FAMA speaks to
Chris Taylor
ARTIST, MUSICIAN, ALL ROUND CREATIVE GUY | AMSTERDAM
When we started FAMA, we figured if we searched hard enough, we'd be lucky to meet a few perfect candidates, and hopefully inspire a bunch more. We weren't prepared for just how many incredibly talented people we'd run into, all without even trying.
Like the super talented Chris Taylor. The dude's a veritable creative machine. There's pretty much nothing he can't do. He illustrates. He animates. He makes music. He shoots music videos. He paints. He designs. He directs...
"When I joined Wieden & Kennedy from Vice, they made me a copywriter and gave me an art director," he tells us, a big smile plastered across his face. Guess they had to pigeon hole him in somewhere; even a super creative agency like WK couldn't really be handing out designations like 'Creative Everything' to their staff, which is how Chris sees himself.
We meet him at his apartment in Amsterdam; he's dressed for the occasion: wearing shorts and a jumper and looking like he's just rolled out of bed. It immediately sets the tone for the interview and makes us feel right at home.
We talk briefly about his work. He jumps from one project to the next, without any particular order, suddenly remembering a music video he did for Vice's resident band, Black Lips, and then the movie credits he's designed for an Indie film.
He hits us with names, places and other facts that we know we're not going to remember, and not just because of the wine we're knocking back and the spliffs we're peppering it with. There are simply too many.
He tells us he wants to make a zombie film. We tell him we've written a script for one and promise to send it to him.
About an hour into it, he decides to show us his music station. "This is a Euro Rack," he proclaims, pointing at a monstrous set up with a plethora of wires jutting in and out of it. He goes on to explain how it works, in full technical detail, even giving us a demonstration.
Perhaps it's the wine, or the weed, or that Chris is just one cool cat... whatever the reason, we spend the next few hours jamming to music in the man's living room. He does most of the work, while we bang on things to supply the percussion to his sounds.
It's so much fun, we completely lose track of time and before we know it, it's almost midnight. "I suppose all good things have to end sometime," he says with a sigh as we prepare to leave. We didn't feel like leaving either.
He gives us a copy of his newly produced record, Spooky. "I wanted to make an album that sounded like the really good stoner rock I grew up listening to," he tells us.
He's made fifty copies that he plans to send out to the music fraternity. He's going to shoot a music video in his own inimitable style for the hit song on the album.
We've got that tune stuck in our heads as we leave his apartment and cycle back. The man's got a mega hit on his hands if our bopping heads are anything to go by.
Chris Taylor