Fact #90573

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO TAYLOR DAYNE?
Interview by Johnny Black, April 2002.

In recent years, you’ve been more visible in American than you have here in the UK…
That’s true, because I’ve been doing more film and tv stuff. Recording-wise it’s been an interesting year.

You made a move into acting in the early 90s….
Yeah. I always considered myself the kind of entertainer who would move in that direction, movies, tv and the stage. In 1993, when my album Soul Dancing came out, I started doing a lot of promotion round that, and that’s when Warren Beatty called me, and I auditioned for Love Affair. I had been studying acting, obviously.

I was living in New York at that time.

Was it hard to get into movies from a New York base?
It’s hard to get into it anyway, you’re trying to cross over from one medium into another, but I had the advantage of being visible as Taylor Dayne. You always have to prove yourself, and for me it was a creative and challenging direction, because nobody assumes you can act just because you can sing.

I wasn’t trying to get away from music. I want to do both. I’m trying to walk in the shoes of the Chers, Bette Midlers and Barbra Streisands. I see myself as an entertainer.

In the last eight years I’ve put a lot of work into it, and I’ve learned that I’m a great singer, but I’m also a good actress. It’s not one against the other.

The world has changed, because of the media, all the multi-media formats, there’s a lot of new tools.

Did you feel a lack of AAndR direction from Arista?
Well, look, I was with one of the kings, Clive Davis, so there wasn’t any lack of AAndR direction, it was more of a clash. Let’s just say there were political decisions made within the record company that made it so we could no longer make music together.

We parted ways in about 95. They were putting out a Greatest Hits as my fourth album, and although I realised there was material there to draw from, it felt like we had hit a wall. Creatively, I felt I didn’t know who I was artistically any more, or what I was going for. Also the music industry was changing quickly…

If I had to look back, there are very few regrets, but there are a couple of things where I wish I could have approached things in a different way. I have a lot of passion, determination and wilfulness for what I do, which keeps me ready to roll up my sleeves and get them dirty and get down to business.

I still want to put music out like I first wanted to put music out. It’s very frustrating. If I could hit a baseball the way I hit notes, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I’d be on the team and I’d be doing just fine.

But the music industry isn’t set up so that the best singers will always be the most successful artists…
Well, I leave that up to you and your readers. You get where I’m going. There’s no brain surgery involved here. My point with all that is, honestly, is my drive and what motivates me is something from within that … my decision-making processes have matured. I mean, Christ! I started at 22 with a hit record. I would say that, because the same hunger is still there, I’m still movin’ and shakin’ and I’ll get past it. If you stand around long enough you get to sit down.

You have to put yourself in the right position, challenge yourself…

I moved out to LA about five years ago, and there was a reason for that, I wanted to be more visible in film and television, well, I’m not going to fade away. I don’t want to. There’s something inside me that needs to be said. I ended back in New York for the last year, but that was a decision based on doing Broadway. I’d never done anything like that.

It was never a conscious decision to leave the music business to do acting. It was a very frustrating period. Other labels were making me offers that I wasn't happy with, and I still needed to work in some capacity. So, I moved to Los Angeles, enrolled in acting classes and challenged my creativity.

When did you do Archie and Mehitabel?
That’s funny. It was a one night performance at the town hall, in about 95. That was probably my first step onto the stage in that sense.

Then you did some independent movies Stag and Fool’s Paradise…
Fool’s Paradise was a kind of caper movie, set in Jamaica where I played a sassy little deviant criminal with nice high heels. I really just had to wave a gun around and talk some shit. Stag was a drama for HBO about a guy’s stag night, in which I was the leading actor. I was working opposite some great people, Ben Gazzara, Mario Van Peebles, Kevin Dillon, that was a real strong piece, and I think it showed a lot of people what I am capable of.

