Harley taylor plugs in

Writer. Singer. Nutter. Tin Cry’s maverick sits down to talk about his musical influences, and a whole lot more.

As told to Ursula Noone, Head of A&R at Unbreakable Records…

What music are you currently listening to?

Antonio recently made me aware of the Lambrini Girls, and their album (‘Who Let The Dogs Out’) is on constantly when I’m indoors. I’m also getting into Fantastic Cat. They’re songs are amazing and their videos are hilarious.

What was the song that changed your life?

‘Starman’ by David Bowie. After that there was no going back.

What is your all-time favourite album?

Difficult one! Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ is one that I return to again and again. Led Zep IV (‘Runes’) is brilliant. And ‘Electric Warrior’ by T.Rex.

What was the first record you bought? And where did you buy it?

‘I Get The Sweetest Feeling’ by Jackie Wilson and I would have bought that at the HMV store in Enfield Town.

Which other musician have you ever wanted to be?

Keith Richards.

What do you sing in the shower?

Big power ballads like Total Eclipse Of The Heart.

What is your karaoke song?

To be honest, I try to avoid karaoke bars, but if I’m forced to get up, I always belt out ‘Wild Thing’ by The Troggs. It doesn’t really matter if you sing it out of tune!

What song do you secretly like but pretend that you hate?

Because it gets played in every music shop in the world by everyone that’s thinking of buying a guitar, ‘Smoke On The Water’ (Deep Purple) is a song that I don’t own up to enjoying. I’ve actually sung it a couple of times when the band I was in was playing the pub circuit in Hertfordshire and it always went down very well. A few months ago I was in a guitar shop in Denmark Street with Antonio [Moretti – Tin Cry’s multi-instrumentalist, singer, writer and producer] and he grabbed a Strat from the rack and started playing the opening riff of ‘Smoke On The Water.’ He was only mucking about but all sense of irony was lost on the staff! I told him to play the intro to ‘Stairway To Heaven’ next, but he demurred!

What song do you inexplicably know every lyric to?

Because I spent so much of my youth playing in clubs, pubs and bars, you had to have a working knowledge of a vast number of songs because the punters often made requests and could get the hump if you didn’t know them! The trickiest ones to learn, but which I managed to get off pat, were ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’ (R.E.M.) and ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ (Bob Dylan). I saw Michael Stipe perform ‘It’s The End Of The World’ on YouTube and even he fluffed his lines. And he bloody wrote them! I love a good lyric.

What song can’t you listen to?

There are two: ‘Sign O’ The Times’ by Prince as covered by Simple Minds. There was no excuse for them doing that. They’d have been better off covering Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke On The Water.’ 

And the other one is ‘All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You’ by Heart. That song contains, without doubt, the worst lyrics ever associated with popular music: ‘It was a rainy night when he came into sight/ Standing by the road no umbrella no coat/ So I pulled up alongside and I offered him a ride/ He accepted with a smile so we drove for a while.’ Eat your heart out, Irving Berlin!

What song do you wish you’d written?

I said earlier that I like songs with good lyrics, but very little popular music contains anything approaching true poetry. The exceptions, for me anyway, are a few things by Dylan (Positively Fourth Street, Black Diamond Bay) and a song by Elton John and Bernie Taupin called ‘I’ve Seen That Movie Too.’ So those are songs that I wish I’d written, because the words are perfect.

What is your favourite Saturday night record?

If I’m going out I warm myself up with classic soul music: ‘Land Of A 1,000 Dances’ (Wilson Pickett); ‘Le Freak’ (Chic); ‘Get Up Offa That Thing’ (James Brown). Also ‘Can’t Touch This’ by MC Hammer. It’s hammer time!

And your Sunday morning record?

Depends on whether or not I’ve been to bed! If I’m still up I’ll probably be listening to something like ‘Chill Out’ by The KLF. If I’ve slept it could be anything from the Scott Walker canon. Probably ‘Scott 2.’

What song do you want played at your funeral?

There’s a beautiful song of a poem by Robert Burns set to music called ‘Ae Fond Kiss,’ and Robyn Stapleton’s version of it is incredibly moving. I wouldn’t mind having that played as I’m being fed into the furnace.