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About Sean Taylor and Taylorverse Music The Early Years Music has always been an
important part of my life. I can still remember playing "air band" to
my Uncle Roderick's 45s from the '70s and then graduating up to
creating pretend instruments out of household items (a few pots, pans,
and trash cans for a drum kit; tennis racquets for guitars, and well,
an actual child's organ for the keyboard). We hammed it up to the
music of the Clique, Five Man Electrical Band, and Three Dog Night
until I was finally able to request my own music (the first of which
were cassettes of Kiss Dynasty and REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity, and an LP of AC/DC's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap -- my preacher grandfather bought it for me -- for
the record).Eventually I moved up to real instruments and joined a few bands in high school (Paradox and Cornerstone) and college (Three Guys Looking for Percussion and an unnamed trio), and now I've settled into a more relaxing mode of playing for my church's band and writing and recording a mixture of electronic music and old-school rock and roll on my home computer and live modern rock with the band 22FIVE. The REIGN Years Between 1988 and 1992 I played bass in the Christian rock band, Reign. We had an '80s thing going big-time, and would have given our last dollar to be Toto or Van Halen (most of the time). We played mostly for churches at camps, youth events, or community event s, but we did have three big event gigs -- one
at IS Fest, during which we played the same stage as two of my faves,
Adam Again and the Choir, and two at Atlanta Fest, the Southeast's
biggest Christian music festival. We released one cassette called i of
the storm, and later began work on a second release, tentatively titled
Even in the Dry Season, but never finished it before the band broke up
in the early 90s. Our original line up included Matthew Carter on keys
and lead vox, Brett Allen on guitar and lead vox, Stephen Bagley on
drums and backing vox, and Sean Taylor on bass and backing vox. Later,
when Brett left the band, he was "replaced" (though he could never
really be replaced, you know) by Matthew's brother Rob Carter on guitar
and lead vox.Church on Time In the years after Reign broke up, I spent a lot of my time playing bass and signing in various church praise bands, and also helped form the first praise team for the North American Mission Board (where I was working at the time as the national director for Baptist Men On Mission). st:trax -- Going Digital Back in 2003, I released my first solo CD of "electronic-infused garage rock," Pop Nightmare, under the working name of st:trax and released the second, Dreaming and
Other Diversions, in 2006. What's it sound like? I like to think it sounds like
modern incidental music from shows like Alias and the like, but I'm
probably just dreaming. Maybe it's like the accident that would happen
if the Chemical Brothers smashed their bus into Van Halen or Nirvana.
Who knows? Just listen and find out for yourself. I'm currently putting together a 2-volume "best of" st:trax CD called Roktronica, which will also feature a few new songs.Nothing Regal Eventually I joined Lakeland Community Church and found a place on the praise team there, ultimately accepting a position as the Worship Director at the church. During that time, he hooked up with Jeff Gordon and the rest of the band and helped found Nothing Regal. Nothing Regal was the praise band for the church, but so much more. We also accepted
outside gigs and even in church sought to be more in the world but not
of it, mixing spiritual truth from songwriters like U2, Van Morrison
and Collective Soul into our worship sets. When the line-up stabilized, the band consisted of Jeff Gordon on vox, guitar, and
mandolin, Sean Taylor on vox, harmonica, guitar, and occasionally
bass when the situation necessitated it, Lee Henson on bass, Shawn
"Swami" Loud on lead guitar and backing vox, Derek Keel on lead guitar,
Carrie Eggers on keys, and Bill Rullan on drums. The band recorded
three Christmas CDs for the church and community and wrote more than 20
original praise and worship songs for the congregation, before changing
its name to Strawmakers and moving on to become a band outside
Lakeland's congregational services. I have since stepped down from
being worship director for Lakeland (but still play bass for the praise
team) and am focusing on my new band, 22FIVE.REIGN, Mach 2 (aka 22FIVE) In early 2009, I hooked up with Brett and Stephen from the Reign days through the
power of the Internet (Facebook to be exact, imagine that), and
22FIVE was born from the "Reign ashes." 22FIVE
has taken on a new musical growth beyond the power pop of Reign, and
has settled into a sort of heavy-progressive-modern-indie rock sound
with Stephen on drums and vox, Brett on guitar and vox, and Sean on
bass, keyboards, vox, harmonica and acoustic guitar. 22FIVE is
currently scheduling concert dates and recording a new CD to be called Taller Than Trees and booking
gigs.Blue Mercy Cafe
One of my newest musical projects is called Blue Mercy Cafe. That's a catch-all "band" name to include stuff I do both alone and with friends
that falls into
the acoustic, folksy, art-hymn vein. This project includes songs that
are more personal and very special to me: old hymns reworked with a
coffeehouse feel , cover songs that have meaning to particular points
in my life, and original songs about my understanding of the world
around me. I'm working to soon finish recording 12
songs, both originals and a few selected cover songs, for a CD I plan
to call Twelve Dirty Breadcrumbs, and after that perhaps CD full of reworked old hymns, to be tentatively called Solid. Instruments Okay, since you asked (or not), here's what I play:
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