Tax The Heat interview

As part of our continuing build up to this weekend’s Steelhouse Festival, PlanetMosh grabs a chat with Jack Taylor, drummer with Bristol’s Tax The Heat, who’ll be popping over the Severn on Saturday to appear alongside the likes of the Black Star Riders, Sebastian Bach and Buffalo Summer.

We started by asking him to give us a brief introduction to the band…

“We’ve been together for about a year and a half;  me and Alex (Veale – singer) are old school friends, we hooked back up after being out of touch with each other for a few years and straight away we got to talking about starting a new band.  We got to know the other guys, Antonio and JP, from the Bristol music scene and it all went from there.”

There will be many PM readers who won’t have heard you, so how would you describe your sound?

“Sure, our sound is heavily influenced by the blues and rock bands of the 60’s – The Who, Stones, Yardbirds, Kinks and Hendrix. etc. – but we do try and use these influences to create rock with a fresh and modern feel to it, it’s all about capturing that energy.”

Your debut EP was produced by the great Chris Goss:  how did that come about, what was he like to work with and what did you learn from that experience?

“Chris was great to work with – it was a dream! It all came around after we were asked to suggest the ‘kind of’ producers we’d like to work with – he was number 1! One thing lead to another and our management got the tracks to him – he called straight back and said he wanted to work with us and flew to Bath, UK after touring with his band Masters of Reality. It was great! We learned loads from it, but I think he added an extra dimension to the energy of the music, which is what we were really hoping for in a producer.”

You recently played both Download and the Calling Festival:  how was that for you?

“Brilliant! We’ve all been to Download before and it was amazing to get to play it this time. The crowd was great and really got into it, which was awesome for us. Calling festival was amazing too, we played in the tent there and it was packed out, there were even people stood outside watching that couldn’t get into the tent, we loved it!”

Both festivals were headlined by Aerosmith:  did you get a chance to meet them?

“Alex met a couple of the guys… he loves Aerosmith so he was chuffed to meet them.  We caught their set at both festivals and they were on top form!!”

How important are playing festivals such as Download, Calling and Steelhouse for a young up and coming band such as yourselves in terms of gaining exposure?

“It means that we get to play to a whole bunch of people who may not have heard of us, or who may have heard the name but don’t really know what we’re about – and what we’re really about is playing live, all the music is written to be played live and so hopefully that’s the best way for them to find out about TTH – it’s a great oportunity for a us!”

The reason we’re talking to you is because you are playing the Steelhouse Festival next weekend, and we’ll come back to that in a minute:   you’re also supporting Saturday’s headliners, Black Star Riders, on a string of dates around Steelhouse… that must be a pretty big deal for you, heading out with a band made up of such legendary musicians?

“Of course, it’s a huge honour for us to be on that tour – and a while ago on an American TV show Scott Gorham said that we were his favourite new band! That’s an amazing endorsement to have and we’re really really looking forward to being on the road with those guys.”

Coming back to Steelhouse, the festival is a good mixture of young bands, unsigned acts and a sprinkling of big names:  what other acts are you looking forward to seeing over the weekend?

“Yeah, it looks like a great line up. We played a gig with Buffalo Summer and Blackwolf a while back, looking forward to catching those guys again and also Graveltones and Black Star Riders.”

If you could get up and jam with any other act on the Steelhouse bill, who would it be?

“Oh man, if I could do a Thin Lizzy track with BSR that would be unreal!”

Thanks for taking the time to talk to PlanetMosh.  Look out for our T-shirts at Steelhouse and feel free to pop over and say hello…

“See you there!”

Tax The Heat play Steelhouse on Saturday (July 19).  For further information on the festival, visit http://www.steelhousefestival.com/

To find out more about Tax The Heat, visit https://www.facebook.com/taxtheheat