Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephen James Taylor.
Hi Stephen James, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I officially started studying and playing music at eight years old, through secondary school. Went to Stanford as a philosophy major but quickly changed to music and graduated with a degree in composition. After college, I sought out a number of private music teachers, which led me to a career in writing music for film and TV. I have always been interested in pushing boundaries and have focused much of my time around exploring alternate tuning systems, which I then put into my film and concert music. My studies with Erv Wilson enabled me to open to access new frequencies and expansive tone relationships. Today, I am working at developing navigational pathways (compositionally) between the known and the unknown.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not always a smooth road. Breaking into the film music scene took a few years, requiring a lot of persistence. In recent years, I have been trying to explore and present new ways of listening. I often compose in surround (multiple speakers) and present my compositions in immersive venues where the audience can lie down in the dark.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I have been writing music for TV and Film full time since 1982. Stylistically I am a generalist (orchestral and pop styles) specializing in creating unique blends of genre’s known and unknown. My credits include many animated series like The Lion King’s Timon and Pumba, House of Mouse, The Black Panther, and most recently, Barbie: it Takes Two. Movies include Gregory Nava’s Why Do Fools Fall In Love, most of the director Charles Burnett’s films since 1990, such as To Sleep With Anger, The Glass Shield, Oprah Winfrey’s mini-series, The Wedding (with Halle Berry), and Disney’s Nightjohn. I have also composed extensively for director/actor Robert Townsend on films such as Making the Five Heartbeats, Carmen, Holiday Heart, The Phantom Punch, and 10,000 Black Men Named George.
Richard Tanne’s Southside With You and Chemical Hearts have also provided me with opportunities to use unusual instruments in a score. One of the pieces I am most proud of is the theme to the Black Panther animated series, where I wrote the lyrics in a made up a quasi African language (many years before the movie script was written) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXAoA2gkuiA.
What sets my musical approach apart from others is that most of my commercial and experimental scores include a battery of one-of-a-kind homemade acoustic and electric instruments, many of which are set up for microtonal scales.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I love most about LA is the resources! Lots of smart people here doing interesting things. LA offers a wide cuisine of food, cultures and creative approaches. What I dislike is the smog and the need to drive so much. Everything is very spread out, and there is no central hot spot.
Contact Info:
- Website: stephenjamestaylor.com
- Instagram: stephen_james_taylor
- Youtube: surfing the sonic sky
