(upbeat music) - Will you Consider This?

You know, there's a lot of jacks of all trades and master of none.

Well, this guy is a jack of all trades and a master of quite a few things.

- Thank you.

- This is Nathan Taylor, and I don't even know what kind of a title to give you except master of many things.

What do you think?

- I guess I would say an artist of sorts.

I love visual arts and music and, you know.

- So tell me about little Nathan Taylor.

You grew up in Canton, Illinois.

- Canton, Illinois.

- All right.

- Great small town experience growing up there.

My mother got me involved in art early on.

Primarily I was involved with sports, so a lot of times, just playing basketball and baseball and golf.

- So this was just a way, your art was just a way to deprogram or something from all of the sports.

- I have always been interested in arts and music as far as I can remember.

So, as I got to go to college and those sorts of things, I just moved more and more in that direction.

- [Christine] Well, you went to Illinois Wesleyan.

- Correct.

- And you majored in visual arts.

- Correct, yep.

- Okay.

And what did you hope to do with that?

What did your parents think you were going to be able to do with that?

- You know, I always wanted to do music, and they just encouraged me to get a degree, and so I was drawn to that primarily.

So, you know, music has been sort of the forefront of my mind most of my life.

- Mm-hm, okay.

Well, but you've still managed to keep up with music.

- [Nathan] Yes.

- Do you paint anything to your own music, or, I mean, what's your genre?

- [Nathan] (laughs) Of painting?

- [Christine] Yes.

Well, both.

Let's start with painting first, because it seems we're gonna go back to music.

- You know, I love artists like Van Gogh and Dali, and just, I'm inspired by many different things.

- [Christine] So you like a lot of color?

- I do like a lot of color, and I like anything from Surrealism to Realism to... - So, what about Impressionism?

Are you good with that too, or you like the Realism more?

- I do like some Impressionism.

I had a very interesting project this past year where a former teacher of mine asked me to design a Navajo rug design on her back deck.

- Oh!

- So, that was turned out to be a very interesting project too.

- Okay, so we'll get... We're gonna be all over the place.

But so on her deck and on a Navajo pattern rug.

So, one thing that you've been doing since you majored in art, but that wasn't going too far, you're a commercial painter?

- Yes.

- A residential and commercial painter.

- Yes.

- So you did that on her back porch, on her back deck.

- Correct, yes.

- All right.

Did you tape it off?

Or how did you do that then?

How'd you approach it?

- No, primarily freehand.

I mean, some straight edge, you know, using some of that, but mostly free hand work.

- So you never had any kind of a request like that before?

- Not too often, not too often.

- So you like color, and that would've given you some color.

And then how did you go from that to, you had to pay some bills?

- Yes, so, well, after I was in Bloomington for school, I moved, I ended up moving to North Carolina with the intention of going to graduate school at Appalachian State University.

And they had a big old time music community there.

So, fiddles and banjos and bluegrass, and old time music had taken me to that area, but I got on a construction crew there and started learning carpentry and building homes, and just had always kept up with painting in addition to those trades.

So, from then, I just started developing those trade skills more in order to pay the bills.

- Mm-hm, okay.

Well, and you still do some carpentry work as well, so not just painting, but carpentry.

- Correct, correct.

- So what kind of other things do you build?

You're building decks.

Are you building homes too?

- Mostly I do finishing or remodeling work.

Yesterday I was pouring concrete, so.

- [Christine] So you know it all.

- I wouldn't say that, but (laughs) I am determined enough and have enough patience to make everything work out very good, so.

- Interesting.

Okay, but this music.

So, when you were out in North Carolina, and boy, the devastation out there right now, they need you.

- Oh, yes.

- They need you there.

- I have a lot of friends who were affected by that.

It's horrible.

- And you graduated from Illinois Wesleyan in 2002 you said?

- Correct, yeah.

- All right.

And then you went out there right away.

So how long were you there?

- I lived in Bloomington.

I moved there in 2006.

- [Christine] All right.

- And like I said, started working in the trades.

Also started, got my first yoga training certification, 200 hour certification, met my meditation teacher out there, and continued to do both carpentry and music work.

- [Christine] (laughs) I told you he was a master of all kinds of things, yeah.

- I even was lucky enough to...

