Mick Taylor's involvement with Rakatan on their CD Better Than That

Mick Taylor's Contribution
to Rakatan's 'Better Than That':
An Interview with Rakatan's Melanie Ray

Mick Taylor and Rolling Stones collectors may be interested in Taylor's contribution to a CD, 'Better Than That', released in 1990 by a New York City band called Rakatan. With songs introduced by animal noises and nature sounds, and a portion of all proceeds going to animal-protection groups, the CD is not your run-of-the-mill blues workout.

The CD has been sold in the Greenwich Village Tower Records store, in several other cutting edge NYC outlets, as well as by mail. However, distribution has been spotty elsewhere -- the bane of all aspiring bands.

Relatively few Taylor collectors are familiar with the disk, so we were very pleased to speak in January 1996 with our fellow adoptive New Yorker, Rakatan's guiding spirit Melanie Ray, for some insight into her band, the Better Than That CD, and how MT came to play on it.

Internet Interview with Melanie Ray of Rakatan,
New York City, January 1996, by Gary

Melanie: Rakatan is current, melodic, bluesy-rock. A transport to delightful realms. Rakatan has sensuality of tone which creates an aura of other-worldliness while musical realities, very much of this earth, like roaring jaguars and rushing waterfalls, are often reflected in Rakatan song material. Rakatan appeals to one's primal nature with the groove of its phrasing and lyrically sates the intellectually inclined.

Gary: Rakatan has ambitious reach for a rock band, especially the merger of classic blues-rock influences with spiritual and other-worldly phenomena. However, given the interests of visitors to this Mick Taylor web site, my first question has to be what was it like to work with Mick?

Melanie: First, I'll say that Rakatan would be happy to open up for Mick. We've come along nicely since he guested on Better Than That. I must say that even though that particular project was obliged, for various reasons, to stay in it's infancy, it is quite well liked. A great deal in the way of experience has been gained for Rakatan. Mick is a fine guitarist.

Melanie: I get asked this often, so I'll give you all the details. I saw Mick play in New York in March 1988, and I met him briefly and gave him some selections from our CD 'Telepathic Number'. That April I started using a studio, and shortly thereafter, the engineer asked me if I knew Mick Taylor, and said that Mick used the studio from time to time. Over the next year, we had some personnel changes on the guitar. In June 1989, the studio staff suggested that we speak to Mick.

I met Mick and his manager, and we arranged to send Mick a series of progress tapes. He studied the latest copy for a few days in October 1989, and then we did a five-hour session which went well. We did six songs. Mick is very good at improvisation, because we didn't need him to re-do anything he played. He noted that the songs were written in 'strange' keys, like A Flat Minor. When the session was done he said we only needed four more to complete the CD.

Mick's manager suggested that we do four more songs with his band. I preferred to work with Rakatan and tried just a couple of rhythm tracks with Mick's producer. Going into 1990 things started to break down a bit on the business side.

Gary: Did Mick work live with the band in the studio or did he dub in his parts later?

Melanie: After trying him out in the live room, I decided it was better that he go directly into the board in the control room. He played along with my vocal and guitar tracks, and the rhythm section.

Gary: How did Noel Redding (former Jimi Hendrix Experience) come into the picture?

Melanie: I met Noel in April 1990 at Wetlands in New York, where his band, the Freaks, was playing. We had played Wetlands a few weeks earlier. Noel suggested that we do some recording in Ireland so I hauled the reels there, and we bound\ced to 24-track from 16-track. There were multiple format, coding and speed conversions from here to there and back.

Gary: What was the reaction to the Better Than That CD in light of the famous guest players on it?

Melanie: Quite a few offers came in for Rakatan with Mick and Noel in the line-up, which were impossible to follow up on. It was an aggravation.

Gary: You have mentioned that Rakatan has come along nicely since recording Better Than That. Where were you at the time of that CD?

Melanie: The CD was basically a demo, for the purpose of securing a record deal. If we did it again today, of course there are things that we would do differently. But we're proud of the CD and where it shows we were at the time we recorded it.

Melanie: Yes, in fact we're playing a show in a couple of days. We rock harder in the live shows that on our CD's, it's more lively and raucous, and we have male voices singing too. We are shopping a new demo too, of our upcoming project "Top Secret Line".

Gary: I hear you have another Stones connection? With the Pipes of Pan that Brian Jones was initially involved with?

Melanie: Yes, I am involved in representing the Master Musicians of Jajouka.

Gary: Your connections are impressive, and you are definitely taking some comfortable musical idioms and influences and infusing them with a whole different intellectual and spiritual approach. I wish you the best of luck. I hope to catch a show here in the city sometime soon.

To get more information about purchasing 'Better Than That' directly from Rakatan, simply enter your correct e-mail address in the box below. We will forward your address to Melanie Ray and she will get back to you with price and mailing information by e-mail. There is no obligation to purchase anything. The WebSource offers this service as a convenience to fans.

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