Roland Stephen Taylor (born December 9, 1957), is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and film director.
Biography
Early life
Taylor, the eldest of three children, was born in Brawley, California. Taylor's father, Roland Taylor, was a Baptist minister. When Taylor was six years old, the family relocated to Northglenn, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. He graduated from Northglenn High School in 1976. While there, he attempted to learn the bass guitar, piano and trombone.
Upon graduation from high school, Taylor enrolled at Biola University in California. During his freshman year, he was first of the 100 chosen, from 20,000 applicants, to spend the summer at John Davidson's summer camp. At the camp, Taylor spent time learning from singers like Tony Orlando, Florence Henderson, and John Davidson. Also that year, Taylor heard one of his biggest influences, The Clash's London Calling. "It saved my life, musically," said Taylor.
Taylor returned home and enrolled at the University of Colorado at Boulder, to study "serious music". He graduated there in 1980, but described his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music and Theater as being worth "slightly more than the cash value of a Pizza Hut coupon."
1980s
In 1980, Taylor wrote and directed a pop musical comedy titled Nothing To Lose based on the story of the prodigal son from the Bible. It had a short run at a community theater in Denver. He also wrote and starred in a short film, Joe's Distributing, a parody of avant-garde films.
Taylor wrote articles during this time that were published in the Wittenburg Door and Contemporary Christian Music magazine (for which he won an award from the Evangelical Press Association).
After recording a demo of original songs, Taylor began to write for the musical group The Continentals.[1] The Continentals' founder, Cam Floria invited Taylor to join the group on a tour of Poland sponsored by Solidarity.
When he returned to the United States, he was asked to perform at the Christian Artists' 1982 Music Seminar in Denver. Billy Ray Hearn, president of Sparrow Records, was backstage and immediately signed Taylor to a recording contract.
He recorded his debut solo project I Want To Be A Clone in 1982 and released it in January, 1983. He quickly gained a reputation for writing satirical songs that mocked beliefs, practices, or people that he disagreed with.
In 1983, Taylor recorded his first full length album. Released in 1984, Meltdown included some of the demo material that was not on Clone along with some new material. His video single of the title track, "Meltdown (at Madame Tussaud's)" was played on MTV, which was unusual for a Christian artist at the time. The video featured an appearance by actress Lisa Whelchel. The album also included "We Don't Need No Colour Code", which was critical of Bob Jones University and its anti-interracial dating policy. Bob Jones University abandoned this policy in 2000.
("Guilty By Association", one of the recycled demo songs, includes a jab, with an impression in the middle eight, at televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. The song On the Fritz was also targeted at him. Swaggart struck back later by devoting part of a chapter of Religious Rock 'N' Roll, a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (ISBN 0-935113-05-3) to Taylor, whom he saw as playing evil rock music.)[2]
During a performance at 1984's Cornerstone Festival, Taylor broke his ankle while jumping off the stage. He finished the rest of the summer's tour in an electric wheelchair.[3]
Taylor followed that release with On The Fritz, produced by Foreigner's Ian McDonald. Fritz was Taylor's first album to use all studio musicians instead of his usual backing group. Some of the musicians who played on this album were Tony DaVilio, Hugh McCracken, Carmine Rojas, Larry Fast and Allen Childs. Fritz, keeping with Taylor tradition, took aim once again at religious leaders, such as Bill Gothard[4] ("I Manipulate"), greedy TV evangelists (again) ("You Don't Owe Me Nothing"), politicians using religion or avoiding questions of morality in order to get votes ("It's A Personal Thing"), and public schools teaching "values clarification" to children, asking them to determine who should be thrown overboard in an overcrowded lifeboat ("Lifeboat").
In 1985, Steve received his first Grammy nomination in the "Best Male Gospel Performance" category, while also being nominated for Dove Awards as "Gospel Artist of the Year" and for "Meltdown" as the "Best Contemporary Album of the Year". Taylor and "Some Band" performed at the Dove Awards ceremonies in Nashville in April of that year, where they were introduced by Pat Boone.