I had a friend who was a stage hand for some of Bob Marley's remaining band who was touring, so I got to be a bus driver for that group for a few tours, which was quite the experience.

- [Christine] (laughs) Where did you go?

- We started in Norfolk, Virginia, and worked our way all the way down to the Florida Keys.

And then the second time was Tulsa, Oklahoma, and back down to Florida just for about a month or so each time.

- And something you never expected?

- Never expected.

And also, right after that, I had a friend of mine started touring with another artist named Woody Pines, and they needed a drummer for a tour, so I wound up for the next two or three years touring the United States, even the UK we went to, as a drummer, which I had never been a drummer before, so.

- So, okay.

(Nathan laughs) What instrument do you start out with?

Guitar?

- Guitar, yeah.

I had piano lessons early on, but guitar is my primary instrument.

Guitar and bass, I would say.

- But then you get hired to be a drummer, and, you know, where there's a bass, a foot pedal, and there's some cymbals.

- Right.

- But then, I mean, just because it's natural to you, you picked it up?

- I think, you know, I think when you're involved with music, you study rhythm too, and you just love music and you want to be a part of it regardless of what instrument maybe you're on.

So, I think curiosity and a willingness to learn just has served me well.

- [Christine] Did you enjoy it?

- Yeah, I enjoyed a lot of it.

Just, you know, being in a different town- - All the time.

- All the time was maybe not my most favorite thing, but I got to see a lot of the United States and meet a lot of wonderful people, so that's pretty incredible.

- But life on the road, it's pretty tough.

- Yes, yeah, we were definitely sleeping on a lot of couches.

(Christine laughs) And eating a lot of gas station food.

- So what did your parents think about that little adventure in your life?

- They have always been supportive of me.

You know, they've just been encouraging.

I've been blessed to have great parents, and I can't thank them enough for how much they've helped me out.

- Now, you have a yoga studio, a yoga and wellness, or?

- Yeah, we do yoga and meditation.

The sound therapy.

There's a grief group that meets there.

Some art Zentangle classes happen there.

Massage therapy.

So, I was inspired by... My mother, before I went to college, brought me over to Preston Jackson's art gallery, and I was seeing the pictures of the musicians on the wall and seeing all the artwork there, and I thought that was just incredible.

When I came back from North, moved back in about 2011 from North Carolina, and I realized what a profound impact meditation and yoga practice had on me specifically.

And I wanted to share that with people in the Midwest, 'cause I didn't... You know, and maybe it was some prevalence in Peoria area, but definitely not in Canton and some smaller areas, so I was very eager to share that with people.

You know, I started out teaching at the YWCA and their cafeteria floor, and I would drive, actually, over to Jeanne Perino's Downtown Yoga.

I helped teach there some.

And a building came up for sale and somebody suggested, "Hey, you should... That might be a good place to start a yoga studio."

So, I walked around the corner, and there it was, and it seemed to work out great.

So we've just been, you know, primarily just operating as a donation based studio for a long time, although we've now transferred over to a non-for-profit status and, you know, have a whole board of people and, you know, several teachers, and just trying to make that service available to anybody in the community.

This past year, we've been focusing a lot on children outreach programs.

So we have some establishment with a few different schools- - The schools districts.

- And that's going very good too.

So, trying to, you know, when you feel like you've been fortunate and blessed in life, you just wanna give back as much as you can, you know?

- Yeah, sure, yeah.

So you got into yoga when you were in North Carolina, and I mean, you needed some downtime and some quiet after you were working, you know, in construction.

- Yes, and that was my primary relief, you know?

Those trades are hard on the physical body.

And so in the evening time, I would go to those classes, and a teacher there encouraged me to go through their teacher training program.

One thing leads to the next.

And then after that course was completed, I met my meditation teacher, who has been a profound influence too, Dr. Gyanendra Mahapatra.

And he teaches Vedic meditation.

He was a personal assistant to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for 12 years or so, and left that group, but continues to teach meditation, and that's where I learned from him, and he trained me to teach the same style of meditation.

I highly recommend it.

Of course, all forms of meditation are pretty great, but I really- - [Christine] That's number one on your list.

- That's been number one on my list, yeah.

- And you're sharing that with Cantonites and all Central Illinois, basically.

- Yeah, I try to.

