Interview: Mr. Graeme Taylor Guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and arranger (ex-member of Gryphon).
Greetings Graeme, I appreciate you taking the time to reply to this e-mail interview.
Your musical beginnings- What was your biggest influence at the beginning of your music career? What was your first instrument? Your first band?
Definitely The Beatles, from age 8, who led me and my generation into most other stuff.
I played the piano for about six months before my grandmother bought me a cheap and not very cheerful guitar for Christmas when I was 11. I loved it though!
My first band was called Cherry Wood, named after a local green place, comprising three to four people, writing long rambling, somewhat psychedelic material, heavily influenced by the Incredible String Band.
Please describe the typical fashion you go about composing a Graeme Taylor song.
Sit down with usually acoustic guitar, play around, try to invent new tuning, or just try to come across a new sequence of notes that I don’t recognize from anything prior, struggle physically to be able to keep up with the stream of mental ideas…
You made an international name for yourself in the unique medieval/folk-prog band (for lack of a better category) Gryphon. How did the band form? Any `road bumps’ along the way in creating such a unique ensemble?
Richard & Brian were doing small gigs with a lutenist, Christopher Wilson as a rather more authentic Elizabethan/Medieval trio. Chris left to pursue a solo career, and I was asked to join them, not exactly to replace Chris, as I had no specialist knowledge in that area of music. At the time I was earning £9.50 per week for 40 hours work at Decca Navigator Being rather anarchic at the time, I much enjoyed ignoring the boundaries and helped us develop into more of a hybrid/eclectic unit with a strong sense of humour, which led us to recruit a rock drummer, Dave Oberlé, to complete the line-up.
Though I love all the albums, Midnight Mushrumps is my favorite Gryphon disc. Which album is your favorite and why?
Well, the first certainly brings back nostalgic memories of working in Adam Skeaping’s loft with his wonderfully Heath Robinson set-up. There are some great “stream of consciousness” moments on Red Queen, but they’re very inventive and original.
Was a Gryphon concert or gig ever filmed?
To my knowledge, strangely and sadly, no.
After the first two albums… the band changed directions on `Red Queen to Gryphon Three.’ Can you recall the thoughts of expanding to a greater use of modern sounds as well as creating a total instrumental album?
It was a natural development to want to use a larger palette of sound, I always wanted to play electric guitar – bending strings was a favourite pastime. As far as the instrumental album was concerned, none of us was really a particularly good singer, and the instrumental ideas flowed so readily.
Why did you leave the band after `Raindances?’ Do you keep in touch With Brian, Richard, Dave, etc.?
I felt Gryphon had had its day, and also there were “musical differences”. I went off with Malcolm Bennett, the bass player at the time, with the pipedream of forming a British Beat Combo with the improvisational freedom of The Dead (it didn’t really work out, although we played some great gigs and this certainly was an important time for me to experience playing electric). I found solace playing with John B. Spencer, and another great Rhythm & Blues band, The London Apaches. About nine months later I was offered the job in the Albion Dance Band, which I accepted whilst continuing with the other projects. Yes, we are all still in touch, in fact we had a reunion curry last year.
Okay, a variation on the classic deserted island question- You can only have Three CD albums, one type of food, one magazine, one type of drink, one book, one movie and one type of pet on this deserted island- what would you bring and why?
Only 3 CDs, oh my God, that’s hard.
1. Dr. John Mac plays Rebennack, to cheer me up and get me leaping about.
2. The Kate & Anna McGarrigle album with ‘Talk to me of Mendocino’ and ‘My Town’ on it, to cry to.
3. Europe 72 – The Grateful Dead, to dream to.
Food – A Punjabi dish, Palak Gosht, with endless supply of parathas.
Magazine – something like “Word”, although one copy of any magazine would get pretty boring.
Drink – a Southern French full red wine, such as Corbières.
Book – James Joyce’s “Ulysees”.
Movie – The Band’s “The Last Waltz”.
Pet – My dog, Bill.
You have recently created a music studio. Can you discuss this please? What equipment are you using?
Yes, gladly. The studio is very much my consuming passion at present. I started in a small way about ten years ago, having become rather adept at the Mac and particularly fond of playing around with it. I got hold Cubase and a Yamaha 01V desk, a couple of mics, and away I went. Soon I moved on to Pro Tools, building up more outboard gear until I’d outgrown the spare bedroom and in the summer of 2002, my dear wife agreed to the proposition of a loft conversion for the express purpose of accommodating the rapidly expanding studio facilities. All my instruments are ready to hand, and customers coming in to record invariably request me to add some musical contribution to their work. For a full rundown of the equipment, please see my website: www.gt@graemetaylor.com
You have done a lot of work with many bands and musician’s such as Ashley Hutchings, The Albion Band, Rolf Harris and Martin Young. Please describe the work and experiences with these performers. Do you prefer working in one band or the diversity with many?
Ashley gave me a nice break, while I was drifting somewhat after leaving Gryphon, and we had some great experiences including the brilliant shows with Bill Bryden at the National Theatre. And of course, my associations with John Tams and Michael Gregory are still thriving today.
Working with Rolf has always been tremendous fun – he’s one of the most well known people in this country, so you can’t go anywhere with him without attracting the crowds. He’s also very funny and extremely talented in so many areas: a truly great entertainer.
I’ve hardly ever been in more than two bands at any one time, and I do enjoy the diversity I’ve so lucky to have experienced.
A lot of proggers might not know `The Greenhouse Band,’ can you elaborate on this project?
This is a current project I am involved in with Greg, the ex-Albion drummer, singer/actress Madeleine Worrall, Neil McArthur, keyboard/writer. We are recording the band’s exploratory second album in my studio, the first having been mostly covers of trad material in a Pentangle-type style. This time the material is largely newly-written by members of the band, with a lot more emphasis on creative production. Look out for it!
How did you like your experiences pertaining to your role of musical director, arranger and writer of additional music for the National Theatre?
I loved the responsibility and scope for freedom with my arranging and writing, and the instant gratification of hearing great musicians ripping into the stuff.
You have so many exciting things going on. Please give us a sneak peak on your new project with Greg and Jon Davie and Anthony Ingle. What’s this album all about?
Anthony played with the Albions on an Italian tour just before the band metamorphosed into the Home Service in ’81, and there a certain wild spirit within the band (which can be witnessed on one of Ashley’s ‘Guvnor’ albums, I think, the third. Anthony always cherished this memory, and came to me last year with the idea of trying to recapture that spirit of abandon and romp that permeated our versions of simple unashamed folk-rock in those days. So we tried to record most of Anthony’s clever arrangements as live and old-fashioned as possible. It’s approaching completion and I think it’s turned out rather well. I will try to get around to putting some sound clips from these projects on my website soon.
Your daughter- Clare, leads the orchestra at York University, and has won a place at Trinity College for next year. You two are collaborating on what your website says: ` some very interesting music.’ Can you discuss this?
This was a project for her last year at University. She wrote and recorded a batch of songs giving me parts that she had written for them. Her classical influences merge with her love of folk and pop in a most interesting way.
Lastly, the one question that you probably get asked a lot. Will there EVER be a Gryphon reunion?
Martin Lewis, our tireless erstwhile publicist from Transatlantic Records is desperately trying to make a gig happen to coincide with the release of the last piece of archive material, a 1974 concert at the Old Vic in London, but there is no solid information as yet. If we do one gig, we’ll probably do more, having put considerable time into rehearsing up a set.
Thank you so much for this interview, Graeme. Keep on creating amazing and diverse music. Best Wishes and thank you for sharing your answers and thoughts.
