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CD Another Footprint in Musician Matt Taylor's Journey |
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CD Another Footprint in Musician Matt Taylor's Journey
Gary Books, News-Banner Publications Inc.
August 15, 2005
Singer, songwriter and musician Matt Taylor has taken another step toward completing his circle.
Taylor, who has deposited his entertainment stamp on a lengthy list of nightspots throughout the area in recent years, has just launched his third CD, "Subject To The Wind."
"The dominant theme (of the CD) is finding oneself, there are more songs about that than other songs," Taylor, 35, amplified.
"They are songs that are the realization of my style, and when you hear the CD, it explores a lot of different sounds, that maybe, is my style."
Born in Silver Spring, Maryland, where his father worked for the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, Taylor came to Indiana at age seven and in 1988 graduated from Homestead High School where he was a standout in track.
"I was a sprinter and the only white kid in the state finals, and at least I didn't come in last," Taylor smiled.
But like so many of the stops along his life's path so far, Taylor drew from his athletic endeavors.
"Track made me realize that I have to work extra hard succeed; I credit my track experience and having really good coaches to allow me to have success in other parts of my life," he acknowledged.
Taylor's musical compositions run the gamut from toe-tapping to thought-provoking to the lighthearted.
“Subject to the Wind” is not the latter.
"Ostensibly, it's about the manifestations of the wind, but metaphorically it's about wanting to be let free from the occasional burdens of life," Taylor said.
Life has been a far-ranging, variety-packed journey for Taylor, who spent 2 1/2 years writing and producing his latest CD.
There was a Cum Laude degree in radio/television from Butler University, a Peace Corps stint in the Ukraine, a junior high teaching job amidst a Mexican-American culture in Texas, and later, working for the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs as a teacher on an Indian reservation.
"It (the reservation) was an inspirational place, but really a remote location," Taylor reflected. "It was 1 1/2 hours from a Walmart, if that's an indication of civilization; there was absolutely nothing For 30 miles,"
But it was there in what Taylor calls "real solitude" that he became immersed in his music and lyrics, generating his first CD titled “Destination.”
He had initially begun stroking a guitar at age 22 while working for a video production company in Fort Wayne, his startup job out of college.
Four months later, Taylor had drawn a thick X across his career choice.
"I had the revelation that that general career wasn't what I wanted to do in my life," he said. "It was a harsh realization after all that time and money I had spent in college."
Yet he was not to move away from playing the guitar at his parents' house, a guitar that had only the three bottom strings (a fully-stringed guitar has six).
"I made some pretty cool sounds with the three strings," he looked back. Within a year, he began writing, his first effort, "Stephanie" about a girl he saw from afar.
'I’ve certainly written worse songs," Taylor said. "Stephanie doesn't even know who she is."
How does a Taylor composition come about?
"It's one of two ways," he responded. "Either I'll get a musical melody chord progression, or, a topical idea that can come from anywhere, something where you can tell an interesting story.
"Then, I usually immediately try to get a 'hook', a melody or chorus on which I can hang the song.
"I'm a big editor; I'll fix, change, and correct a song until I know it's right.
"When I have that hook, I never know how the rest of the song will sound, but I know when it's done."
In his second CD, All Circles Complete, Taylor's originals ranged from "Fall Down With You," a takeoff of the Jack and Jill children's rhyme, to "Cyntheanne," a road name he observed on an overpass while traveling along 1-69.
"'Circles' was about what goes around comes around," he said. "It's that ancient philosophy that if you do good, good will come back to you."
His performances in the area have been before crowds as large as nearly a thousand at Jefferson Pointe Shopping Mall on Fort Wayne's southwest side. There also are engagements in front of just a few weeknight bar-grill patrons and a group of followers devoted to his originals and interpretations of current and past musical favorites.
"Sometimes, you want to go to work, sometimes you don't," Taylor answered when asked how he keeps 'motivated’ for shows that sometimes last more than two hours.
"I have found that the first couple of songs are the hardest because sometimes you aren't into it. But then, you see the audience smiling and tapping their feet, and I recognize that smiling and enthusiasm are contagious; I learned that as a teacher."
"Subject to the Wind" was produced by Taylor at a small studio at his rented farm home in Southem Allen County. Packaging and other costs for the 1,000 CDs totaled $2,000, Taylor said, underlining that $20,000 would be a "believable figure" at a sound studio.
The CDs production was not a straight-as-an-arrow undertaking, Taylor emphasized. "Some days, I worked on it for 16 hours a day for a week; then there was a month when I lost it and couldn't go any further," he recalled.
"So I bought a video game and spent a month playing that; it got me out of my slump, got my edge back."
As for the future, Taylor said his image of "making it" would be to perform on a late-night talk show, like Letterman or Conan O'Brien.
He's aware that when and if that occurs he will be at a point in life when many musicians are viewed as being past their prime.
"I started to pick up a guitar at 22 and that may seem young, but to musicians, that's old. Most start in junior high.
"But you're never too old to get involved in a uniquely liberating way to express yourself and share your feelings in a lyrical or non-lyrical way," he noted.
"Subject To The Wind" is available at Wooden Nickel, Barnes and Noble, Mitchell Books or can be ordered online via Amazon.com or CDbaby.com.
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