You know, the training does require about three meetings of about an hour a piece, so it's not- - Too intense.

- It's not too intense, but it is a little bit of a commitment, and it asks of you to sit and meditate for, you know, 15 or 20 minutes, twice a day.

There's some very quiet time.

And it's so profound.

When you feel inner stillness and peace, then that can just radiate out to all our interactions and relationships with people during the day.

- [Christine] We need more quiet time.

- Yes, yeah.

- Definitely.

Wow.

Wow.

Well, so you do that, and the name of your studio is The Breathing Tree.

- The Breathing Tree.

- And how did you come up with naming it?

- I always liked Dr. Seuss.

Did he have "The Giving Tree"?

- Well, I think that was- - Shel Silverstein, that's right, yes.

- Shel Silverstein, yes.

Yeah, my son, when he was little, he said, "Can I color this?

Why isn't it any color?"

But go ahead.

(laughs) - But also, I had heard, I was reading some book, and this guy was talking about how two trees exist within the body, the brain, and the nervous system being- - One.

- Its roots, yes.

- Yeah, it was just an inspiration then.

- Yeah, it was an inspiration from that.

So, that's how it became, yeah.

- Okay, so that's your quiet time.

And you do that every day, twice a day.

- Yes, yeah.

- You manage.

All right.

But then you make music.

You're still sort of making some music when you can find some time.

- Oh, yes.

Most evenings I make music.

In fact, we've got a couple gigs coming up.

November 15th, we're going to Burlington, Iowa, to play at a place called The Busted Cup.

And on the 17th, we'll be at the North Branch Peoria Library for their Sunday afternoon concert series.

But I just, I love all types of music.

That group has horns and accordion and bass and drums, and it's more, I call it roots music, where we play Delta blues and New Orleans style jazz, and some songs I've written as well.

- Okay.

So, do you have groupies?

I mean, you've been together for a while here.

- (laughs) There are some people who appreciate our music, and they come out on a regular basis, but no intentions of rock stardom and that sort of (laughs) groupie.

- And so how many people in your band?

What's the name of your band?

Is this it?

- No, this is- - Oh, this is your friend.

No, you did this.

- I did this, I recorded this album in 2008 with the help of the Watauga Arts Council.

They're from Boone, North Carolina.

And friends I had met while living down there.

So it's more string band music with fiddle, banjo, standup bass, mandolin, acoustic guitar.

- And this was your... You did this in zinc.

You scraped it, scratched it out.

I guess I don't- - It's zinc plate etching.

So you start with a plate of metal and you apply a topical layer to it, and then work that away, put it in an etching compound, and it eats away the metal.

- Right.

- Clean that.

Then you ink that and run it through a printing press.

- And this was for a CD that you made?

- Correct, yeah.

- Okay.

- [Nathan] We used it for that.

- And you're still doing some music and some recording?

- Yeah.

Well, yeah.

I got to record with my good friend, Ben Mackey.

He has put out an album a couple years ago called...

The group, he called it The Hybrid Invader, and the album is called "Humanoid Brain".

You should definitely check it out if you like a wide variety of music.

It's sort of sci-fi inspired.

- [Christine] You didn't play drums for that?

- I did not.

I played some bass and some guitar for that.

- Okay.

- Super fantastic.

- Okay.

So what is the name of your group then?

This one with horns and everything.

- Oh, the Nathan Taylor Band.

- [Christine] Okay, well, what an original name.

- (laughs) Yeah.

- So you've just gotten these musicians all together, and you have jam sessions every night, or you're practicing, or?

- No, a lot of the guys work in different groups, so we get together when we can to work up new material.

And a lot of the guys teach at universities around town.

Larry Harms plays the clarinet and the saxophone, and he runs Central Illinois Jazz Society and teaches at ICC.

Matt Hughes plays the bass, and he teaches over at Western.

Jason Brannan is our drummer, and he teaches over at Knox.

So, these people are just polished musicians that, really, you know, play in a lot of groups, that have no trouble just jumping in and working together.

- How did you find one another?

- Our trumpet player and I, Tom Stoner, he and I sort of grew up together.

Matt Buchko, the accordion player, lives a block over from me, and we've played on and off for years.

Larry Harms I met through my guitar teacher, Trevin Owen, over in Bloomington back in the early 2000s, so, just sort of developed over those years.

