Are you looking to pursue a career in music?
I planned on studying music, but radio is really the closest thing. If I`m not a musician, I want to be in record production. Radio production is the closest thing they offered and I`ll have something to fall back on.
How long have you been playing and how long professionally?
I`ve been playing since my thirteenth birthday so I`ve been playing about five years now. I starting playing out at all the blues clubs when I was 16. I was playing guitar for a blues band. I just kind of started doing my own thing slowly but surely. I started doing one song, and then two songs and I decided it was working so I might as well try it.
When I first met you, you didn`t sing much.
What have you done to develop your voice?
Really it`s that I didn`t want to be a guitar player that sings. If I couldn`t sing as well as I played guitar, I didn`t want to do it. I wanted to be equal at both. It`s more of a confidence thing. I knew physically I could do it, but I didn`t know mentally that I could do it. I worked on it constantly, sitting in the car, (a little chuckle) that was the best way. I did take some voice lessons, but not very many, just to make sure that I was doing everything right and didn`t hurt myself. (Another little chuckle.) There are certain ways to breath and stand, that kind of stuff. I thought I knew but it taught me a lot of tricks, like how to expand my range.
You`ve developed more than just your voice.
It`s evident in your stage presence.
You get more comfortable. It`s to the point now that it doesn`t bother me at all. I love it.
So you`re really enjoying it?
It really keeps us going. Writing songs is great but performing is the really fun part.
You told me that David Grissom is helping you work
on your CD.
He has been. It`s been a slow process. It turned into something more than just a demo that we wanted to put out to clubs. We recorded something like eight songs or something. Two of them were originals and the rest were covers by different guys. But then we put down the originals, but not the other songs. The originals were pretty good and they said, “We like the way you play them better than the way you play your covers so why don`t you just do a CD?” It was originally going to be a three-
How would you describe your music?
I`d say we are part rock band and there`s definitely a blues influence. I consider it more like Limp Biskit, those kinds of bands, the new rock. I consider rock to be like Led Zeppelin, Tom Pettyish. It`s a rock band with blues and country influences. Some influence of pop music. I listen to so many different kinds of music that it`s hard to keep any of it out of it.
Do you have a favorite?
Do I? Oooh. I can`t really say I do. Everything from Blues to Bluegrass I listen to on a daily basis. When I`m out driving around, I might put a Don McCory CD in and then an Albert King the next. I listen to everything cause there are so many different kinds of music that are great. You take that influence and interpret in your own way; you get some pretty cool stuff. It gives you ideas. I`m not saying I want to start a Bluegrass band or anything, God knows. It`s the emotion they put into it that you learn from as a musician.
Those of us who have been watching Taylor Williams over the past two years are witnessing a transitioning young guitarist mature as he develops his own style. He began playing blues clubs when he was 16 years old and today at 18 years of age he is playing local bars and has two endorsements, Fulton-Webb Guitar Amplifiers and Bourgeois Acoustic Guitars. During his short career, he has developed a following and a great rapport with his fans. He is working on his first CD, which is being produced by David Grissom, formerly with
Storyville. Music is his life but he is also a dedicated freshman at TCU studying radio, TV and film. Evident in this interview, we can look forward to an ambitious music career in Taylor`s life.
