Stephen W Tayler

Stephen W Tayler
Background information
Birth name	Stephen William Tayler
Born	1953 Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
Occupations	sound engineer, mixer, music producer, musician, composer, digital artist
Years active	1974–present
Website	Chimera Arts

Stephen Tayler is a mixing and recording engineer, music producer, musician, composer and sound designer who has contributed this collection of talents to hundreds of world-class albums for artists including Kate Bush, Suzanne Vega, Peter Gabriel, Underworld, Duncan Sheik, Howard Jones, Stevie Nicks, Milla Jovovich, Rush, Bob Geldof, Rupert Hine and Tina Turner. Stephen works closely with producer, filmmaker and artist Sadia Sadia. Stephen has always stayed on the leading edge of audio technology, starting with analogue and tape techniques, and subsequently he has been an early adopter of synthesis, sampling and digital technology.

Education

Stephen grew up studying and performing music professionally. At the age of eight he became a boy chorister at New College School, Oxford eventually becoming a soloist and head chorister. New College Choir made many recordings, and Choral Evensong was regularly Broadcast on the BBC. Having taken up the clarinet and piano, he gained a music scholarship to Shrewsbury School, followed by three years at the Royal College of Music in London studying the clarinet with Colin Bradbury and also studying organ. He taught himself to play the guitar and bass guitar, as well as playing saxophone, recorders and penny whistles. He played in many orchestras, ensembles, experimental groups and bands, but he felt that life as a performer was not for him. During all this time he had developed a fascination with recording, and had begun to experiment with tape recorders.

Career

The Seventies

Stephen decided to pursue a career in the audio world. He applied to the BBC for a post as a trainee, and was accepted, due to start several months after finishing at college. On 4 August 1974, a few days after his final term at college, he decided to go in search of a job to tide him over. Without any preparation he went for a stroll around London’s Soho where there were many recording studios. By chance he turned off Wardour Street into St Annes Court, a small alleyway. He spotted a doorway with a sign for Trident Studios, so he stepped inside and enquired if there were any jobs available. He was immediately sent to see the studio manager, who told Stephen that he was too old and over qualified. Yet there was an opening for the post of tea boy. Stephen started the next day.

Trident Studios had become famous for the recording of many seminal albums from the late sixtes and early seventies, including sessions by The Beatles, Elton John, David Bowie, T Rex etc. In his first few weeks he found himself making tea and running errands for sessions with acts such as Queen, Elton John, Supertramp and Ace, with producers Roy Thomas Baker, Ken Scott and Gus Dudgeon.

After six months of gruelling work as one of Trident’s tea boys, Stephen was promoted to become a tape op (assistant engineer). He assisted on sessions with T Rex, Cockney Rebel, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Shakti, The Spiders From Mars, Chick Corea, Brand X, and many others. He developed close working relationships with producers Dennis MacKay and Robin Lumley in particular.

After eighteen months of non-stop work as an assistant, Stephen was asked to step in as engineer on a recording session, due to the illness of one of his seniors. This proved to be a baptism by fire, as the session required a single to be completely re-recorded and mixed from scratch in just three hours for a spot on Top of the Pops. After completing this task, relatively successfully, Stephen became one of Trident’s engineers.

As a recording and mixing engineer he worked on albums with Tommy Bolin,^[1] Bill Bruford, UK, Rod Argent, Claude Francois, Brand X and Peter Gabriel along with many others. After two years he had moved up the ladder and was appointed Trident's Chief Engineer. As the climate changed from fusion, progressive rock and pop to the late seventies disco boom, Stephen found himself helping to shape the European disco sound, with the relentless ‘in your face’ four to the floor bass drum sound. It all became too formulaic, and Stephen decided to move on to new challenges.

The Eighties

Shortly after this he was introduced again to producer Rupert Hine, with whom he had worked as an assistant and an occasional engineer at Trident. He opted to become a freelance, which was rare in those days. He started to work with Rupert at Farmyard Studios, recording, mixing, co-producing and playing on Rupert’s solo projects (five albums), and going on to work with him as his recording and mixing engineer on albums for The Fixx (four albums), Chris de Burgh (two albums), Saga (two albums), Howard Jones (three albums ^[2]), Tina Turner (tracks on two albums), Jonah Lewie, Thompson Twins, The Waterboys, Underworld and Bob Geldof.

Stephen also worked at Farmyard Studios with The Lords of the New Church, Jethro Tull, Trooper, Frozen Ghost, David Wilcox with producer Sadia Sadia, Honeymoon Suite, The Proclaimers, Judie Tzuke and T’Pau, as well as many others.

