An interview with Christopher Taylor

An interview with Christopher Taylor

What inspired the name of the band and what are your influences?

I go out under my own name (not really inspired!) – but it’s a good question about when I go out with the band I don’t like The Christopher Taylor band, type name , so as we speak we are trying to decide on a name that’s like Christopher Taylor and the ‘somethings’ (like Lloyd Cole and the Commotions) maybe your readers could help!
As a teenager I was in to bands as diverse as Alice Cooper to Fleetwood Mac. Currently I listen to bands like Counting Crows, City and Colour solo acts like Tom Grennan and Jack Johnson as well as electro pop artists like Madeon and Porter Robinson. In my CD and digital library I also have some classical and jazz too.   I love all types of music and I guess my diverse tastes feed in to my writing today.

How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?

I write a lot of songs on my own but also like to work in collaboration with others, especially with lyrics. In particular I have recently got back together writing with an old school friend (we were actually in a band together all those years ago) and we are writing quite a few now including the new single North Star. My songs are about all sorts but I would imagines 90% are about relationships – both happy and sad!!

Songs are inspired by situations around us, a lot are about relationships and life’s challenges.  Even if we don’t think it our surroundings inevitably influence us.

How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?

I write a lot of songs on my own but also like to work in collaboration with others, especially with lyrics. In particular I have recently got back together writing with an old school friend (we were actually in a band together all those years ago) and we are writing quite a few now including the new single North Star. My songs are about all sorts but I would imagines 90% are about relationships – both happy and sad!!

Songs are inspired by situations around us, a lot are about relationships and life’s challenges.  Even if we don’t think it our surroundings inevitably influence us.

Why do you write the sort of music that you do?

As I’m a singer songwriter, I guess you might class my music as adult contemporary pop. But there’s some jazz and folk influences in there  too. I guess I don’t really think about the style and the sort of music I do – I just play and se what comes out 😉
I would hope any new listener would think Christopher Taylor is a songwriter who writes lyrical, catchy tunes with infectious melodies, and come back for more!

How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting

I pretty much do all my recorded songs live. I like to rotate the sets round with a bit of brand new and some of my old songs all in the mix. I’m lucky, I write my songs just on guitar with vocals so when I do a solo gig without the band the transposition is easy. However, I love playing with the full band though cos there’s more energy and I like the chemistry with them on stage.

How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting

I pretty much do all my recorded songs live. I like to rotate the sets round with a bit of brand new and some of my old songs all in the mix. I’m lucky, I write my songs just on guitar with vocals so when I do a solo gig without the band the transposition is easy. However, I love playing with the full band though cos there’s more energy and I like the chemistry with them on stage.

What plans do you have for the future?

I recently recorded 3 tunes with my friends at the Animal Farm studios. Really enjoying working with Ville and Mat there. We are One was out last November. North Star is out now – just released 26 March and then By my side is out in June. Hoping to get back to their studio for another burst of creativity in the summer.  Gigs are starting to come in again now so hopefully in  to the summer there will be some news and I’ll keep people posted on my web site and socials. But more recording and gigging definitely – I’ve really missed playing live gigs this year and when performing is in your DNA you can imagine how frustrating that can be. Bit of fame would be nice 😉