DANE TAYLOR TRIO

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEAN LOGIE
WEBSITE: http://www.danetaylortrio.com/
COUNTRY: South Africa STYLE: Blues / Rock

WERE ALL OF YOU PERFORMING SOLO OR IN BANDS BEFORE THE TRIO WAS FORMED?

Yeah. Before the trio, I was playing a few solo gigs, with Justin, but as soon as we started rehearsing and getting things ready with the trio, it soon became all we were doing. It still is… Rob plays in another group too, New Altum.

WHY DID YOU GUYS FORM THIS BAND AND WHY DO YOU THINK YOU WORK TOGETHER WELL AS A “UNIT”; IS IT BECAUSE YOU ARE FANS OF THE SAME TYPE OF MUSIC AND THAT SORT OF THING?

Well, we all love blues music. The minute you hear it, time stands still. And so, we love this stuff so much that at one point it was all we were playing when we’d get together and jam. So we decided to form a trio and share this music we’d come to enjoy playing so much. I think that’s the biggest thing. Sharing something you’ve come to enjoy and love so much with others. Nothing feels better…

THE BAND IS CALLED “DANE TAYLOR TRIO”. DOESN’T THAT MAKE THE OTHER BAND MEMBERS FEEL A BIT LEFT OUT, OR IS THIS DANE TAYLOR’S BAND IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?

No, not at all. Dane Taylor Trio is something we’re all part of. It’s just a bunch of words we put together really. The minute someone feels left out that’s when I gotta take a look around and see who’s there.

BLUES INFLUENCED ROCK HAS ALWAYS BEEN AROUND BUT IT SEEMS LIKE IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN POPULAR WITH A MORE “MATURE” AUDIENCE. DO YOU THINK THAT YOUR APPROACH TO THE GENRE; ESPECIALLY WITH SONGS LIKE “SAY YOU DO” WILL ATTRACT YOUNGER AUDIENCES?

Well, a few decades back, a lot of the young people were heavily into Blues and Rock music. They still are. However, I know a lot of “mature” people are into other things other than Rock, Blues, or even Electro music. Sometimes we can be old and other times we can be young. It depends really… A lot of the time we’re not really thinking about that though. If something sounds real good it doesn’t matter how many birthdays you’ve had, I know plenty of people over sixty listening to the same stuff high school kids are into.

YOUR DEBUT EP “FOREWORD” WAS RELEASED IN SEPTEMBER. HOW CLOSE DID THE END PRODUCT COME TO THE ORIGINAL IDEAS AND SOUND THAT YOU GUYS HAD IN MIND?

Pretty close. What you hear on “ForeWord” are the original ideas. We did no tampering or arranging to the song structures once they were tracked. We rehearsed maybe once or twice the week before we recorded, and then we did most of it all live in three days.

Most of the albums we love and cherish are mostly all done live and have a certain organic entity to them. We definitely wanted to try and capture that sort of energy and honesty on this one. I’m definitely not a fan of layers and layers...That’s one way to make a record sound small.

WHAT SUBJECTS DO YOU COVER LYRICALLY WITH THE SONGS ON “FOREWORD” AND DO YOU FIND THAT YOU WRITE BETTER SONGS WHEN TIMES ARE GOOD OR WHEN THINGS DON’T ALWAYS GO YOUR WAY?

Anything from the weather, the streets, words, people, automobiles, deserts, moonlight, knocked up girls, promises, old worlds, colours. Stuff like that… Ships, remedies, murder, shooting suns, sounds, time, driving, and even speaking …Its all in there somewhere.

NOW THAT “FOREWORD” IS DONE, HAS THE BAND STARTED TO THINK ABOUT THINGS LIKE APPROACHING RECORD LABELS/DISTRIBUTORS, OR WOULD YOU LIKE TO KEEP THE BAND AS INDEPENDENT AS POSSIBLE?

We’ve thought about it. Record labels definitely help and being part of a real good one would be awesome. We want to do everything we can that’ll help the Trio expand, grow and mean something to as much people as it can.

WHAT INSTRUMENTS DID YOU USE FOR THE RECORDINGS AND DO YOU GUYS LIKE BUYING NEW INSTRUMENTS ON A REGULAR BASIS OR DO YOU HAVE A “WORK HORSE” INSTRUMENT THAT HAS A LOT OF SENTIMENTAL VALUE AND THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO PLAY FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE?

For me instruments definitely have to mean something. You can tell buy just touching an instrument if they have a soul or not. They are just a tool though. I mean, a room full of a hundred guitars means nothing if no one’s playing them.

With regards to equipment, well, I’ve got some real old gear that I really love which was used on most of the tracks. Some great sounding old vintage amps, cabs and some old guitars. Justin plays a real fun Gretsch setup and he’s always tinkering here and there.

Rob plays Fender too and he’s always working on tones and colour, even more than I do…

IS THE INSTRUMENT YOU ARE PLAYING NOW THE FIRST INSTRUMENT YOU LEARNED TO PLAY; AND HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO REACH THAT POINT WHERE YOU WERE CONFIDENT ENOUGH TO WRITE AND PERFORM YOUR OWN MUSIC?

We’ve all been through a few different instruments since we started. Think I got my first electric when I was about 12 or something. And started playing all day and night learning and figuring things out…I think I do this more nowadays than when I started out though. Yeah, you have to keep yourself thinking up new things and learning everyday as much as you can. That’s the fun part, learning something new and sharing with these guys. It’s nice to keep each other on our toes. We’d get bored otherwise.

As for writing and performing, we’ve all been making music since we were real young and, like everyone else, were in a few groups and played around our suburbs and in Cape Town. Wasn’t long till we thought, “Hey, this feels real and we should do this” So we’re just following that through. And now we all have something we really love doing.

ARE THERE PLANS FOR THE BAND TO PERFORM LIVE ANY TIME SOON?

Yeah, busy sorting out a whole lot of shows at the moment. Watch the Facebook and Myspace pages for details. Everything is on there.

Check out http://www.danetaylortrio.com/

ANY COMMENTS; THINGS FANS SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR?

Thanks to everyone that’s supported us so far. It means a lot!

Please check us out online and if you haven’t got your copy of ForeWord, go get one!