Dreams Coming True, R'n'B and Popping Cherries: The Line of Best Fit meets CANT

It’s in a dusty, musty west London boozer that we find Chris Taylor today, reflecting upon a hectic few days which have seen him pass through some of Europe’s biggest cities, with neither the time nor intention of seeing their sights being pencilled into his busy, busy schedule. The multi-talented multi-instrumentalist has just arrived in London to promote his forthcoming album, the upliftingly titled Dreams Come True to be released under his solo moniker of CANT. Currently more likely to be recognised for his work as the bassist/saxophonist/flautist and producer for the brilliant Brooklyn outfit, Grizzly Bear, he’s also the co-founder of Terrible Records who we can thank for recent releases from Chairlift, Acrylics and of course, Twin Shadow. Chris Taylor’s 2010/2011 season has been saturated with collaborations, production, touring and writing, with the fruits of one such endeavour taking the shape of his first full length solo effort, which is what has led us to meet today in this most traditional of English settings.

“I’ve mostly been touring with my band Grizzly Bear,” replies Taylor when asked about his recent whereabouts, “and then working on the Twin Shadow record. Two weeks after finishing with that record, George and I just started writing my record. We did that in the summer of 2010, did about a week and a half and wrote 12 songs or so. We’re really quick together! And then basically, I had to finish up touring until about November when I reopened up the album, and started trying to finish it by myself. I finished it in March, or something like that, now it’s done, and I’m here, I guess!”

Known primarily for his work as a producer and musician rather than principal songwriter, has Taylor secretly been hoarding songs whilst awaiting the moment that he’d be able to step to the centre of the stage? “This album is the first time that I’ve actually sat down to write music, and finished it” he responds. “I’ve tried to write music since I was about 16, and I’d write little bits but I just never finished them or got them out. So this is the first time I’ve ever been able to finish songs, aside from those 2 that came out – the ‘Kenya’ track, and the ‘Ghosts’ track. The whole thing about doing the album was that I’d been wanting to write songs for a long time, I’d just never been able to finish them or I’d decide they were no good or something. There was sort of this nagging thing in my head, that just kept saying ‘try to write songs’ and I had to answer that by doing it, and seeing what happened. Whether the end result was good or not, I needed to at least give it a really solid try. I’m really glad I did, because although it was challenging, it was really rewarding for me to have done it.”

Dreams Come True is perhaps not the album expected from the Grizzly Bear man, with electronic beats and sparse melodies leading the charge. Intensely layered vocals are held in position by a vast array of instruments and synthesised sounds, with each song presenting an enticingly catchy hook and achingly soulful vocals, all balancing upon a finely constructed electronic plateau. It’s the vocals that provide the biggest treat on the record, with Taylor presenting his voice with a confidence emulating that of his peers that have spent years at the vocal forefront of their music. At times delicate and lilting, at others, soulful and strutting, Taylor’s voice is completely captivating, with the R’n’B and soul influences (in particular during ‘The Edge’) providing some of the album’s highlights. “I’m into music like that.” he says of such influences, “I listen to a lot of things, but as a kid I grew up listening to a lot of Stevie Wonder and Otis Redding, Sly and the Family Stone, D’Angelo, and then a lot of jazz and stuff like that. I guess I really liked Nirvana a whole lot. I grew up in Seattle and was 13 when that came out, so it was the perfect time! Needless to say it really spoke to me. Radiohead came along and blew my mind, so as a kid, that’s what I was listening to. Nowadays, I listen to all kinds of stuff.”

Recorded primarily by his own fair hands, the question of logistics regarding taking the album on the road is quick to arise, and it’s during a discussion of the destiny of the ‘left-over’ songs that the band are discussed. “It’ll be interesting to work through the others with the band, and start off a little by bridging the gap – super excited about the band. I just picked people I knew. Being a musician, I know a lot of musicians so there’s no real interesting story, we didn’t meet in college, or whatever!”

At the time of our interview, Taylor is yet to play his first CANT show, and is demonstrably a little bit wary…”I’ll be doing a month in October, the first shows are at the end of August in upstate New York. Popping the cherry! I’m looking forward to it. Admittedly, I’m a little nervous as I’ve never really had to do the main singer thing. I’ve been on stage a lot, I played jazz for a while and I’d be the saxophone player, so I was a bit of a leader. But when you have a saxophone in your mouth, it’s somehow less intimidating than a microphone in front of your face!”

“I really love singing … It’s something that I had to, kind of, discover for myself because I’d never written lyrics. I write a lot, but never really lyrics. So it was more figuring out how to write song lyrics that I had to spend a lot of time on, because I really wanted to say something specific. I didn’t want to just put reverb all over it and call it a day. I felt like if I was going to be singing, then there should be lyrics, and if there’s lyrics, they should have some kind of meaning for me in order to stand behind them. It was the toughest part of the process, just figuring out how that should go. But it’s funny, that’s another one of those things that takes some time. Lyrics would either come really fast, or take some time. It’s a really rewarding thing to take your thoughts and organise them into something concise – it’s a good mental and emotional process, I feel.”

Having approached the music making process from pretty much every angle now, has Taylor discovered a solid formula for making a good song? “It’s really loose.” he replies graciously, in the face of the extremely broad question. “Let’s say it’s like a big net in the sky, and there’s balloons and you hope that they’ll hit the net, but sometimes they don’t. When all the balloons get up there and the net’s full, the song’s done. It’s very loose, there’s obviously room for anything to happen, the idea of the sound is very vague. There’s kind of a guiding force that operates in the background, and let’s things pass, and says no to things…”

Aside from CANT and Grizzly Bear, Chris Taylor’s other major project is his record label. Terrible Records was founded in 2009 by Taylor and friend Ethan Silverman, and seems to be doing pretty well for itself. “I’m putting my album out in North America through Terrible Records, which is half of the reason why I started the label in the first place, to be able to release my own material whenever and however I wanted to. We have a Chairlift single that we’re going to debut from their new record. They’ve really matured and found their sound, it’s really unique. I’m super stoked, it’s still really like Chairlift but it’s very updated in terms of their creativity… The last thing we put out was a Blood Orange 7-inch, with two tracks that I produced with Dev and it’s awesome. Dev’s so talented, I love that guy. He’s going to be playing in my band and he’s been writing with some crazy people lately.”

It’s widely recognised that a solo project can offer the opportunity to capture and release work that perhaps wouldn’t fit into other musical endeavours. So what does CANT provide a channel to create, that isn’t necessarily achievable with Grizzly Bear or Taylor’s production work? “Well the production is something that I can do with CANT,” he replies, “but like I said, I grew up listening to a lot of soul music, R’n’B, funk type stuff, and then also Nirvana and Joy Division – incorporating those elements in Grizzly Bear, it wouldn’t really fit. I’m not saying that it never would, but I just wanted to make music where I wasn’t compromising with three other people, where I had this music in my head that I wanted to make. It’s a pretty different sounding album to the Grizzly Bear album.”

With his finger in many a musical pie, Chris Taylor is recognised as an extremely influential and prolific member of the New York music scene. So with so many projects on the go, is CANT likely to be a one off offering, or is there more to come? “I’d just say that I definitely intend to make more music with this, and I’ve kind of left things open ended with what sound that’ll be. I don’t really know where it’ll end but it’s fun to have this channel, to start a new thing, or to have this channel for other sorts of things. I intend to try and keep releasing this stuff really often, so…keep in touch.”

Dreams Come True is available now through Warp, and CANT will be playing the first UK show at London’s Cargo on the 14 November.