CHRIS TAYLOR
Canada’s Music Ambassador
STORY BY MICHAEL SEGUIN / PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID LEYES
CREATING MUSIC HAS ALWAYS BEEN the lifelong passion of Chris Taylor, the President of Music Global at Entertainment One. “I was always playing in bands in Windsor, growing up,” Chris explains. “Even when I was doing my undergraduate degree in Political Science and Communications at the University of Windsor, we were always still playing in bands.” After completing his double major at the University of Windsor, Chris moved to Toronto to attend law school at York University’s Osgoode Hall. “In Toronto, I was playing with a couple other Windsorites, Rob DeMarco and Tim Lane,” Chris recalls. “We were part of a band called One. Through law school, we managed to build a following while playing shows across Southwestern Ontario. By the time I finished law school, we’d created some momentum.” After graduating in the spring of 1990, Chris and his bandmates were faced with a difficult choice: continue pursuing their careers or continue chasing their passion. “I made the decision after law school to—rather than practice law right away—to jump full-time into the band,” Chris admits. “We started touring and playing outside of Ontario, almost immediately. We went to Saskatoon and back. We toured back and forth across all of North America. We travelled throughout all of Canada 15 times, and the United States 7 or 8 times.” One turned out to be a phenomenal success. The band opened for the Tragically Hip and Van Halen at Molson Park during a Canada Day celebration, signed a contract with Virgin Records and released four albums and a series of music videos. However, after five years on the road, the band’s momentum began to stall. “When we began, I decided that if we weren’t making a serious go of things by the time
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