Tasha Baxter (born 2 July 1981) is a South African singer-songwriter. Baxter won "Newcomer of the Year" and "Best Pop Album" at the 14th South African Music Awards for her album "Colour Of Me". Baxter is most well known for her debut solo studio album "Colour Of Me" on EMI South Africa and for her collaborations in Electronic dance music and

Drum & Bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-b ...

with multiple songs reaching number one and top positions on the

Beatport Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be us ...

charts such as "Snowblind" with

Au5 Austin Collins (born September 18, 1992), better known as Au5 ( ), is an American electronic musician from New Jersey. Au5's music encompasses a range of electronic genres such as dubstep, house, trance, drum and bass, drumstep and ambient, and ...

and "Cloudburn" with Feed Me and on the Top 40 UK singles charts with "In the Beginning" with Roger Goode.

Early life

Baxter was born on 2 July 1981 in Cape Town, South Africa. She learnt to play piano at a young age and sang in the school choir. At 12 years old her father taught her how to play guitar on steel twelve string guitar. She played in local bands as a teenager while developing her musical talents, playing in a Christian metal band as well as singing and performing with local drum & bass DJ's such as Counterstrike.

Career

2002–2006: In the Beginning

When Baxter was 18 she met and became good friends with South African DJ and radio personality Roger Goode. This led to their breakthrough in the international music charts with "In the Beginning" in 2002. "In the Beginning" made the local radio

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "conte ...

charts and was number one on

Pete Tong Peter Michael Tong, (born 30 July 1960) is an English disc jockey who works for BBC Radio 1. He is the host of programmes such as '' Essential Mix'' and '' Essential Selection'' on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio s ...

's Essential Mix radio show and later saw remixes by

Ferry Corsten Ferry Corsten (; born 4 December 1973) is a Dutch disc jockey, record producer and remixer from Rotterdam. He is well known for producing many pioneering trance tracks during the 1990s–2000s under his numerous aliases, including System F, Moon ...

and Gabriel & Dresden. The Ferry Corsten remix reached number 33 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

2006–2009: Colour of Me

Baxter continued performing in the dance music scene and playing at local drum and bass events. She then met

Noisia Noisia (stylised as NOISIΛ; "VISION" turned upside down) was a Dutch electronic music trio consisting of members Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen and Thijs de Vlieger from Groningen, Netherlands. They produce a wide variety of music including dr ...

in 2006 and went to Holland to work on her solo album with the Dutch trio. The album was entirely written by Baxter and her co-writer Andre Scheepers. The album was signed to EMI South African division. 'Colour of Me' was released in 2007 on CD only and did not have a digital and world-wide release until 2020 provided by

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

. Baxter toured extensively throughout this time, performing at the biggest local festivals such as

Oppikoppi Oppikoppi was a music festival held in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, near the mining town of Northam. The festival started off focusing mostly on rock music, but gradually added more genres and now plays host to a complete mixed bag o ...

, Rocking the Daisies, RAMFest. The singles from the album, "Who's Sorry Now", "The Journey", "Useless" and "Fade To Black" made the South African radio top charts list. "The Journey" and "Don't Believe in Love" appeared in the 2009 South African film, "

White Wedding A white wedding is a traditional formal or semi-formal wedding originating in Great Britain. The term originates from the white colour of the wedding dress, which first became popular with Victorian era elites after Queen Victoria wore a whit ...

". The "Colour of Me" album was nominated for 4

South African Music Awards The South African Music Awards (often simply the SAMAs) are the Recording Industry of South Africa's music industry awards, established in 1995. The ceremony is held annually, usually in late April or May, with the judging process starting in N ...

and won 2 with 'Best Newcomer' and 'Best Pop Album (English)'. In October 2009 Tasha Baxter appeared on "Tropika Island of Treasure" season 2 reality gameshow on national television alongside other South African celebrities such as

Trevor Noah Trevor Noah (born 20 February 1984) is a South African-born comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and former television host. He was the host of ''The Daily Show'', an American late-night talk show and satirical news progra ...

, Loyiso Bala and was hosted by

DJ Fresh Daniel Edward Stein (born 11 April 1977), better known by his stage name DJ Fresh, is an English musician, DJ, record producer, best known for making electronic music. He is one of the principal members of the drum and bass group Bad Company, ...

