In addition to owning his studio and being a skilled sound engineer and producer, having recorded bands such as XIBALBA, MIZERY, GOD’S HATE and many more, Taylor Young is an accomplished musician who lends his talents, as a drummer, as a guitarist and as a vocalist, to bands as successful and varied as NAILS, TWITCHING TONGUES, DISGRACE and more. From listening to the music he makes, and, as you will read below, to his answers to our questions, it’s easy to see that Taylor puts a lot of thought into songwriting, recording, and has a deep understanding of the craftsmanship necessary to create great music.
Taylor also plays guitar in EYES OF THE LORD, with the legendary Bruce Lepage (of 100 DEMONS fame) on vocals, and they just released an album two days ago! It’s heavy stuff, make sure you check it out and listen to the single below!
What have you been listening to the most lately?
Lately, I’ve been listening to the OUTER HEAVEN LP a lot. Fuckin’ amazing. I’m always listening to a lot of TOWNES VAN ZANDT just ’cause I like kind of grim, sad stuff.
Do you have any favorite Townes Van Zandt?
Well, I really like the live records. That’s where it really shines that he’s such a fucked up, emotional person. Particularly, I like Rear View Mirror. Front to back, the setlist is insane and the performance is crazy.
Something that came out recently is this band DEAD AND DREAMING from Virginia Beach. They’ve just put out this new EP that’s shockingly good. It’s a heavy Hardcore but done in a way that is not really done, and it’s really fresh and exciting.
It’s a sound where it’s not easy to be fresh.
It’s not and they’re very good. They’re kind of technical and the singer has really weird patterns and stuff. They have a very original vibe. It’s almost a little Southern. They’re fucking awesome. They have two seven inches and couple of singles and some old stuff. They’ve been around a long time. One of their guitar players played in DOWN TO NOTHING. Then the drummer has another band called COPPERHEAD. That’s pretty good, too. But Dead and Dreaming is fucking amazing. Super heavy, in a weird way.
You mentioned liking the live versions better for Townes Van Zandt: are live records something you gravitate towards a lot in general? Preferring live records to studio records?
Sometimes. I definitely like studio recordings though.
Is there any other bands that you prefer the live material?
CANDLEMASS live is waaaay better than any of the records. Just because it has all the energy and, to me, they almost sound like a Metallic Hardcore band with clean vocals. Just hard riffs the whole time and they have the energy the whole time, rather than the kind of like pulled back. I love that record. If I put on Candlemass, I always put on that record. What else? The fake live TYPE O NEGATIVE record is amazing too, but it’s not really live anyway. But I really love the way they put the crowd in there, as a negative response to them. It made the record harder to me. I was like “This is heavier than anything I’ve ever heard” because he’s talking shit to them and it’s fine. That’s pretty much it. I mean, AGNOSTIC FRONT, the first live record, live at CBGB’s is amazing.
More than Last Warning?
I like them both. Last Warning is really good, too. That’s crazy that they have two good live records. But the first one is fucking sick. The song Strength is faster and just way harder.
Yeah, that’s my favorite Agnostic Front album.
Yeah, it just sound more aggressive. That’s cool.
I know a lot of people who actually discovered Agnostic Front through the live record.
Yeah, I mean, it captures the energy in a different way.
For me, it’s SICK OF IT ALL’s Live in a World Full of Hate that has that effect. I discovered them through it and that’s always been my go-to, instead of the first two records. As amazing as the first two records can be.
For me, as a studio engineer, it’s hard to listen to live records when it’s heavy music with one guitar centered. That kills it for me. But if it’s something like TOWNES VAN ZANDT, where it’s just one dude, that makes sense to me. When I expect hard, panned guitars, I need it in my ears rippin’. Like the PANTERA live record is awful because of the one centered guitar. I can’t listen to it.
How do you switch your brain between the engineer listening to music and just the fan?
The song’s got to be really good. If it’s a bad recording and the song is amazing, I can definitely get through it. Like AGNOSTIC FRONT Victim in Pain scientifically doesn’t sound that great, but I love it. If the energy is right, then I don’t care about the recording. That’s fine. Honestly, my recordings aren’t particularly clean. I prefer energy over cleanliness. If you can get both, then you’re good to go.
Can you name three songs that you would consider to be perfect?
