Pulling the rug from under my feet

I was playing the Moonrise Festival last week with Kila at Carrickmacross and I met someone who I felt did me a small injustice of sorts a few years ago. He signed up to the Side 4 project that I run and used one of the beats to write a song but never offered it back to the project. The idea behind Side 4 is that artists receive a folder full of unusual grooves and use them as a ‘first point of writing’ and can optionally layer up ideas with more collaborators. Instead, when I met him at a party about 4 years ago, he told me that, yes he had taken one of the beats and written a song, but no he wasn’t going to let Side 4 Collective use it. I was very taken back, as no one has done that (to my knowledge) to this day. His name is Harry Hudson Taylor, an immensely talented musician.

As soon as arrived, I met him backstage at the festival, and he offered a warm welcome but I told that I ‘had a bone to pick’ with him and reminded him of what had happened. He immediately apologised and explained he was in a bad place at the time and was keen to show that he had changed his tune (sorry!), and that he would love to try again, this time from Berlin with his new partner and talented beat box/chanteuse Seraphina. I was so pleased we had this honest exchange and admire him for it. 

Hudson Taylor’s drummer is a real gent and a fabulous player, and goes by the name of Shay Sweeney, and that night he let me use his kit at the festival. The only problem was that, through no fault of his own, the kit had no drum mat ( non-slip) underneath it and during our Kila gig I was challenged with an ever sliding kit of drums and stands and pedals. I had my mat in the car and he fetched it and brought it onstage and we fixed the problem and he borrowed it for his performance after us. Drummers have a good sense of back-scratchery brotherhood.

Anyway, the next morning at 10am to my complete surprise (I’m not easily surprised) Harry asked me to send him the Side 4 beats again, fresh in a new folder, and the day after that he sent this Instagram post of his partner singing to music they had created with one of my grooves. I was absolutely delighted. It shows you the importance of clearing the air and any misunderstanding that may happen between people, and having the rug put back under your feet.