One of Australia's biggest musical exports of the late '90s and early '00s, Taxiride are back for the first time with all four, original members.
Excited to be sharing adventures again, the band (who won the 1999 ARIA for 'Breakthrough Artist – Single for 'Get Set') will be touring with fellow rockers The Badloves in August. The group's singer, Jason Singh, explains what lead to the reformation. “I was really determined to get the boys back together.
"Just over a year ago I realised that I missed the sound and thought it was time that we put all of our differences aside and started thinking about playing music together again. So I jumped on the mobile phone and sent Tim Watson about 150 text messages and finally got a reply. That's one thing that my report card used to always say when I was a kid: 'Jason is too persistent.' We've all grown up a lot and I think all of the stuff that used to annoy us about each other was long ago.
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“When we first formed we weren't enemies, so to speak, but we were all doing our own thing around Melbourne. I knew of Tim because he was such a good singer and very popular around town. All the other singers knew who he was and I was hoping they thought the same thing about me.
“So we were sort of competing for all the gigs around town until we were introduced by a friend and decided to join forces so we could dominate Melbourne. So to speak. And before you know it we're living in America and signing record deals.
“I mean, we worked really hard for about three or four years before anyone even heard us play. We rehearsed every single day for years. We'd all do gigs at night separately and then come together during the day to write songs and create a sound together. It seems like it happened overnight, but there was a hell of a lot of prep that went into it beforehand.”
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Though the years have passed, the four have the enthusiasm to bring their back catalogue of material to the masses once more. “Individually, we are incredibly different guys, and on a normal day we probably wouldn't hang out. I think that's the thing that drove us crazy initially, but it was also the thing that made me want us to get back together.
“That's why we sound so different to every other band in the world. That's where our friendship is; it's in the music. Now we appreciate each other's differences because that's the beauty and the magic. We never really had the opportunity to go out and play the songs from 'Imaginate' and 'Garage Mahal' the best way that we could. We never got to tour with the musical maturity that we have now, so it's more looking back at where we've been.
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“I'd say that in the next 12 months we'll probably want to write something together, but all of us are doing things individually. Our favourite songs from Taxiride aren't the singles anyway. There's a lot of great album tracks that only the diehard fans know, so playing them as well is kind of like putting new songs in the setlist. There are certain songs off the albums that we have never played.”
Taxiride Tour Dates
Sat 28 May - Villa Noosa Hotel (Sunshine Coast)Sun 29 May - Stones Corner Festival (Brisbane)
Fri 3 Jun - Carine Tavern (Perth)
Sat 4 Jun - Gosnells Hotel (Perth)
Sun 5 Jun - Highway Hotel (Bunbury)
Fri 19 Aug - Palms Crown (Melbourne, with The Badloves)
Sat 20 Aug - The Gov (Adelaide, with The Badloves)
Sat 3 Sep - Twin Towns (Gold Coast, with The Badloves)
Sun 4 Sep - Redfest (Brisbane)
Fri 9 Sep - Rooty Hill RSL (Sydney, with The Badloves)
Sat 10 Sep - Gymea Hotel (Sydney, with The Badloves)
Sun 11 Sep - Wests New Lambton (Newcastle, with The Badloves)
