Son of James Taylor, Carly Simon finds his ‘Kung Folk’ footing

As a rule, e-mail interviews are a last resort.

Usually, they’re the domain of artists who are (a) overseas, (b) so crunched for time that talking to a reporter pushes their stress level into the red zone, (c) phobic of saying something without thinking it through or (d) on doctor’s orders not to use their voice.

For singer-songwriter Ben Taylor — coming to East Tennessee on Thursday and the son of legendary artists James Taylor and Carly Simon — this week’s choice was (d). We wanted to talk and so did he — but a case of acute laryngitis forced us to correspond electronically.

Here’s our Q&A with Taylor:

The Daily Times: What’s going on with your voice? Everything going to be OK?

Ben Taylor: Everything is fine with my voice. I have to be on vocal rest because this tour has been booked so aggressively. Last week I took two flights per day almost every day and played two different concerts in two different cities at the ends of each of those flights. When my publicist got word that I couldn’t speak or do a lot of phone interviews this week I guess they must have jumped to some radical conclusions. It’s hard for non-singers to understand the need for vocal rest, but it’s something that can end up ruining tours if it isn’t taken seriously.

TDT: Your new album (due in July) is called “The Legend of Kung Folk Part One: The Killing Bite” ... that’s a mouthful, as well as a fascinating title. The name alone suggests there’s quite a story behind it, or at least a lot of imagination. Care to elaborate on the name of the record itself?

BT: Kung Folk Possible explanations:
1: Work with folk. Or for that matter, metamorphic folk as it happens in nature (musically and otherwise).
2: Folk with a kick!
3: A complex but pleasantly breezy blend of music, love, and Qi Gong.
4: laughing at myself is proving to be very good Kung Fu.

The Killing Bite: The killing bite is a pre-programmed, pre-dispositioned, sequence action pattern that all predators are born knowing how to perform. They are carnivorous animals who need this instinctive knowledge in order to survive (they were born to do it). Instinctive behaviors like the killing bite and the mating dance (which may end up having to be the name of “Kung Folk part 2”) are like code written into an animal’s DNA unlike so many learned behaviors which may seem like instinct, but are actually passed down through life lessons from one generation to the next.

On this album I wanted to act out of my own innate understanding of music, and try not to listen too hard to my own or any one else’s over-active analytical intellectuality. Too much going-with-what-you’ve-learned can be rather dreary. Going with what you were born knowing — now that’s sexy.

TDT: How is the music on the new record evolved from your most recent studio effort, “Another Run Around the Sun”? What personal themes do you feel like the music explores, either consciously or unconsciously?

BT: The recording process is one half of a musician’s evolution. Together with tours, recording projects act as rites of passage for their musicians. This album is completely different because it came at the end of a whole new chapter in my life. I have always and always will draw inspiration from things like love and loss and sometimes even bubble baths with pretty girls ... now it’s just a spiritual question of how deep the bath will be and what color of bubbles.

TDT: As a guy who cut his musical teeth listening to your father, I certainly hear his influence on you, at least biologically. What’s it been like for you over the years, being the son of two very famous artists and trying to forge your own career and make your own art outside of those two very significant shadows?

BT: There are pressures that necessarily come from having such high examples of success set, but there is little sense in complaining. My parents are great heroes of mine. Their shadows are warm and welcoming, and my music thrives just as much in that shade as it does outside of it.

TDT: If there are two lessons relating to music and/or the business — one from your mother and one from your father — that you still follow with a certain amount of devotion, what would they be?

BT: My father says work. My mother says love.

TDT: Does it ever get frustrating for you, the fact that the music press feels compelled (at least, I know I do) to bring up your lineage? Does it ever make you wish you’d changed your name, or performed under a pseudonym, or tried to make it with no connection whatsoever to your parents?

BT: I would feel rude and incompetent if I were interviewing anyone (regardless of their lineage) and didn’t have the manners or the interest to ask after their folks. I reckon it’s just something you ask people.

TDT: How do you want to be remembered as a musician? Other than “son of James Taylor and Carly Simon,” what’s the one thing you hope that, years from now, pop-culture historians will say about the man you are and the music you make?

BT: My goal as a musician is to promote harmony and bring people into tune with one and other. I already remember that about myself, (and it) feels great.

TDT: Ever been here to East Tennessee? Any memories or funny stories about your time here, if you have?

BT: I spent 10 hours in Knoxville one time. Met a pretty girl with dreads who seems to be the only thing I can remember about the experience (tours can really blur with time unless someone in the band is a relentless photographer). Hope she comes to the show ...