Black Taxi

Brooklyn, New York’s Black Taxi, a manifesto fusion of varying musical elements to develop a style that’s been compared to Talking Heads and Daft Punk. They are known for their infectious live acts, and rambunctious energy they bring to the stage. Their music has been featured from film to magazines to television, and with their second release, We Don’t Know Any Better, are touring and performing at festivals throughout the spring and summer. The critical success and the outpouring of fans at their live performances are what makes these guys unique. Their first Atlanta performance takes place May 9th, 2012 at The Masquerade, is all ages and the cover is only $6. Find out more about who Black Taxi is with our interview featuring lead singer, Ezra Huleatt, and a few fun questions answered by bass player, Krisana Soponpong.

You guys muster energy like something I don't see often. (i.e., 7 showcases in at SXSW!). What, besides music, drives you?

EZRA: Music is really the only true driving factor, although there might be some undiagnosed ADD as well in the mix. And Tequila. We all have our personal vices and passions but coalesce around music.

What excites you the most about music and it's entities? Were you always focused on music, or is it something that "just came about"?

EZRA: What excites me most about music is the composition process and then the performance. Both are extremely gratifying in their own way. Everything else is secondary. I grew up with a strong musical background, but it was never something I was focused on until my early 20's...there were too many tree-houses, go-carts, sports, and girls, competing for my attention before then.

3. This Wednesday marks your first Atlanta play; what are you most looking forward to about your performance in the ATL, as well as the rest of your Southeast and East Coast tour?

EZRA: It's always a challenge playing a city for the first time, but we are definitely excited to play in Atlanta and the South in general, where we have been treated ridiculously well in the past. Getting the initial gut reaction of people who have only heard us online or through friends is (mostly) very gratifying and pushes us to leave it all out on the stage. Additionally, ATL has a rich music history and we hope to have some of the magic rub off on us.

I love that so many musicians, with so many varying sounds, such as Daft Punk and Cake, are huge influences in your music. Is that a cultivation of each of you guys' love for different types of music? What's the process like making each song your own?

EZRA: All members of Black Taxi come from vastly differing musical backgrounds, so hence the large number of influences. The challenge is to integrate them all is an interesting and cohesive way. The song writing process has varied over the years, but lately it involves one of us writing the basic song/lyrics, and then bringing it to the band for detail and depth. Living in Brooklyn, there is a lot of interesting stuff going on around us which influences us in it's own way, and pushes us to build a sound that stands out amongst those around us

How did your vision incorporate with Aaron Nevezie's vision for and with your music?

EZRA: This is Black Taxi's second album recorded and produced by Aaron, so we have developed a healthy working relationship that is based on thinking big and playing with new sounds, tempered with the knowledge that most of the best songs are pretty simple and not ruined with extraneous "stuff."

Fun Questions:

What was your first concert? Got a favorite?

Lauren Hill was my first. My favorite was a Lightning Bolt show in a Redhook warehouse that I stumbled into by chance. All blood, sweat, and passion.

Name 5 albums you couldn't live without.

Jeff Buckley-Grace. That's the only one that I would have trouble living without. Others that come close would be The Clash-London Calling, most anything by the Talking Heads, RATM's first album, Graceland, Bill Withers Just As I Am, Dvorak's New World Symphony.

Have a guilty-music listening pleasure?

I listen to a lot of stuff that is not hip, but I have no guilt about it.

What's your biggest pet peeve with the music industry?

The industry part.

Krisana:

What was your first concert? Got a favorite?

Krisana: Beastie Boys and A Tribe Called Quest in NJ. It was the Hello Nasty tour.

What was your first album on vinyl, cassette and/or CD?

Krisana: It was the Wayne's World soundtrack on tape. I was 11.

Have a guilty-music listening pleasure?

Krisana: sometimes I listen to Sting's solo records. I feel totally guilty about it.
- The Examiner

Black Taxi‘s “House on Fire” is a signature slice of the new breed of stadium electro-pop: a track that combines spiky dance-punk guitars with M83 synth intensity and a fun.-size chorus. (Not to mention the horn break.) With all this below him, frontman Bill Mayo floats on, opening up his heart: “I just want to get along/ Like a house on a fire,” he sings. With the chorus’ fight against loneliness under way, the title image evokes the crackling home of Charlie Kaufman’s movie “Synecdoche, New York” — in that case, a metaphor for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character’s internal instability, but here it’s something more hopeful.

“House On Fire” is the band’s first taste of fresh material since sophomore set We Don’t Know Any Better, which landed in early 2012. Since then, the New York group seems to have found a second home in Austin, Texas: In addition to recording “House on Fire” there, they held down a marathon three-month residency at The Parish. Three months! You’re making the entire rest of indie rock look lazy, dudes. Black Taxi hasn’t announced a new album yet, but it’s our mission to find more where this came from — in the meantime, we’re pretty busy “House” hunting. - MTV Buzzworth