Stephen and Rupert began to travel internationally in the late eighties, and began working with artists such as Stevie Nicks in the USA and Rush ^[3] in Canada.

The Nineties

In 1990 he travelled around the world together with Rupert Hine for the BBC production ‘One World One Voice’ which recorded and filmed over 400 musicians on location. By stretching the studio technology of the day to the absolute limit, Stephen helped create a musical collage for the one hour TV special, directed by Kevin Godley. The artists included Sting, Lou Reed, Dave Stewart, Suzanne Vega, Chrissie Hynde, Joe Strummer, The Kodo Drummers, Leningrad Symphony Orchestra, Wayne Shorter, Salif Keita, Eddy Grant, the list goes on..... It was a gruelling task, but the results, both visually and musically, were extremely rewarding. The show, with its ecological themes, and a behind the scenes documentary were broadcast simultaneously to a television audience of a third of a billion viewers. During the nineties Stephen continued working on many productions, notably with Duncan Sheik on his debut album, which produced the hit single ‘Barely Breathing’, recordings with Milla Jovovich, Katey Sagal, and further albums with Bob Geldof ^[4][5] and Rush.^[6] He began to work extensively in Europe with such acts as Eric Serra, Les Negresses Vertes,^[7] Noa (Achinoam Nini), Claudio Baglioni and Renato Zero. With musical/production collaborator Sadia Sadia he formed the world music fusion outfit ‘Equa’ which has since written, performed and recorded for CDs, film soundtracks, ballet and installations.

2000 onwards

The year 2000 saw Stephen teaming up again with Rupert Hine to work on the album Songs in Red and Gray by Suzanne Vega, which was recorded and mixed in New York at The Looking Glass, the studio owned by Philip Glass. 2002 saw Stephen working alongside producer Andy Ross ^[8] to mix the severely underrated album Open Heart Zoo by the 17 year old Martin Grech. In 2003 Rupert and Stephen recorded the stunning debut album "Poetry and Aeroplanes" by singer-songwriter Teitur in Spain and Los Angeles.

A somewhat extraordinary set of events drew Stephen and Sadia Sadia together with renowned glass-maker ^[9] and experimental filmmaker Anthony Stern in 2003 that resulted in the creating of the short film "The Noon Gun", which featured at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2004. Since then Stephen has immersed himself in the world of film/video arts and post-production as a composer, sound designer, music mixer and editor. His compositions contain acoustic, electronic, ambient and abstract elements, and range from conventional music forms to pure soundscapes. He has contributed audio and visual work to many DVD projects for Howard Jones, and also designed the interactive graphics for the stage display at Howard’s 2010 ‘Human’s Lib/Dream Into Action’ show ^[10] at the IndigO2 in London. These visuals have since been used for Howard's US, Japan and UK tours.

Tayler mixed most of the tracks for Kate Bush's 2011 release 'Director's Cut', which entered the UK charts at No. 2.

He is also responsible for all of the mixing (and some of the recording) for Kate’s latest album '50 Words for Snow’.^[11] Comprising seven new tracks with a running time of over an hour, the album includes contributions from Elton John, Andy Fairweather Low, Stephen Fry and Steve Gadd, among many.

'Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)' 2012 REMIX by Kate Bush was mixed by Stephen and featured in the London 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony.

2012 sees Tayler releasing an album of original compositions under the title 'Ostinato'. This set of nine pieces is based on Tayler's experiences, memories and travels, and feature his musical performances and sound design. Released 22 October 2012.

November 2013 sees Tayler once again teaming up with Howard Jones for his 30th Anniversary Concerts. Jones asked Tayler to create and direct the visual elements for a new work entitled 'ENGAGE!' featuring seven new pieces. They developed the works in tandem, incorporating filmed dance, animations and visualisations. At the concerts the visuals were projected onto a Kabuki Drop in front of the musicians, and the audience was encouraged to participate by displaying specific apps on their mobile devices at specific points in the show.