Ooooh..Man. Let me get some reading material (pulls out his phone). One is definitely the song Hank Crane on the second ONLY LIVING WITNESS record, which is one of the laid back songs, but it has this pay off to the song that just fucking kicks so hard. It just hits you in the gut. It’s mostly a melodic song but it’s fucking amazing. That’s definitely a perfect song. I’ve ripped it off like five times. Just like the structure of it and the way it flows.
The band WARNING from the UK. The song Footprints is a perfect song for sure and it’s seven minutes. It’s super dreary, sad, Doom. It’s like if CANDLEMASS slowed down and only cared about their choruses. Kind of sounds like Ozzy, but only doing ballads. That song particularly is unbelievable. Again, I’m a big sucker for payoffs. You need a reason to get to the end of the song. If you just have verse-chorus, verse-chorus, I don’t need to hear the song past the second chorus. I need a reason. Footprints fucking kicks in balls at the end and it’s insane. They are heavy, they tune low but he’s just the saddest motherfucker you ever heard. Have you heard 40 WATT SUN? It’s the same guy. It’s the band before. Metal Blade put out one of their records.
I would say Gravitational constant by TYPE O NEGATIVE is definitely a perfect song. It’s another song that’s just so fucking long and for some reason, I love every single part. I do also like the live version where they chop out the end but I love that song and it made me a big fan pretty quick.
What is the record you’ve listened to the most in your life?
Chaos A.D. by SEPULTURA. Probably one hundred thousand times. I got it in like 1996. I was a kid and it’s like the definition of everything I’ve listened to. Everything stems from that in some way. Maybe not TOWNES VAN ZANDT, but every music band I’ve ever been in is like, referencing Sepultura real quick. That’s definitely the one. That’s easy.
How did your musical taste evolve throughout the years? Maybe starting from the very beginning, do you remember the first time music had an impact on you?
Yeah. My dad had a couple of BLACK SABBATH tapes, and I loved Paranoid and Master of Reality. He had a couple LED ZEPPELIN tapes. It was just, I knew I liked music. Then, my dad’s a musician, my mom’s a musician, so it was just normal. It was always there. So yeah, Black Sabbath was definitely the first one. Then I eventually told my dad that I just wanted to hear music that had Palm mutes in it. He didn’t understand but I tried to explain that. I was like “Dad, it’s where you hear jun-jun-jun, that’s all”. He didn’t really get it. I tried to buy a METALLICA record one time and he said no. He ended up buying me a SOUNDGARDEN record, but I liked that too. I thought that was cool. I think it was 96? Down on the Upside had just came out. Eventually I did that BMG thing for $1. I don’t know if you remember that? I did one of those when I was in like fourth grade and just never paid for them. I bought a bunch of stuff that I wasn’t allowed to.
Then my older brother went to high school with a bunch of dudes who went to Hardcore shows and they left a bunch of CDs in his car, and he gave them to me. THAT’s where I really got into stuff. He told me to listen to Chaos A.D. and he bought me a copy. Then I went and bought another copy, just so that I had one to burn. Then I got into ALL OUT WAR and HATEBREED and stuff like that from there. So I definitely liked the more Metal stuff, but I liked the energy of Hardcore stuff. Then got into crazier Death Metal and stuff. The more extreme, the better. Then I got to stuff like NECROPHAGIST and things like that but I was like, “alright, less crazy”. I need to be able to play it.
And I assume all of that stayed with you? Nothing fell by the wayside?
Yeah, I mean, I probably grew out of some stuff. At one point, I was definitely buying anything that was on Roadrunner. That didn’t really work out. *Hahaha* There were things with really cool covers that I tried really hard to like and couldn’t like. That band DRY KILL LOGIC, they had a sick cover on one of their records And it was so bad. I’m like “why does this look so cool, and sound so bad?” STUCK MOJO and shit like that, I was like “I don’t like this. I wanna like this because there’s a gun on the cover, but I don’t like it”. A lot of things still that are from that time.
What are some of the hardest riffs of all time?
That one’s easy. CROWBAR, To carry the load is scientifically the heaviest part ever recorded. Everyone in my band (Nails) agrees with that. Even our bass player, who doesn’t really listen to heavy stuff, pops that song all the time. It’s almost like the frequency that the rift sits at…it just feels good. Just the heaviest thing of all time.