Taylor also recorded a duet with Sheila Walsh, Not Gonna Fall Away. This was released as a 12" single titled Transatlantic Remixes. Taylor and Walsh embarked on the "Transatlantic Tour" which included dates in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Taylor and Walsh also participated in the recording of Do Something Now, a collaborative effort, similar to "We Are The World", to raise money for Compassion International's famine relief programs in Africa. Other artists participating included Amy Grant, Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, Mylon LeFevre, Steve Camp, Evie, Phil Keaggy, Second Chapter of Acts, Sandi Patti, Bill Gaither, and Rick Cua.
In between performing, recording and touring, Taylor met and married his wife, Debbie Butler of Irvine, California. They were married by Taylor's father at a private ceremony in Connecticut. Mrs. Taylor designed the album cover for a compilation on Sparrow, The Best We Could Find (Plus 3 That Never Escaped), as well as some of Taylor's more colorful stage costumes.
In 1987, Taylor once again lived up to his controversial reputation with a song called "I Blew Up The Clinic Real Good". The song criticizes anyone who claims to be a pro-life activist who would blow up abortion clinics or kill doctors. Unfortunately, the point of the song was lost on many and resulted in Taylor's album, I Predict 1990, being pulled from the shelves at some Christian record stores. Taylor himself would occasionally call those stores to explain the song to them.[5] With 1990, Taylor's targets included mainstream Universities ("Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel A Lot Better", featuring fiddle work from Papa John Creech of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna). Other tracks included "Jim Morrison's Grave", which once again brought Taylor some MTV exposure, and the Flannery O'Connor inspired "Harder to Believe Than Not To". Some stores also pulled the album as they thought the cover looked like a Tarot Card.[5]
Taylor's tour for "I Predict" was his most ambitious to date, bringing him to Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Sweden and the Philippines.
1990s
Taylor then took a break from music, until 1990 when he returned as the lead singer of Chagall Guevara. Their first recording was "Tale o'the Twister," which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume. The band released their only album, the self titled Chagall Guevara, in 1991 on MCA records. A follow-up album was begun, but not finished before the band was released from its contract, following slow sales for their debut.
Taylor returned with another solo album, Squint, and a live CD, Liver, in the mid-1990's. Squint included the track "Smug", which mocks Rush Limbaugh and Barbra Streisand as ironic masters of smugness. The album also included the song "Cash Cow", which takes a jab at yet another televangelist, Robert Tilton.
A tribute to Taylor entitled I Predict A Clone was released in 1994 that featured performances by Sixpence None the Richer, Fleming and John, Starflyer 59 and others.
In the years following those releases, Taylor focused his efforts on running Squint Entertainment and producing projects for other artists, including Sixpence None the Richer's self titled 1997 release that featured the hit singles "Kiss Me" and a cover of The La's "There She Goes". He would be most noted for his work with Newsboys. Squint Entertainment lost its financial backing in 2001 and Taylor was forced out of the company.
2000s
Taylor is currently working full time as a film maker and has directed music videos for Fleming and John, Rich Mullins, Sixpence None the Richer, Newsboys, Guardian, Twila Paris, Dakoda Motor Co., Out of the Grey, and two video albums for himself.[6] While still running Squint, Taylor had begun work on a film project called St. Gimp, co-written with Ben Pearson and Willie Williams. That film was abandoned with the company. He co-wrote and directed the feature film The Second Chance starring Michael W. Smith, released February 17, 2006. He also directed the Newsboys movie Down Under The Big Top in which the band stars.
Taylor appears in the documentary film Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music? (released on DVD in 2006), in interview segments and performing part of "We Don't Need No Colour Code".
In 2007, Taylor recorded one track for the VeggieTales movie The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, "Yo Ho Heroes".
Taylor is currently working on an adaptation of Donald Miller's book, Blue Like Jazz, though a release date has not been announced.
Discography
Solo work
Live Albums
- Limelight, 1986 live album
- Liver, 1995 live album
Compilations
- The Best We Could Find (+3 That Never Escaped), 1988 album
- Christmas, 1988 album (one track by Taylor)
- Now The Truth Can Be Told, 1994 two-disc box set
- Roaring Lambs Various Artists, 2000 compilation (one track by Taylor)
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Soundtrack (One Track by Taylor)
With Chagall Guevara
Video Collections
- Videoworks, 1985 video collection
- Limelight, 1986 live video
- I Predict 1990: The Video Album, 1987 video collection
- Squint: Movies From the Soundtrack, 1993 video collection
- Now The Truth Can Be Told, 1994 video collection
Filmography
References
External links
