Serious or Not, Tay Zonday is a YouTube Smash
By Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Aug. 16–IIf you haven’t already heard Tay Zonday’s Internet hit “Chocolate Rain,” consider yourself lucky.
One hundred professional jingle writers working for 100 days straight couldn’t craft a song as instantly and insanely infectious. Built around an endlessly repeated piano riff and punctuated by Zonday’s Barry White-esque reading of the title phrase, it’s not so much a song as it is an assault.
Seriously, after just one listen, it’s virtually impossible to escape “Chocolate Rain.”
The song — and the Tay Zonday guise itself — is the creation of University of Minnesota American studies grad student Adam Bahner. And thanks to a YouTube video that shows the incongruously deep, booming vocals emanating from the slightly built 25-year-old, Bahner has become the latest Internet celebrity.
Bahner already has turned his Web fame into something approaching real-life notoriety. On the back of his network television debut last week on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Bahner has booked his first public performance. Not only is it a paying gig, it’s one most local bands would kill for, sandwiched between buzzy indie-dance acts Dan Deacon and Girl Talk on Oct. 5 at First Avenue.
How does Bahner explain the sudden rush of attention?
“Gosh,” he said Wednesday, “where do I start?”
Bahner says “gosh” a lot, along with “I don’t know.” And when he does, it comes across as something between wide-eyed sincerity and cold calculation, which has plenty to do with why “Chocolate Rain” has been viewed more than 5.7 million times on YouTube, beating out clips by U2 and Green Day, Ne-Yo and “High School Musical.”
People aren’t quite sure just how seriously to take this Tay Zonday character.
Add Gregg Gillis to that list. He’s the 25-year-old Pittsburgh native and DJ who performs as Girl Talk.
“I still don’t know if it’s a big, ironic joke or this is a sincere guy making music,” Gillis said on the phone from Pittsburgh. “I’m a little nervous, because I try not to endorse purely ironic forms of music. But I’m open to anything.”
Bahner avoided questions about any ulterior motives.
“The public seems much more worried about my own psychology than I am,” he said with a laugh. “Initially, people found tremendous humor in it, and that helped it reach a broader audience. Some people experience it on a serious level; some people think it’s got a great hook. It’s great whatever people get out of it.”
“Chocolate Rain,” as it turns out, is just the beginning. Bahner has uploaded more than a dozen other videos to YouTube, including other original songs, an arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon and even a dramatic reading from Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried.”
“Is (music) a career? It’s not paying my bills right now, but you never know,” said Bahner, who grew up in suburban Chicago.
He said his manager — aka his brother Daman — has fielded calls from “multiple indie labels and multiple major labels interested in exploring a relationship.”
“Chocolate Rain” has spawned numerous online parodies and remixes and earned some high-profile fans, including Kobe Bryant (who said he wouldn’t mind adopting the song’s title as a nickname) and John Mayer (who performed a stream-of-consciousness cover of it on VH1′s “Best Week Ever”).
After performing the song on Kimmel’s show last week — in front of a bemused, bothered and/or bewildered crowd — Bahner was asked what he thought of Mayer’s version. He hadn’t seen it yet. And a week later, that remains the case.
“Gosh, I’m certainly honored that anyone of any stature would be interested in covering my music,” he said. “I haven’t had the chance to watch it yet. No, I have had the chance, I just haven’t done it yet. But there are a lot of parodies I haven’t watched yet.”
Just how long Bahner can ride “Chocolate Rain” and whether his other songs like “Internet Dream” or “Dying for the Deadline” can match its success remains to be seen. A booking agent for First Avenue said ticket sales for the Oct. 5 show have picked up since Bahner was added to the bill, and the gig is on track to sell out.
“I’m taking it all one day at a time,” Bahner said. “I’m trying to keep up with grad school, too. Maybe they’ll co-exist together. But, gosh, I’d probably enjoy a career making music and performing more than I would being a college professor.”
Online: Watch the Tay Zonday video on www.youtube.com/.
—–
To see more of the Pioneer Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.twincities.com.
Copyright (c) 2007, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.