A white music producer has gone from a quiet life to London living, and a career in what is largely seen as "black music".

But the artist, who grew up in Coxheath in Maidstone and who goes by the stage name Protagonist, says he doesn't feel misplaced, and his passion for music stems from wanting to do something different with his life.

The 23-year-old, whose real name is Taylor Honey, currently studies music production and sound engineering at Point Blank Music School in London.

The university is a global network of music production schools founded in London in 1994 by musician and producer Robert Cowan.

Protagonist, who now lives in London and is part of music group Paradise Highr, said: "When I first started coming to events and shows in London, I was the only white guy in the room.

"Then, as I progressed in my career, I realised the black community welcomed me way more than the white community accepting me for doing what I do.

"I've been constantly encouraged by all of my friends who are black; I've only ever faced criticism from my friends who are white who say 'why do you think you're this'.

"They don't mean it in a harsh way, but people have to realise that it's 2022 and anything is for anyone at this point and everything is up for the taking.

"There's many examples of white artists before me, so I have no pressure on my shoulders."

The artist, who attended Cornwallis Academy, said he had a "rebellious" phase which spurred him to pursue his passion for beat-making. "I had this weird, rebellious phase in me, when I was 17, 18 where I wanted to do something different," he said.

"We were all leaving secondary school, my friends were going into construction.

"My dad did construction and it messed his body up. He was getting operations done and he couldn't go to work anymore, but if you've been doing that your whole life, what are you meant to do after that?

He continued: "I started working in a warehouse and in my spare time I was mixing and making beats. I would be getting a lot of people from the hip-hop scene messaging me, and all these people are situated in London.

"I was coming up to London from a very young age, weekend after weekend, going to different shows. I never told my mum how far I was travelling, because I knew she would stress out.

"I feel like it was great networking as I'm now living here, and there's artists who are bigger than me who know my name, because they used to see and talk to me when I was around 15 at these events.

"I definitely had a stand-out phase from Maidstone, because there's barely any rappers there.

"Maidstone is orientated around dance music and nightlife and I don't even like drinking and going out, so I'm definitely completely different to my surroundings."

The musician got into producing at an early age. He said:"It was quite random. I was on my way back from secondary school one day and I was listening to a Flat Bush Zombies song.

"I remember hearing another artist's song on the beat. I really wanted to hear that, so I went home and downloaded audacity [music software] on my mum's desktop.

"I learnt how to extend the beat and then I put acapella vocals on that. I showed it to my friends and they loved it, so I started to make different beats with vocals on it.

"I put them on Soundcloud [a music platform] and they started to get thousands of listens. One of them even hit around 30k.

"I started to make more beats and now I'm here."

On making music, he said: "If I'm in the studio and I've got a piano player or a saxophone player, I will tend to lay out the tempo first, which could be 80, 90 or 140bpm.

"I'll lay down a simple idea for the drums and then normally work in terms of harmony, melody and then base, and then all the finishing touches after that.

"I know some artists, like Kanye and Justin Bieber, see music in colours but I see it in emotions.

"As soon as I have the first chord progression of a song, or the first main melody line, I will know exactly what feeling this song will provoke out of people.

"I don't get sad when I make sad beats but it definitely expresses the emotions I've felt in my life and turning it into a beat."

The artist described how he balances his creativity with everyday life. He said:"I feel like my laptop screen wakes me up in the morning.

"It helps me wake my brain up for the day. I spend around six or seven hours a day in total making music.

"I feel like people forget we have 12-plus hours in a day to do what we want. I'm only at university for eight hours a week lecture time and I'm only studying for around 15, so I have so many more hours to get this done.

"It's never a task, it's also something I love, you only get stressed out when you're doing things which are not motivating you.

"No one's inspired me to be the way I am, I have such a inquisitive mind which has led me to different places.

"The closest people to me in family are my mum and brother, and they support me all the way."

Another successful music producer is Dani Stephenson from Shepway, Maidstone, who has worked with global acts such as Ed Sheeran and Drake.

We featured his story last year.