Let’s see what else…NEUROSIS. I wouldn’t say that it’s a riff but the end of The doorway is definitely a super effective part and key change that makes it brutal, in a different way. That’s definitely a hard one. I’m just throwing that one in.
I’ll throw in ALL OUT WAR, The cross of disbelief. It’s a deep track from the first record, but it’s one of the only ones that I have saved on my phone. There’s another insane key change in that, that is just unbelievably hard, but they’ll never play that song. It’s like six minutes long. But yeah, that’s easily one of the hardest riffs of all time. Well, I mean, the whole song is like, mosh part, mosh part, mosh part, right? But not in a boring way. It keeps changing and evolving. I fucking love that song.
So the transitions are really key for you, right?
I could write a heavy riff all fucking day but it doesn’t have an effect, unless you get to it in a certain way. That’s the other thing too, you could have a shitty riff but….alright…If you hear a NEUROSIS part by itself *humming a typical riff*, then that’s whatever. It’s because of the way they get to it that it’s fucking devastating. Key change is a big thing that you know, Twitching Tongues has a lot of big parts with key changes. Nails has a lot of important key changes. That’s what makes things heavy. Even HATEBREED, the way they go into the mosh parts is what makes them special.
Would you say it’s something that makes or breaks a band for you?
Yeah. Because if it’s just fucking open, open, open all the time, nothing has an affect.
Five best Hardcore EPs?
Ohhhh.
Sorry, man! *Hahaha*
Ok. Going alphabetical?
We’ll go for the BLOOD FOR BLOOD Hurt You demo. Kind of counts. That is one of my favorites, for sure. It’s amazing to think about being 1995 in a world of like, Hardcore being kind of nice and then they come out and literally just piss on it. It’s fuckin’ insane.
Under the Knife (HATEBREED) does have to be in there. I actually thought it was kind of boring as a kid but it has grown on me over time. My brother’s band (GOD’S HATE) actually covered the whole record. And it sounds just like it.
I’ll say the BREAKDOWN ‘87 demos. Unbelievable.
One of the bands that definitely got me into hardcore was GRIMLOCK from Massachusetts and the Thirst for Immortality seven inch is one of my favorites. All three songs are fuckin’ insane.
The EP that came out right after is great too.
Yeah, Songs of Self, that record’s amazing…The Japanese band JUDGEMENT. The Process seven inch is two songs and both songs are perfect. That’s definitely in my top. That was probably the most expensive seven inch I ever bought.
Oh yeah? How much?
$100-120. I just had to have it. They sold that at shows only and there’s only 500 copies or something.
One more…I don’t want to go with the obvious… but I want it to be the best. *pauses* Oh, here we go. WHITE DEVIL. Reincarnation, that record is definitely perf…uh, you know what? It’s not perfect because the song My life sucks. But the other four songs are amazing. I wouldn’t say it’s one of the best, but it’s one of my favorites.
Are you typically more into the early stuff that a band puts out or more the latest?
It depends. If a band puts out a reunion record that’s amazing, I’ll definitely love it. Like, I love the later KICKBACK records, more so than the early ones. I mean, No Surrender is an insane record. So if somebody comes out swinging like that, then it’s obvious, but a lot of the times they just don’t have the same fire on later ones. I wouldn’t say it’s a conscious thing. It’s never “nah, I only like the demo.” I want to like it, whatever it is.
Well, of course, by say, the sixth record, it’s not as fresh, so it’s harder to be impressed.
You gotta really want it. I actually like that band GHOST a lot. I think the new record is cool but I think the third record is their best one. That record is amazing. So it’s definitely just depending on the music.
Is there a band that you missed out on when they first came out and discovered way later that become a favorite? Or maybe one that you didn’t like at first and then learned to appreciate over time?
TYPE O NEGATIVE, definitely. I saw the video for My girlfriend’s girlfriend when I was probably 13, and I was like, “This is horrible!” We had something called MTV X and they would just play Metal music videos. That played between, like, MACHINE HEAD and some other cool stuff. “Ugh, what is that?” Then I started seeing their shirts and they were the hardest shirts I’d ever seen. I went back and I listened to the live record first. That got me and then I went back and listened to Slow Deep and Hard. Then, found CARNIVORE and got into all of that. “Ok, so this is a dude who grew up from Hardcore.” He just did whatever he wanted to do. Eventually, I got an appreciation after I realized that the Goth thing is tongue in cheek. It’s not a serious thing. And then, it became my favorite shit ever. From disliking it to literally top five favorite bands.
