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The Advertiser www.news.com.au Thursday, August 12, 1999
Melbourne outfit
Taxiride is officially too loud for Adelaide. After rocking Rundle Mall in
the first of two scheduled performances recently, the Adelaide City Council
canceled the second as the band was deemed too loud for the shopping district.
"Apparently two acoustic guitars and a tambourine were a little bit too loud
for the mall, so they asked us not to come back," says vocalist Jason Singh.
"We were like 'cool we'll turn it down', but we only played about four songs,
and by the time the counselor arrived we were finished," he says.
"There were a couple of clowns doing balloon animals and when we came on,
their crowd disappeared, so we think it was them who made the complaint."
The band instead played a live-to-air performance at the front of the SAFM
building in Unley. Taxiride, consisting of Singh, vocalist Tim Watson, guitarist
Tim Wild, and bass guitarist Dan Hall, has burst into the mainstream with
its debut single 'Get Set', the first release off their debut album 'Imaginate'.
A second single 'Everywhere you go' is due for release early next month.
"The reaction to get set has been really good. The radio has really got behind
it and people seem to really like the song, which we're pretty happy about,"
says Watson. The new album was recorded in Los Angeles this year after Taxiride
signed a joint deal with Warner Music Australia, and America's Sire Records.
While some copies of Imaginate have been released in the United States, the
Australia launch will take place in early October.
"There are a lot of instruments because we all play a lot of different instruments.
There's a pretty wide variety of music, but it's got a common thread," says
Wild.
Taxiride formed in 1995 when the two Tims selected Singh and Hall for a "Special
Project". The newly formed group named themselves after a taxi driving friend,
who provided the band with feedback after playing demo tapes in his cab.
Wild says Taxiride will tour throughout Australia next month before heading
to the US later in the year for some support tours.
"We've got a couple of singles we want to release off the album. We'll just
be throwing stuff out there and seeing what sticks."
REPORT BY: MATTHEW BOWMAN
DA: How did
you meet?
Dan: Well, the first time that I met Tim Wild I was
busking on the
street. He came over and started talking to me,
and I thought he was
some rock star that I couldn't recognise. He had the
whole works - cool
clothes and shades. Then he asked me to join his
band and I was like, wow!
DA: You had a friend who
used to drive a taxi and play your music to
passengers. What was the feedback like?
Jason: Generally positive. Although, he didn't
really tell us the bad
stuff.
DA: Any funny taxi experiences?
Tim Wild: Yes! It was just before we signed on to our
record deal. We
had an Indian driver who was listening to a dance station
playing
techno. He started singing really loudly to it,
"Humble taxi, I am a
humble taxi driver" It was too weird!
DA: You're all songwriters.
Is it hard to come together and write
songs with so many people?
Jason: There's a bit of good and bad in it. Sometimes,
it's a
challenge for us.
Dan: That's when everyone tries to have the 10 cents
worth,
which can ruin a song.
Tim Watson: By and large, though, we get a lot out of
the writing.
DA: Does that mean you have
a whole stack of songs waiting to get on an
album?
Tim Wild: We do. I'd say we'd have about 100.
DA: What is the toughtest
part of playing to an audience?
Tim Wild: Trying to please everyone.
Jason: And trying to get four guitars to work together!
DA: How many guitars do you
have for one show?
Dan: I counted that I had 12 for a show once.
DA: Have you ever picked
up the wrong guitar at a show?
Tim Wild: Yes. I had the wrong one at a rock festival.
We were
performing to about 100,000 people in the middle of
the speedway and I
was handed a guitar to do "Get Set". But the guitar
was tuned to the
wrong song and I had to work out how to do it in the
wrong key.
DA: How do you keep motivated?
Tim Watson: We all motivate each other.
Jason: That's the best part of being in the band.
Dan: There is no "I" in band.
Tim Wild: We all keep an eye on each other.
DA: What's next for you?
Jason: Releasing another single and meeting lots of
people.
Tim Watson: And we'll be touring.
Tim Wild: Going out to lots of places and doing lots
of travelling.
Taxiride Biography from the Australian release of Imaginate
On the Australian release of Imaginate, there is a multimedia component... it has the Get Set video and the Everywhere You Go video clip, and a biography of the band from Warner Music:
A question for the ages: just what is the perfect pop equation? Try a band comprising four all-singing, all strumming frontmen, each with a knack for writing great pop tunes. Enter Taxiride, who have emerged from virtually nowhere (Melbourne, actually) to shake up the musical world with their hit debut single Get Set.
