Building Worlds Beyond Ours: bib sama. and Tayoloxs in Conversation on GAIA, Escapism, and the Future of the Underground

At a time when the weight of the world feels heavier than ever, the art of world-building has become an act of resistance — and few are doing it quite like bib sama. and Tayoloxs. Over the past year, the two emerging London visionaries have been constructing a sonic universe around their forthcoming project, GAIA — not just through sound, but through community. Working with a constellation of collaborators — from the emerging cinematographer Rino, to the visual artist SIMMS, teenage production prodigies like TJ and Avion, and Swagenham general Salski2x — they’ve been quietly infiltrating the underground, teasing fragments of their universe through vibrant visuals, community building  and electrifying performances. Whether linking with collectives like PRETTY TWISTED, DOTWAVNOTWAV and UKRAPDAILY, or transforming their Discord servers into digital clubhouses, bib and Tayo have built a living, breathing ecosystem around their art. And now, on Friday, November 7th, that world will finally materialise in full with the release of their collaborative mixtape, GAIA.

GAIA doesn’t just sound futuristic — it feels like a place you could visit. A shimmering world balanced somewhere between code and consciousness, where emotions flicker like holograms and basslines breathe like living creatures. From its cinematic opening, the project drifts in like a transmission from another dimension, humming with optimism and wonder, stitched together with textures that glisten and glitch. For bib and Tayo, GAIA was never meant to mirror the chaos of reality; it’s an escape hatch from it — a digital utopia built from trust, instinct, and unfiltered imagination. Every synth spark and distorted vocal feels touched by light; emotion translated through circuitry, yet deeply, defiantly human.

When they speak about the project, bib and Tayo sound less like collaborators and more like cosmic architects — explorers charting a soundworld inspired by Sega dreamscapes, neon cities, and the soft nostalgia of early-2000s adventure games. GAIA, they say, is what happens when chaos learns to dance with control — when two artists stop chasing the world outside and start building one of their own.

GAIA doesn’t just sound futuristic — it feels like a place you could actually visit. When you two were building it, were you trying to make a world people could escape into, or one they’d have to confront?

Tayo: I would say definitely escape into you because, I don't know, that's just my style, like, even when I'm playing a game or anything, I like adventure games, we go into different worlds, different dimensions, planets. I wouldn't really want it to be something they have to confront.  I'm an adventuring type of person, I like adventure so I wanted to share that. 


bib: I feel like GAIA is a place that people can escape to avoid the confrontation of real life, everything, all current world events, cost of living, unemployment, the constant news of genocides, and the misfortune that's happening around the world. 
Instead of confronting that on their day-to-day, this is a place that people can escape to, whether it be through our production, visuals, lyrics, vocals or whatever. 

Tayo: We want to take them on a more positive journey. Facts. 

There’s something really cinematic about the way GAIA opens — like the start of a film or a game loading screen. What does that opening passage mean to you now that the project’s finished?

bib: It’s meant to embody that escapism and optimism that we were just talking about. 
I feel like the opening  track is very theatrical. The way it opens with [producer] Avion’s interpolation of a Tayo loop..it was a first take, I just picked up the mic and what came to me became the project's introduction. 

Tayo: It emphasises the fact that it's like you're going on an adventure, the fact there's a slight narrator in the background. 

bib: Exactly, exactly. 
No, exactly that. 

Across the tape, GAIA often sounds like emotion that’s been processed through hardware — human feelings rendered in code. When you’re creating together, do you see yourselves translating your own emotions into sound, or designing new sonic feelings altogether?

Tayo: I would say yeah, definitely translating emotion into sound, and finding new ways to categorise human emotions. Even down to the way I named the beats during the process of making them, before I sent them to bib. He actually kept the name of the beats as the names of the tracks, which was further affirmation that I captured the feeling of the music. 
I think that really works in bib’s songwriting as well. In hindsight it definitely translated very well. 

bib: I feel like the result of our collaboration is like new Sonic feelings altogether, but a lot of the time each of us are like conveying different things at the catalyst point of our collaborative creations. It’s either the same feeling or maybe independent feelings complimenting the other. I might interpret it a beat in a different way than he imagined someone hopping it on, but I feel like that kind of magic is what happens. 
Like, I never really know what you're going to send me, but I know I'm going to like it. But I approach it in a different way each time. So it's like something new every time. 

Tayo: Yeah, it's a happy roulette. 

Your chemistry is crazy — you can hear that you trust each other’s instincts. What’s a moment during the GAIA sessions where one of you went left and the other had to just run with it?

bib: Hmm.
Probably the outro, you know? 

Tayo: Definitely the outro. 

bib: Yeah, I think it was a case of Tayo sending me the loop that he worked on, then Avion added on, and then I interpreted it. Then, one day I just spoke to Tayo, I told him like a week or two in advance, “I’m going to make this a crazy dubstep track, you know?” He was like “Okay” pretty much and then lo and behold, I just sent it to him and he was like…

Tayo: “Woah! I knew you said you were going to do that, but I didn't think it was going to sound like this.” That shocked me. You put a lot of effort into that. Yeah, man. There's so much sound going on in that track. 

bib: And it worked out as well, because Tayo trusted me to do that.

