Name: Taylor Hughes
Age: 22
Hometown: Jarrettsville, MD
Lives In: When I’m not on the road I come back home to Jarrettsville, MD.
Current Bands: Car Party
Day Job: Artist management
Drum Kit: Chicago Custom Percussion. All Maple wood: 8×14 snare 9×12 rack, 16×16, floor and 20×22 bass
Taylor Hugues drums with Car Party. She found the perfect bandmates through Craigslist and now they’re starting a tour to support their first album “Patterns”.
Tom Tom Magazine: When did you realize you wanted to play drums?
Taylor Hughes: I think I always knew. I asked for a drum kit for birthdays and Christmas, etc from the time I was 5 or 6. My parents got me an electric guitar for my 5th birthday probably hoping it would distract me from something louder. I finally got them to cave in high school.
So you also played guitar and other instruments, what do you think is special
about drums?
Drums were the only thing that clicked immediately. I was over my friend’s house and her dad had a sweet vintage Slingerland kit set up and he was nice enough to let me even touch it… He showed me how to hold the sticks, a basic 4/4 beat and let me at it. I was in that room for 5 hours… I had never played before, I knew nothing about drums whatsoever but I quickly began playing and writing my own parts. When something comes to you so naturally and you can spend hours doing it with a smile on your face, you have to explore that.
When you started to search for bandmates through Craiglist, did you already know what kind of band you wanted? Did you try to play with many different people? Tell us about the story…
At the time I was looking to start more of an indie pop band, I was listening to a lot of Death Cab and Silversun Pickups. I probably went through 20+ people, tons of tentative lineups and a few wackos before coming across the current lineup. Genres changed as I found permanent members, it took a lot of demoing and an EP or 2 to do it but we’ve found the balance of infusing everyone’s influences and strengths into one cohesive sound. As a band we feel that ‘Patterns’ is the first record we’ve made that really represents that cohesive sound.
What are your predictions and wishes for your upcoming tour?
I predict this being one of the funnest tours Car Party has ever done and I’m looking forward to meeting tons of awesome people. My Wish is for this tour to open more doors, I’d love to do lengthier tours more frequently. It’d also be cool to have at least one sold out show.
Who are your favourite drummers?
Rusty Fuller (Copeland)
Christopher Guanlao(Silversun Pickups)
Jason McGerr(Death Cab For Cutie)
What are your three favourite drumming songs?
1. My favorite Car Party song to play is ‘Foolproof’ – lot’s of 16th notes
on the hi hat and off beat snare hits, two of my favorite things ever.
2. When Finally Set Free by Copeland
3. Guilty pleasure has to be Taylor Swift – ’22’ It’s SO FUN!
Finish the sentences:
Car Party’s music is… like partying with your friends in a car listening to your favorite band for the first time.
To play drums makes me… Me. I identify myself through music, if I didn’t start playing drums or music in general I honestly don’t know who or where I’d be.
I like touring much more than… Sitting at home and eating tons of Skittles and I really like Skittles.
What inspires me the most is… Going to a really great live show. I was feeling a little dry after putting so much into our latest record. It took going to a live show seeing and incredible drummer (Longineu Parsons III) of Yellowcard to give me that spark again… I practiced so hard the next day!
Interview by Cati Bestard