable moment in his music career
The day I got signed to Leaving Records. They were a subsidiary of Stones Throw Records (J Dilla, Madlib, MF Doom) at the time. I was floored. It was a momentous day for my solo artistic endeavors. I was in disbelief. I remember the top of my head was tingling all day, and I would experience waves of nausea. I think that intense feeling lasted about a week.
How his life has changed in the past year and a half
I’ve played fewer than 10 live shows since April 2020. The two previous years, I was doing full U.S. tours and regional shows, making plans to tour Japan. But to be honest, I’m happy for a little down time. Music is still my primary focus, composition more than anything.
An accomplishment he’s proud of
I’m proud that I can sustain myself by creating art and having a couple of side hustles. I’m also consistently humbled that such a diverse group of artists and listeners appreciate my sonic palette and want to work with me.
What he’s excited about right now
I’m currently scoring music for Danielle Georgiou’s new dance/play theater piece “Stronger than Arms.” I’m excited to be working with her again. I think this is our 11th collaboration to date. I’m also pretty excited about this next album I’m in the middle of finishing.
How you can support his work
Come to shows when they happen, buy music online or in real life.