Selected Discography

The Seventies

The Eighties

The Nineties

2000 onwards

Film, Postproduction, Sound and Visual Art Installations

• "Live Salt Lake City" - Howard Jones in concert - sound mixer, co-editor, DVD author (2003)
• "The Noon Gun" ^[15] - a film by Anthony Stern - composer, sound mixer/designer, co-editor (2003)
• "The Memory of Water part one" ^[16] - an installation by Sadia Sadia - composer, sound mixer/designer (2004)
• "20th Anniversary Concert" ^[17] - Howard Jones in concert - camera, sound mixer, co-editor, DVD author (2005)
• "Piano Solos 2" - audio DVD by Howard Jones - DVD author (2006)
• "Revolution:Remixed and Surrounded" - Howard Jones - remixer, visual artist, DVD author (2006)
• "Iggy the Eskimo Girl" ^[18] - a film by Anthony Stern - sound mixer/designer, co-editor (2008)
• "The End of the Party: Hyde Park ‘69" ^[19] - a film by Anthony Stern - sound mixer/designer, co-editor (2008)
• "San Francisco redux No. 1" ^[20] - a film by Anthony Stern/Sadia Sadia/Stephen W Tayler - co-director, co-editor, composition, sound mixer/designer (2008)
• "Baby Baby", "Nothing to do with Me", "Serendipity". "Wheel", "Ted Berrigan", "San Francisco" ^[21] - films by Anthony Stern - audio restoration, picture restoration (2008)
• "The Scar Crow" ^[22] - a film by Andy Thompson - sound mixer/designer (2009)
• "Noise: Ghosts of Noise" - an installation by Sadia Sadia - sound mixer/designer (2009)
• "Human’s Lib/Dream Into Action Concert Tour" - Howard Jones - concert visuals for 26 songs (2010-2012)
• "Metamorphoses in ‘A’ Minor" - a film/installation by Sadia Sadia - composer, sound mixer/designer (2011)
• "30th Anniversary Concert" - Howard Jones - created and directed visuals and filmed works for the mixed media piece 'ENGAGE!' and 10 other songs (2013)

Trivia

In 1989, fifteen years after starting his career in the music business, Stephen did something he had never done before or since. He picked up a hitch-hiker. After chatting for an hour, Stephen discovered that this man had been a tea boy at Trident Studios, but had been fired for being late on the morning of 4 August 1974. That was the day that Stephen walked in off the street and was hired.

One afternoon in 1976, after Stephen had just finished a gruelling 18 hour session as a lowly assistant engineer, he was patiently waiting in reception at the studio for his cab to go home. Suddenly, the studio manager, in a complete panic, announced that one of his engineers had been taken ill. Stephen was told he had to replace the engineer for the session. The studio manager told him not to worry, since it was a simple job, "only" another 3 hours work. It was a session to record and mix a song for the BBC TV show ‘Tops of the Pops’. The BBC and the Musicians’ Union had a statutory requirement that the backing tracks for the show be recorded from scratch.

Now, what this would normally mean is that the band would turn up at the studio, along with the backing track tape that they had run off when they mixed their single. While the band might go through the motions of playing the song, most of the time they would just sit around, eating biscuits and drinking tea, for three hours. Having gone through the motions of compliance, they would then run off a quick copy of the backing tape, pay for the three hours’ studio time, and head out the door.

So, apparently, nothing to worry about for the young and inexperienced tape operator/assistant engineer Stephen.

But this time it was different....

On this occasion a representative of the Musicians’ Union came along to make sure things were done properly. NO chance of just swapping the tape. The song had to be performed by the band, and recorded and mixed properly.

Stephen gritted his teeth, downed a strong coffee, and did the job under the scrutiny of the band, producer, record company, and the MU.

It was bit touch and go, but the job was completed. The song ‘Why Did You Do It?’ was performed by the band ‘Stretch’ on Tops of the Pops the very next day.

Having completed his very first ‘proper’ session, and his baptism by fire, Stephen was consequently promoted to become one of Trident’s house engineers.

One of Stephen’s earliest mixes in 1976 was the breakthrough hit "5.7.0.5" for British band City Boy.

The single was also the record producer Mutt Lange’s (Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, Maroon 5) first hit single outside his homeland of South Africa.

Stephen recorded and mixed two of the songs on Tina Turner’s 1984 ‘Private Dancer’ album, including the Grammy Award winning ‘Better Be Good To Me’. The album was recorded by several different production teams simultaneously over a very short period of time. The album notes have a very comprehensive list of writers, musicians, producers and engineers for each of the songs, yet somehow Stephen’s recording and mixing credits were absent for the 2 songs he worked on, and no engineer is listed.

The album has sold in excess of 20 Million copies worldwide.

In 1987 Stephen mixed 'Running Up That Hill' by Kate Bush featuring David Gilmour for the video of The Secret Policeman's Third Ball. 25 years later he remixed the new version of the song featured at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony

References

External links

• Chimera Arts Official website for Stephen W Tayler, Equa and The Noon Gun
• IMDb Entry Stephen W Tayler
• Audio Samples a selection of Stephen and Equa's work

Persondata
Name	Tayler, Stephen W
Alternative names
Short description	British record producer
Date of birth	1953
Place of birth	Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
Date of death
Place of death