Tayo: It’s really the trust that makes the team work.

A lot of people describe your sound as ‘post-genre,’ but GAIA still feels really intentional — like every noise has a function. Do you think chaos and control can coexist in a track?

Tayo: 100%

bib: 100%. 

Tayo: I'm definitely that.

bib: When I get sent [Tayo’s] stems, there are so many layers. Something like BLISS, there are so many layers in that track. 

Tayo: Yeah. Over 50. 

bib: Exactly, to where, most people would think that this is just complete chaos because of how many layers we have on there, but there's a certain, I guess, control found within that chaos.

Tayo: Each element has its own space in the mix. 

bib: Exactly, and they coexist with each other. The chaos coexists with each other. All of those layers match  to the point where that really is what defines the sound that we've been working on in this project.

bib, DOGMA was looking inward. GAIA feels like you are looking outward — maybe even upward. Do you think you had to grow in your artistry in order to build this new world?

bib: I would say yes and no. I say I’ve definitely grown as a person. Dogma definitely came as a result of losing all of my music, after my hard drive broke. So there wasn't as much optimism as I usually inject into my music that time. There definitely were lighter moments, on tracks like SKYLINES 09, but as a whole, I feel like GAIA was definitely a new approach for me. Collaborating with someone, there was like a new path, a new adventure - I felt like that reflected on the project. It was very exciting and very, I guess, adventurous and I feel like that adventurous kind of energy is going to be felt by the people who listen.

If GAIA was a physical space — an installation, a stage, or even a game map — what would it look like? Low-poly chaos? Neon temples? Something else entirely?

Tayo: I would say definitely low poly, 2000’s, Y2K type of style. 
I'm talking about Nights. I'm talking about Sonic- 

bib: Nights? Spud me bro. 

Tayo: Nights is cold. Bonanza Bros, Golden Axe 3. 

bib: Jet Set Radio.

Tayo: All them Sega games. I love it. 

bib: Honestly, that kind of adventurous feeling that you get from playing, like, I don't know, um, a platformer or something back in the day that we both grew up on. 
That optimism that we had playing those games, that escapism, feeling like we've been transported to a new world: subconsciously or consciously, we've kind of put that in our music just because that's what we like to feel from the art we consume. 

There’s a lot of texture in your sound — you can almost feel it (no pun intended). How are you expecting people to react when they hear GAIA loud for the first time?

bib: Transported. I don't know if that's a feeling, but transported. 

Tayo: I'd say taken away and shocked. I want people to, like the question said, feel it. They got to feel the music within them. 

bib: Yeah, it's very emotive, in a way, that it takes people internally on a journey, and, we definitely want people to be moved, because I feel like that's one of the main reasons why we made the music. It’s also one of the main reasons why we're collaborating in the first place, like our music moves each other, so us making the music together and putting it out for people to enjoy, we definitely want them to be moved - transported. 

When you think about the UK underground right now — especially the electronic and alt-rap edges — do you feel like GAIA fits into that ecosystem, or sits slightly outside it?

Tayo: You know what? I would say it just about fits in. I would say it's outside of it because I feel like the UK, of course, feels quite set in like jerk and trap at the moment, but they haven't yet gone too far into that hybrid electronic sound. I feel like we're really pioneering that sound for the UK. So I wouldn't say we're outside, I’ll say we're just on time and the UK is just a bit behind. 

bib: 
Yeah, I'd have to agree, to be honest, like, um, obviously a lot of our roots come from the sounds that are bubbling here and we've been doing it for a minute as well. So I feel like we're grounded in that, but we feel like we've taken it a step ahead. Not to say that we're ahead of everyone, but we're heading, a different direction. It's like an alternate, like, kind of timeline really and truly. And hopefully a lot of people end up following us there and taking it. I feel like both electronic listeners and ‘UK underground’ listeners alike will really see themselves in this project. 

If someone pressed play on GAIA for the first time in 2035, what do you hope it says about who you both were in this moment — not only as artists, but as people figuring it out?

bib: I feel like it would fit perfectly in 2035 really and truly. 
What we're doing is some futuristic shit inspired by previous ideas of what the future might look like that we’ve taken from other media; films, video games, fashion etc. It will be quite a natural listen, maybe even ahead of that time as well ahaha. Who knows? At least I can say one of the main takeaways someone can have is we're truly us - truly our own individuals, just doing our own thing. Regardless of however the climate looks like with other sounds that are going on right now. We’ve just been doing our own thing. 

In a landscape where sound and storytelling are merging into new digital mythologies, GAIA stands as a testament to the power of imagination, friendship, and faith in world-building. bib sama. and Tayoloxs aren’t just releasing a mixtape — they’re opening a portal. Through GAIA, they invite listeners to escape, explore, and feel, crafting a space where chaos and control, emotion and circuitry, reality and dream all coexist. It’s not just the future of the UK underground — it’s a whole new world built from it.

Presave GAIA now for free entry to the GAIA Release Party — Thursday 7th November, Brixton Jamm, 7–11PM: https://ditto.fm/gaia-bib-tayo 

And don’t miss bib sama., Tayolox & Friends Headlining Show at Oslo Hackney, Sunday November 30th — grab tickets here: https://ra.co/events/2267595