- What's been the most exciting about being able to still hang onto your music?

I mean, you have your quiet time with your yoga and your meditation, and then you get loud, and then you've got speakers and microphones and you name it, you got amplifiers.

- Yeah, this music is not as loud as- - Some of it.

- Some of it.

As I aged, I learned to maybe not turn it up so loud.

- Tone it down a little bit.

Have you lost your hearing as a result of back in the day, or?

- I feel like my hearing is still relatively good.

I try to protect it well when I'm doing construction or those sorts of things.

But yeah, you try to give those senses a rest through that meditation and- - Good for you, good for you.

- [Nathan] So you don't wear 'em out.

- So you're appealing to the... Back to The Breathing Tree, 'cause we're all over the place.

You're appealing to children, you know?

And there's so many things coming at all of us every minute of the day, practically.

You know, you try to sleep, but if you have your phone near you, you're not gonna get any sleep.

So you're trying to appeal to kids to learn to quiet it down.

- Yeah, you know, it was my mid to late 20s before I learned some of these techniques that have profoundly impacted me, and I just wish that growing up from childhood to adolescence and going through those stages of life, that I had some of those tools to help me through those situations, so.

- And you have them coming to The Breathing Tree, or do you go into the schools?

- This summer, we did have a few kids, in-house kids programs, but primarily, it's outreach into the schools themselves, so we're just working to make that more available to kids.

- What gives you the most enjoyment out of everything that you do?

And you can quantify each one if you want to.

- (laughs) I would say music feels like the biggest sense of freedom.

It's an immediate art, you know?

it's just a existing in the now, so when you're there making music, you're just completely absorbed in it, and so, you know, the mundane or the things that are challenging in life at that point seem to just give you a rest for a moment, yeah.

- Well, that's nice, yeah.

It's the breathing treatment at that point, yeah.

- (laughs) There you go.

- In its own way.

So, what do you look forward to most?

Do you have a bucket list of what you wanna do, let's say in the next five to 10 years?

- You know, I just, I'm at a point where each of these trades, I just wanna continue to develop further and just become more of a master at each of them.

So I just try as much as I can to give equal time to all of those so I can grow in knowledge and proficiency at those.

- That's not easy to do in this world.

- No, it's not.

You have to just be patient and one step at a time, one day at a time.

- What does 2025 hold for you?

Will you have any more gigs to do?

- Oh, yeah, hopefully we'll have a lot of gigs, and this group has been having the intent to do some recording.

So, a lot of that.

I also play with a couple other groups.

I have a friend, Erin Connolly.

She's a singer.

I play bass with her and my other friend, Chico Welch from Smithfield.

He's also a singer and plays fiddle and mandolin.

And so sometimes, you know, a lot of music with those guys.

- Have you ever tried to play the accordion?

'Cause I mean, if you did drums, have you ever tried that?

- I would like to.

At first, I was, you know, I was trying to learn a lot of different instruments, and right now, I've realized that- - Strings.

- You know, guitar, trying to learn to sing, those things are just...

Try to rein it in just a little bit.

- And you're writing some of your own music?

- Yeah, I've written songs, you know, for the past almost 20 years.

I was fortunate enough to have one song recorded by this great band called The Crooked Still.

And they're, you know, they were a nationally touring band, so that felt good to, you know, have your songs be good enough that someone else would want to sing them as well.

- [Christine] There you go, not just you, right?

- So that's very nice.

- See, I stick to singing in the shower.

Well, my grandkids like my singing too, so it's all good.

- There you go.

- Well, thank you so much for being here!

- Thank you for having me.

- Pretty fascinating.

And Jenny Beal in Canton, she's the one who said, "He does it all."

So, thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you.

- Hope you enjoyed learning all about everything that he's doing, and yeah, we'll have to look up some extra stuff here too, Nathan.

- Oh, yeah.

Yeah, and just, we also are having another fundraising event for The Breathing Tree, November 20th at the Bistro in Canton, Illinois, so check out thebreathingtree.org.

- Okay, yeah, that's the website, okay.

I'm always bad at forgetting.

I forget that a lot.

- That's okay.

- But anyway, thank you very much for being here.

- Thank you.

- And thank you for being here.

And got any interesting people?

Get ahold of me here.

Be well.

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