Is there an artist you enjoy in a style of music you usually don’t listen to?
Um, I can’t say I listen to it or her but I think LADY GAGA is cool. I think that she’s talented. She writes her own shit. I dislike Pop music for the fact of how ingenuine it is. How there’s like twenty people working on this one fucking song. That’s embarrassing when the song is like, “Oh, my butt shakes” or whatever. If Lady Gaga has a song like that, she sat down and made that herself. I just respect that and I think that’s cool. And you know, she can act. She’s writing songs. I don’t think she’s an amazing actress, but I think she’s talented and deserves the recognition that she gets. I definitely don’t sit down and listen to the music. My girlfriend does…and I can tolerate it.
What would be the most memorable show that you’ve seen?
First thing that pops in my head is BOLT THROWER and AUTOPSY playing in Oakland. Twitching Tongues played Rain Fest one year and that show was the next day in Oakland. So we literally drove overnight to the show, all of us. We got to the show early as hell. We had Rain Fest laminates, and just walked the fuck in! They let us buy merch while they were setting it up and it was fucking sick. Everybody was catching stage dives like it was fucking terrifying or something. It was really cool. Off the top of my head, that was probably the sickest show I’ve ever seen.
Do you have any unpopular music opinions?
Probably tons! I like the later CRO-MAGS records. I like Revenge. I don’t really like the Punk songs but songs that sound like Cro-Mags songs are fuckin’ sick. The first song is amazing. I don’t like Near Death Experience but I like Alpha Omega and I like Best Wishes. Some people hate Best Wishes. I look at these as cool Metal records.
It’s almost a different band…
It is a different band but the dude who plays lead guitars on Alpha Omega shreds so hard!
I’m sure I have some other ones but I don’t know if I want to put it out there! *Hahaha*
Well, maybe we can twist that around. Do you have a hidden gem type of thing, where everyone looks at this one thing but to you, it’s all about that other, more obscure thing? An overlooked album, or song or even band?
DEMOLITION HAMMER’s Time Bomb is their best record. That is a very unpopular opinion. It sounds like they heard Pantera and said “this is what we gotta do.” The drumming is unbelievable. The riffs, I understand why someone wouldn’t like them but if you really sit and listen to it, that record is so fucking hard. It’s got a lot more depth to the songs, rather than Epidemic of Violence being like, riff-riff-riff-riff. These are catchy. I think they hate the record and whatever, it’s fucking sick. It’s definitely got some like, proto-Nu-Metal sound to it but to me, it just sounds like an ALL OUT WAR record or something and that’s why I like it. I know a lot of the Connecticut Hardcore dudes from the 90’s love that record and if you listen to Connecticut Hardcore, that makes sense. You go back and listen to the first 100 DEMONS record, it just sounds like that record. That’s definitely unpopular, for sure.
Is there any bands that you’ve never seen live and always wanted to see but just couldn’t catch them?
I never saw TYPE O. I actually was going to go to the Type O / HATEBREED tour in 2007 that came through L.A. – I had just moved there not that long before- and I wasn’t really in the mindset to be going to big shows like that. I only cared about going a little Hardcore shows. A concert experience didn’t sound cool. I definitely regret that.
I had phases like that, with the same type of regrets. “What do you mean, a $20 show!?”
Yeah, I want to go see the $5 Hardcore show with 50 people (TTL: And 9 bands!) which honestly, still sounds kind of cool.
Yeah, that’s probably all I got. I feel like everybody’s done a reunion. ONLY LIVING WITNESS would be cool to see. I saw GRIMLOCK twice, so that was cool.
Are you generally into reunions?
It depends.
What’s the best reunion you’d say you’ve seen?
I mean, I saw DEMILICH play and that was pretty cool. They played in Glendale, which was crazy. I don’t know if they ever really broke up. They only have one album and they just kind of stopped playing and started again. Um, I don’t know. I guess I don’t really pay attention to the big stuff. I mean, JUDGE was pretty cool the first time. Yeah, it’s definitely not something I really follow but the bands that I like that are broken up probably wouldn’t do it, you know? I would have liked to see maybe the Celtic Frost one when they came back in like 2005 or ’06. That would have been cool, but I missed that too.
