Getting Personal: An Interview with Machan Taylor

Getting Personal:

An Interview with Machan Taylor

To learn more about our crossdisciplinary interests, InFormant editors will be interviewing various PAVA members so we can all learn a little more about the diverse fascinations housed in our organization. In September 2022, Paul Patinka had the honor of interviewing Machan Taylor who recently returned from Sicily where she was performing with a Pink Floyd cover band.

MACHAN TAYLOR

Can you tell us a little about some projects you are currently working on or recently finished?

I toured a little bit this summer in Sicily and it's kind of funny. Because I toured with Pink Floyd years ago, I get these calls [to be] a guest vocalist with these tribute bands. So, I just got back at the end of August and I had the best time with the sweetest people. They treat me like a Rockstar! It's so much fun and the food and the wine is incredible. I'll be going to Chile in December to sing with another group. But I'm also trying to continue working on my own stuff. I've been releasing songs of my own. I’ m executive producing and co-writing material for a student of mine, this wonderful singer who I've been working with since she's nine years old and she's 18 now. It really feels good supporting young up and coming talent.

What about vocalization fascinates or inspires you the most?

The voice is like a fingerprint. It is unique to every human being on the planet, no matter what type you are,

or, you know, what sound you think you have. Your actual voiceprint is completely individual and unique. And I think that it's just a miracle that we're able to make these incredible sounds and music. I continually marvel at how the voice works and then in my teaching it's such a thrill to see when someone gets a certain concept. And they end up getting these beautiful, full, resonant kinds of sounds. To hear that, to see those transformations happen, it's really a thrill. I think that's what really turns me on about teaching, you know?

What excites you about being a member of PAVA? How does PAVA fit into your overall career trajectory or goals?

Honestly, I have not really been involved as much as I would like to. I'd like to start getting a little bit more involved. I'd like to do the certification. I'm a little nervous about getting into it because I know it's going to require a little bit of study and time and preparation, but I do want to do the certification. And I just think that it really is the platform for what I believe is the future of vocal pedagogy. I think obviously PAVA is, and the members of PAVA are people that believe in vocal science and are researchers that are developing the techniques so on and so forth. So, I would like to get more involved and I'm going to pull the trigger on the certification soon!

Do you have a mentor in your field whose work you look up to? Who is it and why?

There's so many! Dr. Titze, Kittie Verdolini and so many people, Aaron Johnson is here in New York. So, I don't think there's any one person that I can say I really look up to, but I would say that Dr. Titze and Sundberg, the pioneers of the field. Before COVID I had been taking a bunch of lessons with William Riley who's in New York. But I've also discovered this wonderful teacher in London and I've taken some of his online classes, Dane Chalfin, and he is hysterical.

If you had unlimited resources and a year of vacation, what is something fun you would like to do with that time?

It is a really difficult question because there are so many places in the world that I still want to go to, like Egypt! I would love to see the pyramids and so many places. But I think for me, what would really sort of satisfy my heart would be to go somewhere like Sardinia and spend, I don't know, six months or a year, working on my Italian and sitting on a beach.