SoundClick artist: Blue Mercy Cafe

Sean Taylor began his professional involvement in music in when he joined the group Reign. Together with his bandmates, he toured the Southeast and performed with such Christian rock acts as The Newsboys, Adam Again, Guardian, The Choir, Jacob's Trouble, and The Waiting and performed for such notable music festivals as IS Fest and Atlanta Fest. When the group split up, Sean began playing bass in his local church and working as a music buyer and de factor assistant manager for the Mustard Seed Christian store. While at Mustard Seed, he worked hard to stock and promote the more indy and avant garde Christian music that was too edgy for most Christian radio. After that, he moved to the North American Mission Board, where he joined the first official NAMB praise band. Shortly after that, he began writing original techo-garage rock and released a solo CD called Pop Nightmare. Eventually he joined Lakeland Community Church and found a place on the praise team there, ultimately accepting a position as the Worship Director at the church.

Why this name?

I find the world to be a place of mercy and a place that yearns to be given mercy. Cafe's reflect the spirit of getting together.

Do you play live?

Whenever I can. There's no feeling like playing something you wrote and hearing it connect with people.

How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?

Definitely makes music more accessable.

Would you sign a record contract with a major label?

Yep.

Band History:

Music has always been an important part of my life. I can still remember playing "air band" to my Uncle Roderick's 45s from the '70s and then graduating up to creating pretend instruments out of household items (a few pots, pans, and trash cans for a drum kit; tennis racquets for guitars, and well, an actually a child's organ for the keyboard). We hammed it up to the music of the Clique, Five Man Electrical Band, and Three Dog Night until I was finally able to request my own music (the first of which were cassettes of Kiss Dynasty and REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity, for the record).

Eventually I moved up to real instruments and joins a few bands in high school and college, and now I've settled into a more relaxing mode of playing for my church's band and writing and recording a mixture of electronic music and old-school rock and roll at home.

Between 1988 and 1992 I played bass in the Christian rock band, Reign. We had an '80s fetish going big-time, and would have given our last dollar to be Toto or Van Halen (most of the time). We played mostly for churches at camps, youth events, or community event, but we did have three big event gigs -- one at IS Fest, during which we played the same stage as two of my faves, Adam Again and the Choir, and two at Atlanta Fest, the Southeast's biggest Christian music festival. We released one cassette called i of the storm, and later began work on a second release, tentatively titled Even in the Dry Season, but never finished it before the band broke up in the early 90s.

Back in 2003, I released my first solo CD of "electronic-infused garage rock," Pop Nightmare, under the working name of st:trax and am currently working on the second, Dreaming and Other Diversions. What's it sound like? I like to think it sounds like modern incidental music from shows like Alias and the like, but I'm probably just dreaming. Maybe it's like the accident that would happen if the Chemical Brothers smashed their bus into Van Halen or Nirvana. Who knows? Just listen and find out for yourself.

One of my newest musical projects is called Blue Mercy Cafe. That's a catch-all, made-up band name to include stuff I do both alone and with friends that falls into the acoustic, folksy, art-hymn vein. I'm soon hoping to finish recording for a BMC CD called Twelve Dirty Breadcrumbs. I also want to eventually put together a project called Solid, which will be a artsy-folksy arrangement of many of the hymns I grew up with in church in the South.

Your influences?

Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Tom Petty, Rolling Stones, Counting Crows, various jazz and techno artists.

Favorite spot?

Home on my couch.

Equipment used:

# Ibanez B15 bass with active pick ups
# Fender Jazz bass
# Alvarez acoustic guitar with electric pick up and ivory inlay on the neck (it's gorgeous) -- got from my dad
# Fender Telecaster electric guitar
# Ovation acoustic/electric guitar (not technically mine but a sort of semi-permanent loaner from my buddy Swami)
# Truetone acoustic/electric guitar I inherited from my grandfather
# set of Hohner harmonicas in various keys
# piece of crap Yamaha keyboard that manages to get the job done

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Photos