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.