East Nashville pop-rock outfit Tayls employs self-aware songs and ambitious live shows to combat disengaged and critical Music City crowds, promoting their ideal of a community free of pretension. Tayls is a collective of scene veterans under the direction of frontman Taylor Cole and guitarist Greg Dorris, who have been playing out for a little more than a year. They’ve been recording much longer, carefully crafting the shimmery self-titled debut EP they’ll celebrate with a blowout release show on Friday.
Cole grew up in the small town of Tullahoma, Tenn., and his family’s musical background inspired his creative ambitions. His mother sang backup for Brad Paisley and Faith Hill, and his father played drums in the church band. Cole took up drumming when he was 11 and has been playing in bands ever since, letting early rock influences like Bon Jovi and Nirvana blend with his love for his current favorite band, The Flaming Lips.
“Drumming has always been my first thing, and I’ve always wanted to sing in a band,” Cole tells the Scene. “Tayls is the first ‘real deal’ thing for me as far as being a frontman goes. I get to take everything I’ve learned about being in bands and put it to good use.”
Along with his longtime gig drumming for indie quartet Creature Comfort, Cole sang in the defunct psychedelic group Chalaxy. He met Dorris, his primary collaborator and producer for Tayls, when Chalaxy and Dorris’ band, Mantra Mantra Mantra, shared a bill at Springwater. Dorris says Cole’s enthusiasm and engagement made a “huge first impression” on him, and over the years the two have cemented their friendship by writing, recording and spitballing ideas. The roommates made the Tayls EP in their basement with some help on production from Nick Rose of Creature Comfort. Multiple Grammy-winning engineer and producer Vance Powell also mixed two of the songs.
Cole and Dorris, both graduates of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, are products of the intimate and experimental spaces of the grungy, eclectic ’Boro house-show scene. That experience inspired them to place the ultimate value on community and acceptance in creating.
The organic development of Tayls reflects the importance of being surrounded by encouraging bandmates. Cole gushes over each member of his band, telling the story of how he and keyboard player Molly Balsam became friends and collaborators thanks to Jenny Lewis covers and bottles of whiskey. He name-drops numerous cover bands and groups he and Dorris have previously been a part of with Tayls’ other members — bassist Jessey Clark, drummer Atticus Swartwood, trumpeter Justin Smith and keyboardist Michael Taylor.
“It’s my job to listen to music every day,” says Cole, who handles booking at The East Room. “I’m very inspired by the local scene. I’m very moved to keep going. I feel more active and alive because there are people doing great stuff out there.”
But he also recognizes the negative aspects of playing in Nashville, and cites the uptight aura of a typical local audience. During a Tayls show, the band fights what Cole calls “the half-circle of hate,” a space left in front of the band when more people stand back by the exit sign than near the stage — a phenomenon Cole says he doesn’t see as often when he plays outside Nashville. Here, there’s a good chance there will be musicians in the audience, who have their own rigid sonic preferences. It’s easy for musicians to assume the role of critic instead of participant, which Dorris argues harms the quality of the show experience.
“It is a two-way exchange,” he says. “I’ve been to shows where I am half-engaged, but then I go up closer, and I feel the energy more.”
In “Fuck Yer Band XOX,” Tayls explores the social politics of the scene further. “Heard your new band, and I think y’all suck,” sings Cole, poking fun at the way Nashville bands often find that as they start to build a fan base, somebody always remains unimpressed. The group points the finger back at itself, displaying a healthy self-awareness that it wouldn’t hurt more bands in Nashville to adopt.
“We all have that feeling when one band gets a lot of buzz and you don’t quite get what everyone sees in it,” Dorris says. “You have this feeling like, ‘Why does everyone like this but me? Is something wrong with me? Or is something wrong with them?’ But we have to remember that maybe we are that band for some people.”
The need to get the audience to let go of self-seriousness and embrace the beat extends well beyond the new EP. For all the band’s focus on the audience having fun, Cole believes intentionality is the key to success.
“I learned a long time ago that you have to plan your own roller coaster,” he says. “You want people to ride your ride all the time, so you have to plan the drops, where and what is going to happen.”
Cole puts a colossal amount of time and energy into the band’s live show, spending about a month planning each one, right down to the last blast of confetti. Friday night’s release show is more like a mini-festival, with a total of 10 bands (including the sublimely glammy The Jag and psych rockers Lasso Spells) alternating between The High Watt and Mercy Lounge. For this special occasion, Tayls will grow into a 13-piece band featuring violins, extra backup singers, horns and other guest performers. Polish up those dancing shoes, and make plans to head straight for the front of the stage.
