Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Washington.
Taylor, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It all started about 14 billion years ago… but Paladin’s only been around for the past 7. I think. Losing 18+ months to COVID can really mess with your perception of time.
We formed back in April 2015 after the sudden dissolution of another band that me and Alex (guitar) were playing in along with our original drummer Aaron. The three of us took the songs I had written and continued on as Paladin. I took up vocal duties while splitting guitar duties with Alex. I had never really played while singing before and it didn’t come naturally to me AT ALL, so I had to put in a lot of work to get that happening. Our friend Ian joined on bass soon thereafter, Aaron quit a few months in, and we found our current drummer Nate at the tail end of 2015. For the next couple of years, we pretty much just played as many shows as we could (within reason) while I kept writing material for our would-be first album. We hit the studio in mid-2017 with Matt Smith of Athens-based metal band Theocracy and had the final masters a little over a year later. Sometime during all that, Ian left and was replaced by Alex’s lifelong family friend Andy, solidifying our lineup to the present. My friend Randy Drake (bassist for Fozzy) sent our stuff to Prosthetic Records and they liked it enough to make us an offer, which we accepted. After getting pushed back a couple of times due to vinyl production delays, our debut album “Ascension” was scheduled to be released on May 17, 2019.
Around that time things became a bit of a blur. We recorded a music video, did some photoshoots, and spent a lot of time getting everything ready and lined up for the release date. We secured a slot performing at Legions of Metal Festival in Chicago for the actual release day and held an album release show in Atlanta a week before at 529 that sold out. Driving to the venue for load-in and seeing a line of people down the street well before doors opened is something I’ll never forget. We got to play the illustrious ProgPower USA festival in September 2019, which Alex and I have been attending for years and always dreamed of playing but probably never really thought it’d happen. We did a national tour with some great dudes (Allegaeon and Inferi), recorded an EP, and performed at the Legator guitars booth for NAMM in January 2020.
Then COVID hit and everything stopped. The entire live music industry shutdown indefinitely, the momentum we had been building grinded to a halt, and I became too mired in depression to do much of anything. Finally, life started returning at some point last year and we were able to do another US tour in August 2021 and got the AWESOME opportunity to play the main stage at MAGFest 2022 (Music And Gaming Festival) this past January. Right now, we’re laying low for a bit so I can have time to work on new music.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It was a struggle from the beginning. After forming, we had a show booked less than a month away with the previous band and decided to honor that by playing as Paladin. That gave me only a very short amount of time to learn the whole singing-while-playing thing and be able to do it decently enough in a live environment. We’ve had a couple of lineup changes, which usually isn’t fun to deal with. Our transmission died during our last tour which was devastating at first but ended up working out much better than we ever could’ve hoped. That tour was still tough for me personally. And as I mentioned before, COVID depression hit me pretty hard and I still struggle with it. I lost all motivation to write music during lockdown, kept putting off other projects that I needed to work on, and many days didn’t even feel like getting out of bed.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We play speed metal that has a lot of fancy guitar work, powerful, operatic vocals, and a big emphasis on melody. There isn’t really another metal band in Atlanta like us.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I don’t self-promote much and I’m a pretty reserved person, especially at my day job. Pretty much everyone knows I’m a musician and that I play in cover bands and have a band of my own, but only some of them are aware of what Paladin is actually like. Occasionally someone will ask me to show them some of my music or others will take it upon themselves to share with the uninitiated. They know me as the quiet, skinny guy with the long ponytail, so the reaction is always great when they see me whipping my hair around, shredding guitar, belting out high notes. One guy didn’t even realize I was the frontman in the music video I showed him! Pretty hilarious.
Contact Info:
- Email: paladinATL@gmail.com
- Website: https://paladinatl.bandcamp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paladin_band/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paladinatl
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/paladinatl
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3qQtwCBsbL4gkvUfaI4KyQ
Image Credits
David Parham Stephen Schmidt Jamie Kaufman Camden Cruz
