Chad Taylor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
 |
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007) |
| Chad Taylor | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 24, 1970 |
| Origin |  Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Alternative Rock Post-Grunge Hard Rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar |
| Years active | 1980s - Present |
| Label(s) | Radioactive Records Epic Records |
Chad Taylor (born November 24, 1970 in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.) is the lead guitarist of the band Live. He is a founding member of the band, and co-writes and co-produces their output. Live has sold over 25 million records. He has been involved in the entertainment industry for most of his life. At the age of 13, he met his future band mates in middle school in York, Pennsylvania.
Contents |
[edit] Live
[edit] Early history
Kowalczyk, Taylor, Dahlheimer, and Gracey first came together for a middle-school talent show in the Pennsylvania blue-collar town of York. The group remained together throughout high school, going through a handful of band names (such as First Aid, Club Fungus, Paisley Blues, Action Front, and Body Odor Boys) and new-wave covers before settling on the moniker Public Affection and recording a self-released cassette of originals, The Death of a Dictionary, in 1989. Soon after in 1990, Public Affection released an EP of demos produced by Jay Healy titled Divided Mind, Divided Planet through their Black Coffee mailing list. Frequent trips into New York City to play at CBGB helped net the band a deal with Radioactive Records in 1991. With the new name Live, the band entered the studio with former Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison that year and began recording the EP Four Songs (1991). The single "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)" went to #9 on the Modern Rock chart, and paved the way for the band's Harrison-produced full-length debut, 1991's Mental Jewelry (#73). The album lyrics, penned by Kowalczyk, were heavily inspired by Indian speaker Jiddu Krishnamurti.
[edit] Mainstream success
Fueled by light touring (including billing at Woodstock '94 and Peter Gabriel's WOMAD tour) and a string of hit singles ("I Alone", "All Over You" and the #1 Modern Rock hits "Selling the Drama" and "Lightning Crashes"), Live's next album, Throwing Copper, gave the band the breakthrough it desired. The steady success of the singles propelled the album to #1 on the Billboard 200 on May 6, 1995, more than a year after the album was released. To date, it is their best-selling album and often most highly regarded album by fans and critics. The band was invited to appear on NBC's Saturday Night Live where they performed their hits "I Alone" and "Selling the Drama."
The momentum continued long enough to help 1997's Secret Samadhi (co-produced by the band and Jay Healy) debut at #1. Deriving its name from a state of Hindu meditation, the album spawned four Modern Rock singles, but failed to match its predecessor's success, with sales topping off at 2 million. The band performed "Lakini's Juice" and "Heropsychodreamer" from this album on Saturday Night Live.
Harrison came back on board as co-producer for 1999's The Distance to Here, which debuted at #4 and featured the hit single "The Dolphin's Cry."
In 2000, Live embarked on a co-headlining tour with alternative rock band Counting Crows. Frequently, Crows' lead singer Adam Duritz joined the stage for Live's performance of "The Dolphin's Cry," and Kowalczyk sang a verse of "Hanginaround" with the Crows.
[edit] Post 9/11
On September 18, 2001, the more experimental V (originally scheduled to be titled Ecstatic Fanatic) was issued to mixed reviews, preceded by "Simple Creed" as the first single. However, with the events of 9/11—which occurred a week before V's release—the melancholic "Overcome" began receiving significant airplay, superseding "Simple Creed" and becoming V's selling point. Live's commercial stock—compounded by their petering radio airplay—had fallen further since The Distance to Here, with V merely reaching #22 at home, and failing to reach gold status. That same year, Live contributed a live performance version of their song "I Alone" to the charity album Live in the X Lounge IV.
"Overcome" was used at the end of the final episode of season 2 of The Shield.
Birds of Pray appeared in May 2003, bolstered by the unexpected success of "Heaven," Live's first U.S. Hot 100-placing single since "The Dolphin's Cry." Reaching #28, Birds of Pray ultimately outsold V, although it too received mixed reviews and failed to reach gold status.
In November 2004, Live released Awake: The Best of Live, a career-spanning compilation that included "We Deal in Dreams," a previously unreleased song from the Throwing Copper sessions, and a cover of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line," as well as Birds of Pray's "Run Away," re-imagined with Shelby Lynne on co-lead vocals.
In 2005, Live signed with Sony BMG Music Entertainment's Epic label, and released a new album entitled Songs from Black Mountain in June 2006, preceded by "The River" as lead single. Thus far, the album has achieved much international success and critical acclaim. However, in their native United States of America, it has proven Live's lowest-seller domestically, only reaching #52 before disappearing from the charts.
While Live remains only moderately popular in terms of record sales in the United States, much of their current sales come from places in Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
[edit] American Idol incident
On season five of American Idol, finalist Chris Daughtry was accused of performing Live's rendition of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line" and calling it his own. One week later Daughtry acknowledged it was not his own rendition, even saying Live was one of his favorite bands. In May 2006, Live appeared on The Howard Stern Show and addressed this issue.[1][2]
On May 24, 2006, the band and Chris Daughtry performed "Mystery" on the season finale of American Idol, and on June 7, a new version of "Mystery" was released on the Friends of Live website featuring Chris Daughtry on guest vocals.
[edit] Recent times
On September 14, 2007, the band released their first album since 1989 on their own Action Front Records label, Radiant Sea: A Collection of Bootleg Rarities and Two New Songs, featuring two brand new songs: "Beautiful Invisible" and "Radiant Sea". In March of 2008, LIVE will begin a short tour in promotion of this album, and they plan to play at a few festivals during the summer of 2008. [3]
[edit] Other works
Outside Live, he has produced records for other artists, such as Solution A.D. The album reached the top ten of Billboard's Modern Rock Chart.
He joined forces with longtime friend John Slovak in Aurora Films, a film company. Together, they have developed shows for networks ranging from The History Channel, Discovery Channel, Telemundo, Food Network, HBO and Speed Channel.
A co-producer of Home, a feature-length film, written and directed by Mary Haverstick and starring Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden. Taylor, in conjunction with his wife Lisa, is also executive producer of a yoga video in conjunction with yogi Jimmy Barken, known "The Barken Method."
Chad has recently produced the debut album of his younger brother, Adam Taylor, a Maryland based singer/songwriter. The album features Bob Dylan-esque folk/pop songs and some appearances by Chad on electric guitar.
[edit] Personal life
Taylor currently lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
[edit] External links
- Friends of Live (official website)
- Live at MySpace
- Fans of Live (Live fansite)
- Chat Taylor (fansite)
- Chad Taylor's Stomping Groung (another fan site)
|
||||||||||||||
