TAZ: Ebullient Organized Chaos
Photo: Jen Rosenstein
***
“I want to go out there with my people and rage as hard as I can in a way that spreads love,” Brandon Niederauer says of the upcoming shows he has scheduled with his group. These gigs were scheduled during a window between Jon Batiste dates where Niederauer has been appearing on guitar.
“I know we have the capability,” Niederauer affirms. “It’ll be organized chaos while we’re doing it.”
The New York-based musician offers these reflections from Northern California prior to an early autumn performance with Batiste. This is the first time that Niederauer has toured on this scale, however the 22-year old artist has long been in the public spotlight.
In 2015, he originated the role of Zack in Broadway’s School of Rock musical. However even prior to this, he garnered renown and gained a fanbase as an incendiary guitar player whose frenetic, animated style earned him the nickname TAZ (after the Tasmanian Devil in the Warner Bros. cartoons). Niederauer’s prowess generated invitations to share the stage with lauded instrumentalists such as Buddy Guy, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Gary Clark Jr. and Slash.
Although his acclaim continued to grow, by the time he’d reached his late teens, Niederauer’s parents encouraged him to place his musical ambitions on simmer and pursue a traditional academic path. Niederauer was accepted to Yale, where he graduated this past May with a degree in economics.
Looking back on the experience he notes, “It was definitely a sacrifice, but I knew I was doing something that was a good alternative to going out on the road at 18. I definitely was not prepared for that, which I realized as soon as I got to school. I quickly did a bunch of stupid things that I’m glad I did in college and not in the public eye. When I got there, my academic advisor told me that they would be watching me and making sure that I was up on my game, not touring too much and making sure that school was a priority. I definitely made it the priority for those four years.”
Niederauer pauses, then adds, “But those four years are gone, and it’s time to show the world what I’ve got to offer.
This process began in July with the release of his debut original single as TAZ. “Say Something,” which was produced by Theron “Neff-U” Feemster, is a pop tune that’s infused with the blend of rock and R&B that has long endeared the musician to his fans. Seven weeks later, Niederauer followed this up with the similarly infectious “Running After You Again.”
“I’m trying to elicit the feeling that I get when I listen to the songs I really like,” Niederauer says of the material he has written and developed with Neff-U. “As someone from Generation Z, who was born in 2003, I’m starting out with the music that I grew up listening to. But then I’m pushing it forward and bringing the iconic sounds that influenced my playing back to the forefront. I really feel that nobody’s music sounds like mine.”
In describing the approach to his vocals, Niederauer encapsulates this overall creative ethos. “A lot of the people that I was listening to at the very outset, people like Hendrix, weren’t emulating anyone,” he observes. “They were just using their voice to communicate a message. So back when I started out, I was just trying to be myself.”
When it comes to his singing, Niederauer has manifested both patience and perseverance. “I played a 10 year old on Broadway until I was 14, so that tells you how much I wasn’t growing,” he recalls. “Then in high school, I grew a foot in two years. So with that came the extension of my throat and bigger lungs and diaphragm—all the singing muscles—and it kind of destroyed my range for a little while.
“That was right around the time when we started making the album and it was frustrating at first. However, my new vocal range also informed a lot of the decisions that we made about melody. So even though my range has expanded since then, I feel like we made some really interesting choices and turned that into a strength.”
Beyond a self-driven focus on his flourishing studio efforts, Niederauer maintains a predilection for the live experience. “When I was 7 or 8, I was drawn to movies like School of Rock and Nickelodeon TV shows like Big Time Rush where kids were performing. The first time that I ever tried it, at a music camp where I played ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ for family members in a small theater, it gave me a dopamine hit that’s kept me rolling until now.”
He’s received some guidance from a range of accomplished artists along the way. George Porter Jr. invited him to sit in at a young age and later emphasized that “if you don’t feel what you’re doing, then what are you even in it for?” Niederauer also reveals, “The thing I learned from Col. Bruce is to always play with intention. It doesn’t really matter what you play and whether it sounds good to the analytical musical ear. It’s more about the intention behind each note.”
The guitarist explains that Batiste leads by example: “It might seem that he’s just trying to have fun with his friends on stage, but he’s very specific with what he tries to do every single night. He puts in so much hard work. He has a lot going on in his brain, where he takes the spirit of New Orleans and translates it for concertgoers.”
“Being a musician is a constant learning process,” he continues. “The task of finding your own voice and presenting it to the world can be a long one, but it’s certainly rewarding. That process is a daily process and I’m doing it with all these amazing people, trying to take inspiration from what they do.”
When it comes to bringing his new music to the live environment, Niederauer says, “I’m going to be blending musical styles because I’ve been influenced by so many things. One of my goals has been to write songs that can be performed on an acoustic at a campfire and also can be rocked out live by someone coming from the jam scene. So that’s what I’ll be doing. I recorded pop music for people in my generation because that’s a part of me, but everyone can also expect to see blistering guitar solos because that’s a part of me as well.”