2010–2013: Ebb and Flow, Cloudburn, Strange Behaviour

Baxter collaborated with

Jon Gooch Jonathan Gooch (born 22 August 1984 in Hertfordshire, England), more commonly known by his stage names Feed Me and Spor, is a British drum and bass, dubstep and electro house producer and DJ. He is currently managed by Three Six Zero Group. ...

(Feed Me, Spor) on numerous songs throughout this period. They released the drum & bass tracks "As I Need You" and "Overdue" as Spor and the

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

tracks "Cloudburn", "Strange Behaviour" and "Ebb & Flow". "Cloudburn" reached number one on Beatport dubstep chart and was released on

Deadmau5 Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as Deadmau5 (stylized as deadmau5; pronounced "dead-mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. He mainly produces progressive house music, though he also produces ...

's label

mau5trap Mau5trap (stylized as mau5trap; pronounced "mousetrap") is an independent record label, independent Canadian record label founded in 2007 by electronic music producer Deadmau5. The label was formerly a vanity label, hosting releases through labe ...

. 'Ebb & Flow' was released on Feed Me's debut studio album '

Calamari Tuesday ''Calamari Tuesday'' is the debut studio album by Feed Me, one of the projects of British record producer Jon Gooch. The album was released on 14 October 2013 as the first release on Gooch's own label Sotto Voce. It entered the UK Dance Albums ...

' and the album reached No. 14 on the UK Dance Albums Chart. 'Ebb & Flow' also appeared in the British TV show, "

Youngers ''Youngers'' is a British comedy drama series created by Benjamin Kuffuor and Levi David Addai. It began airing on E4 on 20 March 2013. It is produced by Big Talk Productions. The series has been picked up for international distribution by BB ...

". In 2011, Baxter independently released her 'Ebb & Flow' EP which was produced by Jon which contained the original songs "Ebb & Flow", "Bikes" and "Fake the Fall".

2014–2019: Snowblind, Bigger than Me

In 2014, Baxter met

and the song '"Snowblind" was created. Tasha wrote and performed vocals for the song and it was released on Canadian electronic record label

Monstercat Monstercat (formerly known as Monstercat Media) is a Canadian independent electronic music record label based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 2011 by Mike Darlington and Ari Paunonen, the label released music on a tri-weekly basis unt ...

. "Snowblind" reached number one on the Beatport dubstep charts and also appeared on the American TV show, "

So You Think You Can Dance ''So You Think You Can Dance'' is a franchise of reality television shows in which contestants compete in dance. The first series of the franchise, created by '' Idols'' producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, premiered in July 2005 and has ...

". The following year, she independently released "Bigger than Me" with Au5 as producer which has over one million streams on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

. In 2016, she was featured again on

with Tut Tut Child on the song "Just A Dream". In 2017 the song, "The Journey" from Baxter's album "Colour Of Me" was sampled in

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. His career began in 1995, at the age of 12, when he was signed by rapper Birdman (rapper), ...

's "Hittas" on his "

Tha Carter V ''Tha Carter V'' is the twelfth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne. It was released on September 28, 2018, by Young Money Entertainment and Republic Records. The album's features include Swizz Beatz, Kendrick Lamar, Sosamann, Lil Wayne' ...

" studio album. During this period, Baxter continued with collaborations and recordings in the Electronic dance music and Drum & Bass with releases such as "Saviour" by Flux Pavilion on Circus Records and "The Wall" by Abis & Signal/Imanu and with Minesweepa on "FACES" and "Stargate" with Au5 on his "Divinorum" album.

2020–present: Polyoto

In 2020, Baxter started streaming on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

during lockdown. During her streams she and her Twitch community created the collaborative album 'FULL MOON FLEX' which was released in 2021 by her record label Polyoto. In 2021, Baxter collaborated with Feed Me again, performing 'Reckless' on his self titled studio album 'Feed Me' released on Sotto Voce. Later in 2021, Baxter collaborated with

Moore Kismet Omar Davis, known by their stage name Moore Kismet, is a DJ, songwriter, and music producer. Moore Kismet is currently signed with Thrive Music and Universal Music Group. Career In 2021, Kismet became the youngest artist ever to perform at ED ...

on their song 'Call of the Unicorn' released on Thrive.

Discography

Studio albums

Selected singles as lead artist

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, Tasha Living people 1981 births South African women singer-songwriters