The Music of Shane Taylor

Downloads from http://us.7digital.com/artist/shane-taylor/release/my-little-world

Go to the TOEJAM page for gig guide for the Covers Band, Duo or Shane's Solo performing dates.

I perform Solo playing a mixture of covers and my own music, idea for smaller functions to entertain with background music thru to modern rock covers using a bass/drum backing track to offer a full sound. School Gala's, 50th parties, cafes, market days etc

Or together with Andrew Hight we are Toejam Duo, rock to rock and roll covers Duo providing a full band sound for Pub gigs, weddings, birthday parties and private functions or cafes/smaller bars.

The third option is Toejam the 4 peice rock band...........visit the Toejam page using the tab on the side.

New album "My little World" available now

Welcome to my web site. You are listening to "My Little World" from the same titled album 2011, since age 11 in 1972 I have been writing and performing, I've recorded about 250 songs, sent out 100's of demo's, knocked on doors, but still no record label or stardom. I've lived in luxury and I've lived in Vans, for years I did music full time in NZ and Europe, like all working musicians and I have truely enjoyed the ride. I've been financing my own albums and selling them in my travels. Music is in my blood. I have a collection of recordings here from rough cassette 4 tracks to professional studio tracks. I believe all recordings should be one pass, no patch up's, the performance is what it is. I arrived back home from Europe in 1998 to New Zealand which has meant few live gigs being unknown when performing my own music so I play in a cover band as well and have a real day job now. NZ radio (except NZ National who are superb) all just play the proven Rock dull durge, we have a hand full of student radio and low output stations / streaming sites who offer some originatilty and NZ music. The internet has allowed us unknown singer songwriters to expose our music. Every download (or simply view) is someone listening to my music even if it is at an inferior quailty (see my views below on Mp3). The arrival of recording of music in the 1920's is the single biggest thing to ever happen to music. This firstly enabled musicians and performers to hear themselves but also transported music all around the world. I have a little shack studio (I even feature in "The kiwi Man Cave" book) out back with lots of old-school gear. No computers for me so when I get the urge a new track goes down. The digital age of the 80's with over correcting producers, pitch perfect and later Pro Tools certianly sucked the life out of so many recordings. But many musicians are aware of this now. I have a 6th album completed Nov 2011 along with Jean Smith. More simple tunes about my life and others around me.
I love guitars and I write songs with a story and a meaning. My one regret is not having other musicians (except Jean on vocals and my Brother in Australia) who like my music enough to want to contribute in the studio and be part of the music, recording as a band live is the only way to capture a performance, but I will soldier on doing everything myself because I have too get the songs down.
If you're got this far hopefully you might click into albums and have a listen. If you are a fellow musician all the best to you and hopefully you can send me a link to your music. I love NZ and the beautiful town of Te Aroha. Have a listen to "Mountain Love's you". I have two young kids so I'm hoping to pass on my love of music and amazing outdoors to them to explore here and around the world.
Thanks for visiting my site.
Cheers
Shane

The rewards of writing/recording my own music

Heres a quick list of the biggest buzz I get from my own music

• Driving into a petrol station in a strange town in the mid 90's to hear my album playing in the forecourt speakers
• hearing songs of mine on the radio (rarely)
• Way back in 1986 a friends mum said she was in tears on listening to a track that sparked personal emotions on my first album, this was the first time I had realised this reaction. A very special moment.
• having my kids recognise my music and get a buzz, and sing along knowng all the words.
• When performing live I always have a special connection with each song, and often do them completely differently.
• An American woman came up to me after I performed 'Nuclear Free" in Holland and told me that no one else in the world cares about New Zealands stand on Nuclear energy but I know she is wrong. I am very proud to have writen and performed that song many many times.

