Q. Who are your favourite voiceover and music artists?
A. Mel Blanc and Don Messick from the old days, but current legends in voice-acting are two people I am humbled to call friends, Jim Cummings and Frank Welker. If people don't know their names, they should look them up. Frank and Jim have been in more of the top blockbusters in movie history than any other named actors, including Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks.
You’d never know it because they're voice actors and they don’t get a lot of credit but you know their voices and the sounds they create. Frank Welker is Scooby Doo, and Freddie. He's the voice of so many different sounds and monsters and creatures in movies. Jim Cummings is Winnie the Pooh and Tigger to and they're just wonderful, amazing talents.
As far as music goes I've got quite an eclectic range… My iPod will consist of a mix of everything from Jeff Goldblum’s jazz piano, Keith Urban, Fall Out Boy, Annie Lennox, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Beatles (obviously), Jeff Lynne (a.k.a. ELO), Jason Mraz, Jars of Clay, Brandon Heath… I’m even really digging the soundtrack to 'The Greatest Showman' - such a big sound on some of those tracks, I love Classic R&B like Donny Hathaway, Nina Simone, or Jazz like Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck… But we’re big 80’s fans here at the Taylor house too, so lots of Tears for Fears, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Journey, Oingo Boingo, Phil Collins, Billy Joel… Like I said it’s a big mix of lots of stuff, I think from being a DJ in the 80’s and growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, you really got exposed to some great variations of music.
However, all that said I’m also a sucker for Beethoven. I listen to a lot of classical music and soundtracks from films like (of course), Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, to more modern ones like The Social Network, Inception, Batman… I truly love music, it’s at the soul of all life, so a wide range is important to me.
Q. If you weren't working in voice acting or that industry, what do you think you would be doing?
A. I think I would probably be a chef. I always loved cooking, I do all the cooking in my house. As I mentioned earlier, I lost my voice to black toxic mold which was discovered in our house. I got incredibly sick and I couldn't speak at all. I had to learn to retrain my voice. And when I did, I also had to change my my diet to cleanse my body of the mold. So I learned from macrobiotic chefs and vegan chefs how to prepare all this great healthy food to cleanse my body of the mold. But ever since I was a little kid, I loved cooking. I’ve always said, if all else fails I'll become a chef, since it’s another way to make people happy which is one of my favorite things in life, it’s why I love entertaining as well.
Q. How would you describe your experience with Aston Microphones?
A. Beautifully artistically made/ Made for what I do. Or perhaps as my alter ego Obi-Wan Kenobi might say, “It’s an elegant microphone for a more civilized age.”
Q.What was the first song that made you cry?
A. Actually, that’s an easy one to answer… As I said I am a sucker for classical music. I think music in general is the closest thing to heaven we can get. The song was, and still is one that brings me to tears… Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 “Pathétique”, It’s truly amazing - It's been used in so many rock and roll songs from Kiss to Billy Joel.
But I first heard it in a Peanuts cartoon when I was four or five… Snoopy was ice skating to it as Schroeder played it on his little toy piano. I remember thinking it was beautiful even back then and it just made me emotional it stirred me. I still listen to it often and it still stirs me the same way, that’s the beauty of music.