Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris Taylor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Chris , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
When I was a young kid, living in Upstate New York, skipping rocks into Lake Ontario and going to the movie theater several times a week (my sister managed the theater at the time), I knew I wanted to live an artistic life. I was always drawing and painting, sketching in notebooks, etc. Between Prince’s movie Purple Rain and Pink Floyd, The Wall… I was hooked! I was young and more of a dreamer back then, but I started taking steps to live the music and art life… To be honest, the wardrobe came first! I bought a pair of those knock off, round mirrored glasses like Prince wore in the film… THAT was my first step of becoming a musician. The visions and ideas swirling in my head were already there. I just had to figure out how to make them a reality.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
So ou can know a little bit about me, I’ve spent a lifetime creating both musical pieces of art and visual pieces of art as well. I thought my journey would lead me to stardom and notoriety. I toured through the 90’s and early 2000’s, singed with several different record labels and pretty much followed the path musicians travelled in those days. It all led to exhaustion, burn out and little to no actually success, financially speaking. But I learned many things from those experiences, first and foremost was that chasing fame, for me, was an illusion but creating art that made me feel excited to be alive was the reward. Make the music I want to hear. Create the art I want on my own walls. Stop trying to please record labels and critics. Stop trying so hard to be loved by the masses… and just fall in love with the act of creating. It became my devotion and my meditation.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
It took me almost 55 years to learn this about myself and actually understand it… but I truly believe that one of the reasons I was given these gifts or have these innate passions was to heal my own heart. I escaped an avalanche of depression, addiction and who knows what else as I chose to fuel all my inner chaos into my art. I don’t take any credit for this and I sure don’t judge other artists who have chosen otherwise but songwriting, recording, performing live and painting in all of it’s many formats has helped me to know myself and I choose to share these creations with others with no strings attached. It’s a devotional experience and I tend not to think or worry about if people will like it or if it will sell or not. Those things are all distractions. Id rather chase the high of creating something new.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I truly believe that everyone is creative. Some have more obvious gifts or talents: music, art, singing, sports, etc. Others have amazing gifts in nurturing, empathy or kindness. These qualities or gifts are in need in days like today. The world tends to separate us when we are young “Oh look at the talent this one has!” We start thinking we are not as special as they are or we don’t have anything that makes us unique or shine in this world… that’s a kind of society brainwashing because we are all made to be one of a kind. Some of us, when we are young, aren’t encouraged or we are told “That’s not the right way” and it causes us tedium our light. It may even cause some of us to bury it all together. Most creatives are just a mess and we’ve found our way to tell our story. Our feelings are on the outside and we are easily hurt… That’s an almost impossible combination to start a business and actually make money from our gifts but yet… many of us want to!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://christaylorworld.com
- Instagram: @christaylorworld
Image Credits
Allen Clark, Loreal Michele, Jojo Dancer Photography