My Swing on MP3 compressed Music

I struggle to understand that intelligent people (some being music lovers) have bought into MP3 compressed music. Firstly I love the platform and concept of music on line to listen to new music to later source. This has opened up the door for musicians like myself, BUT when you do find some music you like how can you be satisfied with the quality of most downloads. Music has soul and touches the senses on lots of levels, Studio Master files are encoded at 24-bit or higher, and currently up to 192kHz, a CD is encoded at 16-bit (the bit depth) and at 44.1kHz, about 30% of the studio master quality and a 256KB further chopped MP3 file is about 5% of the original musicians work, at least vinyl gave us maybe 50% and didn't suffer the 0 and 1 digital conversion. Even the simple fact that people now choose not to listen to Albums in the track order (the musician slaved over those decisions) takes away the ebb and flow of the album playlist, the highs and lows and emotions created by the album. Having 2000 songs on your Iphone is nothing but inferior copies of the original works which can be OK for background listening or viewing songs but lifeless and souless to actually get the musicians message. Hosting sites can offer much higher res downloads if they choose to, so why don't they. Neil Young is one of few fighting to bring us better quality streaming and downloading and Vinyl has also made a huge comeback. Linn and a few other sites are beginning to offer Hi Res streaming and downloads.

I'm not indorsing expensive stereo systems but simply get the source information as good as it could be. In the 60's we strived for a good sound system and reproduction but around 1982 CD was the first major comprimise followed by somewhere in the mid 90's it was all thrown out the window for qantity over quality as the internet grew. Music touches the skin, makes you laugh or cry, it is a full experience and this is completely lost with compressed files. Stop and revisit your vinyl or CD, better still go live.

I read this quote in a book by "Dave Hunter" that sums it up pretty well:

Seemingly daily our lives are depleted of depth and dimension as new developments in the name of convenience and speed disguise a steady decline in pure quality.

My Influences

In the early 70's as a teenager I was awakened by early Elton John / Bernie Taupin Recordings, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, CSNY, The band, Jackson Brown, Clash, Joe Jackson, Jam, Harry Chapin and lots on NZ bands of the mid 70's and 80's, the famous Dunedin Sound, Chris Knox, Greg Johnston, Andrew Fagan, Shona Lang and sooooo many more. I now have huge vinyl collection and my favs are Ryan Adams, Wilco, Jouse Rosh, and many more amazing musician songwriters. I love Ska nd Reggae. My all time greatest respect goes out to Neil Young for his raw attitude and amazing songwriting and performances. His stand on recording "the performance" in the studio and recently his stand on inferior downloaded music. I have pretty much all his released LP's. Crazy Horse, Buffalo Springfield and all his other musicians / singers leave me tingling everytime. I am lost on fake recordings with multiple overdubs and butchering to cater to Radio (or now Itunes). "Be great or be gone" a phrase by Neil Young's late producer David Briggs who was an absolute purist when it came to extracting the performance from Neil Young and others shows his wounderful passion and perfection. There is still so much great new music to be heard. Old favourites are like memories but never stop listening to new music.

Jean Smith (pictured above) is currently writing and recording her album in my studio while adding her voice to a lot of my work. We also perform together as a duo.

Jean's debut album will be out in 2012

Click the Album Tag on the side of the page and then click on the Album covers to listen to all the tracks. Pictured below with Gary Philips (and Peter Helwig on percussion) playing at Roasted Adiqtion in Auckland shortly after the 2009 World we Created Album release.

Below is Jean Smith suffering the cold when we played an outdoor gig near Te Aroha mid Oct 2010.

Local Te Aroha Newspaper item 2009

This is Bella, she has been my faithful friend since 2002, she run everywhere with us while out mountain biking. Everyone knows her in TeAroha. She was a little put out when the kids came along but she has learnt to love them too.

Little Brother and me playing in Aussie April 2011, And here at Banco with Jean

At Banco Cafe TeAroha March 2013 with Greg Marshall, Magic and Chris on bass, The HAT Band

With Andrew Hight Toejam Duo