Public Servant Lifestyle

Montpelier by Jane Taylor

Sultry smokey melodies...a razor sharp lyrical bite...her bittersweet folk-pop odes take on a new dimension that deserves to be universally adored - Venue magazine.

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‘.

Bristol

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 bizarrely enough wasn’t even signed to a major label. He played her song again the next day only to be inundated once more with questions and messages of ‘more please’.

From that one song being played just twice on national radio, hits to the site, e-mails to Jane herself and orders for the CD came flooding in…and so the journey begins. But Jane Taylor’s journey had really started some three years earlier in 2002 when she decided to give up life in the 'real world' (or as close as marketing gets to the same) and focus her attention on the fact that she’d 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. That single was called Blowing This Candle Out, and it became the first recorded track of an 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 fan base across the UK.

Competition

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.

Last year, she appeared on the arts program Earshot for HTV and more recently her song Getting To Me has been included on the soundtrack for the new Sony Television’s DVD of the hit TV series Dawson’s Creek.

The fact that she's also managed to perform at Glastonbury Festival and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe two years running, headlined the Wurzburg music festival in Germany, played to sold out venues frequently and consistently in Bristol, not to mention being played on national BBC radio, may not come as a complete surprise when you see her perform live. The fact that she does this independently is, however, something to consider.

After almost two years of performing and touring with her band, (Neil Gay - guitar, Beth Porter - cello, Robin Davies - double base, Ben Hostler - drums and Eleanor Murphy - piano), Jane finally secured backing, through Exec Producer Johnny Stirling, to complete her debut album, Montpelier - after an area in Bristol where she wrote most of the songs. The album was recorded in a barn at the beginning of winter out in the countryside near Sarsden, Oxford.

Testament

Astonishingly, creating and manufacturing Montpelier involved some 250 people along the way. The immediate recording and production team - including award-winning Producer and composer Bill Lovelady who composed string parts for the album and also mixed it alongside co-producer and engineer Hugo Richardson and Angelo Bruschini, who guest mixed three of the tracks - and the hundreds of people that pre-bought the album 3 months in advance to produce funds to manufacture it. Testament to the faith people have in what Jane creates.

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 that bizarrely seem to have been written for you and stand there transfixed like it’s a bit of fate that brought you here…and I’ll defy anyone not to leave without a CD or at least humming one of her songs – Get Rhythm.

Montpelier is released 22 May through Jane’s own independent label - Bicycle records – via the Pinnacle Distribution network.

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