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Taxiride.
 There's no denying that Melbourne based outfit Taxiride knew how to write a good catchy pop tune. That talent led to the unprecedented figure (for an Australian act, at any rate) offered by a record company for their mark on paper, followed by two hugely successful albums, 'Imaginate' (2000) and 'Garage Mahal' (2003), both of which contained a slew of top 10 hits,. So it may come as some surprise that Jason Singh (vocals/guitar), Tim Wild (guitar/keyboards), Andy McIvor (bass) and new recruit Sean McLeod(drum) have made the conscious decision to part ways with their major label and go 100% independent for their third and most ambitious release to date, the prog-rockesque 'Axiomatic'.
Sitting around a table with all four members, there was plenty to be said about this latest chapter in their six year history. "We do listen to a lot of that stuff from the 'seventies," admits Singh, "and ['Axiomatic'] is almost prog-rock and it's has got themes like a concept record, but without it sounding like [Jeff Wayne's] 'War Of The Worlds'. The lyrics are based more on things like conspiracy theories as well as the establishment, and about us having come from that and now just wanting to go back to being an indie band. And that's what we've done with this record: we've jumped out of that big record deal that when we were younger thought would be our saving light. You get a record deal, which is great but then there was everything else that goes with it, you know? We leant a lot from that and now it's time to go out and put our music where our mouths are and do something different for us, as well as what's different in the landscape of music right now.
"It's like our first record was so different to what was on the market at the time," he declares, "and in a lot of ways that was called the 'alternative to the alternative', and this is as well. It's very alternative to what's going on out there right now. 'Imaginate' was in most parts like a folk record because it was acoustic based and it had simplicity, whereas because 'Garage Mahal' was written on the road it had more of an edge to it. So with the new record we got off the road and then started to write, and it's basically stuff that we wrote in our homes and at rehearsals."
Reflecting back on their admirable achievements, one has to question their motives behind their now going it alone. "With all the record companies merging together we didn't know the people at Warner Brothers anymore," McIvor shrugs, "whereas we had a good relationship with them early on, so it didn't make sense to work with all these strangers who didn't sign us. And that's pretty indicative of major record companies at the moment: they have such a heavy staff turnover that when you lose the guy who was your best friend, the guy you were competing against is now your boss."
Even with their good name and international platinum sales? "I guess it was more about us," Singh picks up. "And all the hoo-hah that went into those first two records was great and we learnt so much from spending a shitload of money in $3000-a-day studios and living overseas, but we really wanted to make a band record that we didn't have to explain to anyone else. And all those people in record companies and your managers, agents, even your sound guy... everyone has an opinion on your music. But it takes a bigger band not listen to them and we wanted to do something we believe in rather than what everyone believes in, you know? I think the one thing we did set out to do with this record was to have a complete body of work. Like, if our name wasn't on the record would you have known it was us?"
Well, yes and no.
"The songwriting is still us," affirms McIvor, "but dramatically and sonically being a four piece rock band with drums, bass, vocals and guitar and keyboards we now want people to just hear it and not judge it because we're Taxiride. Because we did have huge success we didn't want to rely on our past like other bands do. We want to move forward, so much so that it would be a shame if people didn't give the record a go."
Steve Jones
 | 'Axiomatic' is out now through Blue Tiger/MGM. |
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