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Thad Taylor
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Playing experiences
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| Ticket for a TIGHT gig at the EMP SkyChurch |
"More fills dude, more fills!"
Here's some of the projects I've been involved with:
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| With Roto Toms and Ghop shirt - UW Street Fair, 1999 |
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| Grasshopper's Force of Nature CD (1999) |
Grasshopper
(1998-2000)
Acoustic-based rock music. During my time with that group, we played tons of shows
all over the Northwest and recorded and produced two CDs, Force Of Nature (1999) and Garden
Of Delight (2000). I am very proud of a lot of what we did.
The group's leader Evan Kimble and I shared tastes in the Beatles,
Jethro Tull, and the Grateful Dead. Bassist Brian Couch was the other main songwriter and vocalist.
I always loved Ted Ford's crazy fingers guitar lines . . .
I had not been playing very much for several years prior to joining the group in
March 1998. So, Grasshopper received several years of my pent up rock and roll energy. I ruined some stuff with too much bombast.
But to be fair - I employed brushes, mallets, 'rods,' and lighter sticks in the
music, too. My playing was long on creativity and inspiration in that period, if somewhat short on discipline.
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| TIGHT at the Graceland, Oct. 2001 |
TIGHT
(2000-2002)
People said that TIGHT reminded them of the Police, Rush, and other musically adventurous trios. In truth, the music
was much more black-influenced than those groups. But I suppose it did have sort of a progressive rock edge.
Jason Naiden has been a musical cohort and friend since our days playing in the Franklin Junior High
School band in Yakima, WA. He played bass, sang, wrote the songs, and engineered our recordings in TIGHT. The third member
was guitarist Corey Knoblich. Corey sang and wrote some songs too.
Jason is a drummer - and he poured gas on the fire. "More fills dude. More fills!" I definitely played
the role of the "drummer's drummer" in TIGHT.
In our early days, Jason and I actually played a few gigs as a bass and drums duo - man, that showed some balls!
We released our own homemade CD in 2002, and played a regular monthly gig at the Experience Music Project Liquid Lounge. And in March 2001, we had the truly awesome experience playing at EMP's SkyChurch in front
of an enormous video wall. The staff fed video of us into the video wall as we played - pretty sweet.
We also did a live radio performance from KSER FM in Everett with host Jim Peppan of "The Neighborhood"
(clip below . . . real serious stuff).
All in all - a pretty good run.
Reyshard
(2003-2006)
Jason Naiden from TIGHT played bass in this funky R&B/pop act. There was a ton of talent in this group.
When I started with Reyshard, I sold my double bass drum pedal. The people out there don't need all that junk, man!
We put on a great show at places like Nectar in Fremont and Des Amis in Capitol Hill.
There was one-of-a-kind chemistry in this group with the bass/drums/guitar combination of Jason Naiden, Thad
Taylor, and Seth Hayden. The three of us would jam in rehearsal, the singer would walk in, grab the mic,
and away we'd go. We'd write songs like that, on the spot.
While it lasted, this group really rocked. My playing "grew up" during this time. My time, discipline, and
" groove-ability" on drums grew in the Reyshard era, and for that, I am thankful. I made it a point to create detailed parts with very specific
repeating patterns and drum "hooks." I really enjoyed that challenge.
As of June 2006, we had a full length CD of original material 80% completed. We recorded it in Jason's home studio
and I believe that CD would have been huge . . . unfortunately, one person decided to throw it all away.
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