Courtney Taylor-Taylor

Courtney Taylor-Taylor

Courtney Taylor-Taylor performing live with The Dandy Warhols in 2003
Background information
Birth name Courtney Taylor
Born July 20, 1967
Origin Portland, Oregon, United States
Genres Alternative rock
Instruments Vocals, guitar, drums
Associated acts The Dandy Warhols, The Beauty Stab, Nero's Rome, One Model Nation

Courtney A. Taylor (born 20 July 1967), known as Courtney Taylor-Taylor, is an American singer-songwriter from Portland, Oregon. He is the lead singer and guitarist of alternative rock band The Dandy Warhols, a band he co-founded. The majority of the band's songs are written by Taylor-Taylor, including hits "We Used to Be Friends" and "Bohemian Like You".[1]

Taylor-Taylor co-wrote a graphic novel titled One Model Nation about a fictional 1970s German krautrock band, which was released in 2009.[2] This was accompanied by a studio album titled Totalwerks, Vol. 1 (1969-1977), a fake greatest hits album by the fictional band, released in 2012.

Early life and education

Taylor-Taylor attended Sunset High School in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland and studied sociology, psychology and music at Cascade College, also in Portland. He recalls sticking out as a teenager: "You don't fit in if you're a make-up-wearing weirdo, surrounded by large, clumsy guys and cheerleaders".[3] He found refuge in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Kurt Vonnegut.[3] It was here he met future bandmate Peter Holmström.

After graduating, Taylor-Taylor worked as a mechanic while playing drums for the local band Nero's Rome.[3] He was also the drummer in the Portland-based glam rock-pop band The Beauty Stab.[4]

Career

Music career

Taylor-Taylor appears in and narrates the film Dig!, a documentary about the relationship between his band The Dandy Warhols and sometime friends/rivals The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Non-music career

Taylor-Taylor appeared in an episode of the second season of the TV show Veronica Mars, "Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang", performing the song "Love Hurts".[5] He appeared in the 2009 music documentary film The Heart Is a Drum Machine[6] as well as a 2011 episode of the Australian music quiz television show Spicks and Specks.[7]

Taylor-Taylor was one of the contributors to the book Sex Tips from Rock Stars by Paul Miles, published by Omnibus Press in July 2010.[8]

Personal life

Taylor-Taylor informally added the second "Taylor" to his last name around 1999. On the issue of his double-barrelled surname, Taylor-Taylor has said, "There have been so many wonderful explanations that I would hate to stop that by addressing it. It's wonderfully silly and fun so let's keep it that way".[9] However, Taylor-Taylor has said that "I was just tripping on the 'my parents are still married' thing. Basically, when my friend Gina Williams started dating my other friend Kevin Williams, they decided to hyphenate their names. So she started calling herself Gina Williams-Williams and then I became Courtney Taylor-Taylor".[10]

Like his cousin and bandmate Brent DeBoer,[11][12] Taylor-Taylor is of Dutch ancestry.[13][14]

As the chief songwriter for "Bohemian Like You", Taylor-Taylor earned approximately 1.5 million US dollars in royalties for Vodafone's usage of the song; with part of these earnings, he purchased a quarter of a city block and turned it into a complex with space for recording, film editing, and web design.[15]

On December 22, 2007, Taylor-Taylor married long-time girlfriend Lockett Albritton at the Columbia Gorge Hotel in Hood River, Oregon.[16][17][18] Lockett is a yoga practitioner and instructor.[19] On February 1, 2010, Lockett gave birth to their first child, a son, Ajax.[20][21]

References

  1. ↑ "BMI". bmi.com. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  2. ↑ Amorosi, A.D. "Q&A with The Dandy Warhols' Courtney Taylor-Taylor". Magnet.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Diaz, Silva (16 May 2003). "Fast And Louche". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Clarke, SP (2011). "History of Portland Rock 7 : spclarke.com". spclarke.com. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  5. ↑ "Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang". Veronica Mars. Season 2. Episode 3. 12 October 2005. CBS.
  6. ↑ "Courtney Taylor-Taylor - IMDb". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  7. ↑ "Episode Eleven". Spicks and Specks. 20 July 2011. ABC.
  8. ↑ "Rock Stars". paul-miles.com. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  9. ↑ "Q&A with Courtney Taylor-Taylor from The Dandy Warhols". The Oregonian. 10 December 2010.
  10. ↑ Chan, Alvin (3 August 2008). "The Dandy Warhols". Music OMH.
  11. ↑ Krohn, Jef. "DeBoer. Himself". PDX Magazine.
  12. ↑ Scott-Travis, Shane (20 August 2013). "The Dandy Warhols: The Vivascene Interview". Vivascene.
  13. ↑ "The Dandy Warhols - A Hard Day's Night (live acoustic in SF) - YouTube". YouTube. 3 October 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  14. ↑ "Exclusive Preview: Courtney Taylor-Taylor's "One Model Nation" Pictures". Rolling Stone.
  15. ↑ Sullivan, Caroline (19 August 2005). "Just dandy". The Guardian.
  16. ↑ "The Day Auntie Lockett Allbritton Became Auntie Lockett Taylor". The Chase Is On. Blogspot. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  17. ↑ Allen, Dave (23 December 2007). "A Dandy Warhols Wedding". Pampelmoose.
  18. ↑ "A Dandy Warhols Wedding". PDX Pipeline. 24 December 2007.
  19. ↑ "Lockett Taylor Yoga". Lockett Taylor Yoga.
  20. ↑ Nedic, Dunja (27 October 2010). "Interview: Peter Holmstrom, the Dandy Warhols". Lip Magazine.
  21. ↑ "The Dandy Warhols". Faster Louder. 27 August 2010.

External links