biography
When a song called ‘Fall on Me‘, was recently played on Johnnie Walker‘s Drive Time show on BBC Radio 2, he was inundated with e-mails wanting to know who this new singer songwriter was, where they could find out about her, and most importantly would he please play more.
He had so many requests that he plugged her website the next day, and informed the listeners that it was taken from Montpelier a debut album by a singer songwriter called Jane Taylor who was from Bristol and who had released her album under her own label, Bicycle Recrods.
One live Radio 2 session later, and a distribution deal with Pinnacle followed alongside a national release of the album and support slots with Bill Wyman, Jools Holland, Paul Buchanan, Seth Lakeman and Paolo Nutini. And...having just recorded her second album with Mercury nominee Producer Colin Elliot, one of Bristol’s finest singer songwriters is truly on her way.
But the journey really started some three years ealier in 2002 when she decided to give up life and work in the real world and focus her attention on the fact that shed been writing songs since she was little, and maybe there was something in that.
Walking into a Bristol studio to record her first single she fantastically bumped in to Angelo Bruschini, the guitarist from Massive Attack who was so intrigued by her sound that he offered to play guitar for her. The single was called BlowingThis Candle out, and it became the first recorded track of her EP, Barefoot, which she went on to release at Ronnie Scotts. She booked her first UK tour and together with local BBC radio interviews and live sessions she began to build up her fanbase across the UK.
In 2003 she won the International competition Reach and, supported by her band, toured Ireland with three other bands from the USA and Canada. She then went on to win both the UK and the International Song writing Competition, again with her single 'Blowing This Candle Out', in the singer/songwriter category where no less than 11,000 people entered.
She also had a live session in London filmed for the Performance Channel and and her song 'Getting To Me' got included on the soundtrack for Sony Televisions DVD of the hit TV series 'Dawsons Creek'.
More recently, the opening track from 'Montpelier' appeared on MTV in America and was also featured on a cd produced by 'The Word' magazine.
The fact that she's opened for some Great Bristish Legends may not come as a complete surprise when you see her perform live. The fact that she has achieved all these things as an independent artist and label, however, is really something to consider.
And a year and a half later, Jane’s new album ‚'Compass‘ is finally ready to be released.
Created in Sheffield at Yellow Arch Studio’s with Colin Elliot, (particularly famous for his work on Richard Hawley's 'Coles Corner' album), it features an eclectic mix of aural delights. Classical Vaughan Williams style strings, a Steinway piano, a Gospel choir singing with half the Hawley band, the Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band (who appeared in the Ewan McGregor film 'Brassed Off'), a music box, Ukulele’s and a rhythm track made up of everything from rustling rubbish bins to the cellist making a sound of a Dolphin. It's all going on.
The album was released in October 2008, with a number of special album preview shows in Scotland and the first official launch was in Bristol's converted church, Circomedia.
Not long after this Jane discovered she was going to have a baby boy! So plans for a re-release of the album are away for 2010 while she settles in to being a mum. Meanwhile songs from the album have been played on the Bob Harris show at BBC Radio 2 and you can see a video for the album song 'All Things Change' on U Tube, as well as some live footage of her performaces(visit Jane's myspace page)
'Jane Taylor is no ordinary singer songwriter. She has this intangible magic in her voice. The kind that draws you in and holds you right there until the moment you notice that you've forgotten to breathe and then you hear her words (which bizarrely seem to have been written for you), and stand there transfixed like its a bit of fate that brought you here and I will defy anyone not to leave without a cd or at least humming one of her songs' - Get Rhythm.
Have a listen and decide for yourself...and check out the reviews on Amazon