Sometimes I just feel like it’s better to just leave it where it’s at. Like, I’m fine with not seeing a watered down version of what I imagine.
Yeah, let the legend live. I agree with that to a degree for sure. I also think that if, like, SEPULTURA decided to finally do it, that would be the sickest thing. Which you never know. Everybody’s got a price tag.
Isn’t there something happening with Max and Igor though? Playing Beneath The Remains, I believe?
Yes, they did do that. They even did a fuckin’ NAILBOMB reunion. They do play together. Well, they have an album that came out some time ago. That third CAVALERA CONSPIRACY record is fucking awesome. That dude Arthur Rizk, who produces POWER TRIP, did that record and it sounds great. It’s got the kind of old school fire. Songs are a little bloated but it’s pretty fucking cool.
Which band do you think has achieved the best sequence of three records in a row?
*Pauses…Hahahaha* I wish there was multiple choices and I get to choose! *Haha* Something I think about all the time is KING DIAMOND. Being able to write Fatal Portrait, Abigail, “Them” and Conspiracy? Four fucking years in a row!? That’s insane. But what I think is that he cheated and he had them all written beforehand. “I got four albums on deck, let’s go.” That definitely is the first thing that popped in my mind. I bet my brother would say the same thing.
That’s a good choice, for sure. What’s the most impressive band that you’ve toured with? The one that you had to watch their set night after night?
HATEBREED. Last year. That was like multiple things. That was the nostalgic kid in me watching them play Satisfaction every night. Yeah, that was fun. All the dudes are cool. Being able to watch that every night was fucking insane. They’re all great at what they do. They’re all just fucking awesome, and I still love that record.
Whenever doing these interviews in writing, we typically ask guests for their *sigh* 10 top favorite albums of all time…
Oh, God! *Haha*
…Maybe doing only five is more realistic, on the spot like this?
Five is insane! ‘Cuz I gotta narrow it down even more! *Haha*
Alright, if you’re up for it, maybe you send us your list by email and then we add it to the interview?
We can do that. I gotta drive tonight, so I’ll try to think about it.
Ten favorite albums of all time, with a highlight track for each album:
Suffocation – Pierced From Within – Throne Of Blood
Hatebreed – Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire – Mark My Words
Carnivore – Retaliation – Sex And Violence
Brutal Truth – Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses – Time
Death Side – Bet On Possibility – Arms Control
Into Another – Ignaurus – Ungodly
Merauder – Master Killer – Besiege The Masses
Morrissey – You Are The Quarry – The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
Townes Van Zandt – Rearview Mirror – Our Mother The Mountain
Johnn Cash – At Folsom Prison – Give My Love To Rose
What are some up and coming bands that you’d like to recommend?
I talked about DEAD AND DREAMING, they’re fucking awesome. They’ve been a band forever, they just never really left their area. There’s a band from San Jose called GULCH. That is some of the new angriest music I’ve heard. Fucking amazing. I think DEAD HEAT is really good, from California. They’re kind of a younger Thrash-y band. There’s another band called DRAIN from California, that’s also kind of that style, that’s really cool. They have a really fun energy the whole time. I think whatever they record next will be a really great record. I did a record for HANDS OF GOD and I think that that band’s got a lot going for them. The guitar player for that band also plays in another band called VAMACHARA. We brought them on tour a couple times, they’re fucking sick too. I really like that MAGNITUDE record that came out a couple of months ago. That band REGIONAL JUSTICE CENTER is a cool kind of like Power Violence-y, almost a throwback to how Power Violence was sounding ten years ago. Oh, the OUTER HEAVEN record! Amazing. That is by far the hardest Death Metal record of the last, maybe three years or something?
Yes, that’s a great record. In closing, anything you’d like to promote?
Well, the Nails seven inch just came out. Then I just finished writing two records. One for the band EYES OF THE LORD I play guitar in. LP is all done and coming out August 30th. Then I play guitar in this band CRIMINAL INSTINCT, which is more of a Punk Hardcore band. Both of those records I’m really proud of. It should probably come out around the same time.
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