Get Set, one of the most played songs on Australian radio in recent months, is approaching gold status and is the feature single on the soundtrack of Matthew Broderick's upcoming Hollywood film 'Election'. Hot on its radio-friendly heels is Imaginate, their stylish debut album, showcasing full-blooded four-part harmonies and a swirling mass of guitars, drums, sitars and keyboards. The end result is honest songs that refuse to be ignored. But don't just take our word for it.
"I've never worked with a band with four frontmen before," says the album's producer and mixer Jack Puig, whose credits include recordings by Jellyfish, the Grays, the Goo Goo Dolls, Semisonics and Closing Time. "Not only are their lead and harmony vocals stunning, they're also some of the best players I've ever had in the studio".
Taxiride's success is as dramatic as a corny movie script. The uncorny reality is that the band with a talent that leaps out and smacks you in the face made the movie script come true.
The four Taxiriders - Tim Watson, Tim Wild, Dan Hall and Jason Singh could easily have had solo careers. Seperately, they played in bands around Melbourne's fiercely competitive club scene for three years, learning the craft of songwriting and performing five nights a week. As Tim Watson says: "After playing for a while, you begin to get a feel for what makes a song work and for what makes a good song".
It was inevitable the guys paths would cross and when they did, they watched each other's performances closely. "When I used to go to see the other three guys play, the most impressive thing was the visual performance and the way they worked with an audience," says Tim Wild. "Everyone in Taxiride had their own little niche in terms of people they appealed to".
By happy accident and some
persuasion by Taxiride's co-manager Peter Dacy, the four musicians met officially
and clicked. The two Tim's got together in Dacy's studio a few weeks later
and wrote and recorded two songs on the spot. Then came the other members
and the band destined to conquer the world was born. Dan Hall remembers the
initial musical meeting. "I was pretty freaked out actually" he says. "In
all honesty, I'd never met anybody like these guys before. I'd always hung
out with musicians but never anyone with this professionalism and songwriting
craft. I went home with a tape of some of the demos that they'd already completed
and there were a few songs that absolutely hit me in the head. And I just
said "Yeah, I'm in".
The band spent two years recording and polishing the demos, many of which have become killer tracks on Imaginate. The musicians shamelessly poured every last iota of their craft – and enthusiasm, humor and passion – into the project. The little Melbourne recording studio became a musical Mecca for fellow musicians who had heard about this vibrant new sound.
The band, then without a name, gave demos to a Melbourne taxidriver friend who played them in his cab for passengers and reported the response. It was always positive É and the band found its name. Co-manager Keith Ridgway circulated the demo CDs and the response was even more explosive.
Taxiride sang and played without mics or amps in various record company conference rooms in Melbourne and Sydney. The deeply-impressed companies jostled to sign the band.
Taxiride, after fielding bids from several Australian labels, decided on Warner Music Australia. "From our first meeting with Warners we realised that they were the real music people and that was very important to the band," says Ridgway. "They also shared our vision that Taxiride should have an international focus from day one, and that the flexibility to achieve that would be there." The surefire combination of Taxiride went to the US and signed another impressive record deal.
The band recently returned from a 48-city US promotion tour which included an acclaimed performance at the Atlanta Rock Festival. The hard work at home and in the US has paid off.
Imaginate reveals a band with a fertile field of its own making. These home-grown sounds are a fresh as a summer's breeze. Individuality is stamped on this clutch of catchy tracks that provide a welcome dose of haunting melodies and harmonies and imaginative lyrics that exhibit a gritty intelligence. The songs, according to Tim Wild, are a "collection of ideas we had over three or four years".
The album crosses a lot of musical areas and the songs are defined by the instruments they chose to use on the tracks. But the common thread of Taxiride is there across the whole album. "We are vocalists that play instruments and instrumentalists that sing. There's a lot of scope there". "A lot of contemporary artists are so worried about being credible that they're scared to try stuff," says Tim Watson. "With this band it doesn't matter what the idea is. If it suits the song, we do it".
The philosophy works. The writing styles, playing and vocal delivery are instantly recognisable. This is a band that has started to find the fame it deserves in a short time.
The future is theirs for
the taking. In an industry where accolades are bestowed far too easily, Taxiride
are the real thing. Imaginate is the proof.
September 1999
For further information please contact the Warner Music office in your state.
www.warnermusic.com.au
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