And did that lead directly to your role in the tv series?
No. You have to go out and sell yourself. The thing with Warren Beatty caused a lot of interest in me because of my comedic timing, but I wasn’t physically out here. I got hired to play John Goodman’s mistress in the Roseanne show about five years ago, which was the specific reason I moved to LA. It didn’t happen, I sub-let my apartment, and next thing you know, they’d cancelled Roseanne.

Then Bette Midler’s company was producing a series called the Harlettes, which was Bette, myself and Jennifer Lewis, which was so much fun to do, but it just didn’t take off. I put a lot of energy into that. I auditioned for a lot of things, did some pilots, and it was frustrating.

Around 98 I felt I had to get something more solid going, so I went and put a record together, Naked Without You, which I co-wrote and co-produced as well as singing. That was something I felt very proud of, it was a great mix of talents, and I put it out independently, so the machine wasn’t there behind me, but I’m still proud of that record.

I’m a pop artist, and I’m not gonna change that. I’m not gonna start trying to make college radio playlists, but that was a record I’m proud of.

Why did you call your label Neptune?
Because Neptune was the god of the sea and I’m a Pisces. My publishing company is Neptune Girl.

I had a song in the De Niro film Flawless, and it went to No1 in the dance charts here.

I’m coming to the UK later this year. I feel I have to be over there. I think if I want to break a record again, I’ll do it from the UK. Look at this new Kylie record … and all the producers and songwriters I’m talking to … I’d be happy to release something in the UK, promote it from there and see where we go from there.

Do you play live much still?
I’ve just been out on the road. I always tour, either behind a record or just a string of shows across the country. I do a lot of corporate shows, play Vegas, you know it pays my rent, feeds my children, lets me pay to make a another record that I can put out.

You were negotiating to have your own tv series at one point…
Well, in 1999, I did that Rude Awakenings series for Showtime, which was a show starring Sharilynn Fenn. It’s about 12-step, this girl’s life falling in and out of 12-step. I came in mid-season – I’m the bad influence. Roger Daltrey, Lynn Redgrave, Tim Curry, was in it, it was so much fun to do, and I was in it for two seasons. And through that some of the writers and producers started angling on a show for me, but you have to pitch it, take it in to the networks, and we’ve been having conversations, so I hope it works out.

And then there’s Aida…
Yeah. Let me see. I put out the Naked Without Record in 98, went in to Rude Awakenings in 99, Harlettes was banging around too, then I went in to do Aida on Broadway last year. It was wonderful. I can honestly say that about six years ago, when they were doing the workshop version of Aida, with Tim Rice and Elton John and all the folks at Disney, we sat around for three weeks rehearsing it with a great cast in a workshop form, so I ended coming into the character of Amnaris (?) on Broadway.

It was incredible to see how it had developed since I’d done the workshop. I did it for nine months which was fantastic. I finished on September 8.

Which takes us to the beginning of this year…
Yeah, which is when I had the twins. It’s such a grounding experience. They’re just starting to become aware, but they’re born with personalities and they change so rapidly. I’m doing it as a single mom, and I know from the get that I would need help, and I’ve got a little community around me, but even then your sit-down periods are few and far between. But I felt that if I didn’t go for that experience I’d never get the chance again.

Having the children has been a real enhancement. I was getting real miserable, going after things all the time, getting knocked back, and I was thinking ‘Is this all there is?’ Eventually you have to look within yourself and buckle down. That’s been the big journey of my last ten years.

So it was a conscious decision to have children?
Yes, all the way. When I was sixteen I was consciously not having children, I was going to challenge the world. Now I’ve come full circle. And the kids give me a reason to get back out there fighting harder than ever.

What’s your current activity?
As I said, I’ve been working on specifics with producers and writers in the UK, and planning how to get over there, maybe in May, and make this next record. And I’ve just done a bunch of live shows this last month. I took the kids to Reno, and in February I did an independent film for the American Film Institute, just a short called Joshua Tree about the dynamic between a mother and daughter, directed by my friend Jonathan Messier. I have some good friends out in the desert and I go there a lot. So that film will be going out to the festivals.

Any pets?
I have a black pug dog.