Taylor first met fellow artist Jean Michel Basquiat in January, 1979, at the famed Mudd Club in lower Manhattan. The two quickly became close friends, bonding over a joint love of stealing beer. Together with Michael Holman, Wayne Clifford, and a 17-year-old go-go dancing Vince Gallo, the pair formed the musical art band Gray, named after Basquiat’s favourite book Gray’s Anatomy, a novel given to him by his mother when he was a child. “He had read it as a youth, then studied it again and again throughout our time in Gray,” remembers band mate Taylor. Gray's sound was experimental, an energizing mix of ambient sounds and industrial instrumentation. It may have been odd, but the 80s Downtown New York scene loved it. The fanbase was littered with popstars and famous artists, it wasn’t unusual to see celebrities and singers queuing outside the Mudd Club for a glimpse of Gray’s much hyped live sets. One gig led Andy Warhol's Interview magazine to dub the collective, ‘possibly the best band on the planet.’ They played at a myriad of locations throughout New York City, including a birthday party for pop art guru Leo Castelli, but famously broke up in 1981. Basquiat became Basquiat, dated Madonna, hung out with Andy Warhol, commanded thousands of dollars for a basic print, and subsequently died of drug abuse (he had been combining cocaine and heroin, often using cocaine to stay up all night painting and then using heroin in the morning to fall asleep). The artist’s legacy, A-list rolodex, and recreational abuse have long-since overshadowed this time in Basquiat’s life when he was, arguably, at his peak, at his most creative, most passionate. He was on the cusp of stardom, full of life, zest and zeal. Basquiat once bragged he spent every night at the Mudd Club, not missing a single party, selling T-shirts in the daytime to pay for his beer. Along with Gray band mates, Basquiat was not a part of 80s Downtown New York, he WAS 80s Downtown New York.

 

With band mate Nicholas Taylor’s Front Room exhibit 'Jean Michel Basquiat through Nicholas Taylor', New York artist Jean Michel Basquiat is eternal, remembered through his dramatic Gray performances, at his peak, oozing with promise, an innovative artist waiting to happen.  

 

Hynam Kendall: You first met Jean Michel Basquiat at the Mudd Club in 1979, right?

 

Nicholas Taylor: He was dancing next to me and we smiled at each other. We hung all night

 

HK: And this was before Basquiat was Basquiat?

 

NT: He had a manic kind of energy and I was attracted to that. There were no ‘impending stardom’ visions, just Mudd Club fun

 

HK: Then it wasn't long before you guys started the band Gray

 

NT: [Jean Michel Basquiat and Michael Holman] came to me a few months later with the band idea, and Wayne Clifford - who calls himself Justin Thyme now - was also in the band. They were my buddies already and it was a natural progression

 

HK: And Vincent Gallo - another almost famous face - was in the band

 

NT: I met him at the Mudd Club when he was 17. He was in the band for a short time towards the end of Gray

 

HK: I read he was still a rent boy and go-go dancer at this point

 

NT: That’s a new one on me. I know that in his band with Wayne Clifford called Bohack they played gigs with socks over their private parts

 

HK: Basquiat has quite a reputation for being a deep thinker, and a bit of a philosopher - reading symbolist poetry in his free time. I imagine his lyric writing was heavy to say the least, which probably suited the whole beat poetry aesthetic of the time?

 

NT: Jean was visually the leader of the band because he read his poems during the music. He was a gifted writer so that was natural. His main poem was “Mona Lisa” that he read every gig

 

HK: There are lots of debates over why Gray didn’t become more successful, I mean it had the scene at its feet. Andy Warhol's Interview magazine dubbed it as "possibly the best band on the planet", and you played a birthday party for pop art guru Leo Castelli…

 

NT: Simply put, Jean quit, and we didn’t play together again. We felt the cornerstone was him and new horizons could be found for all of us. At the Leo Castelli party, Jean plugged in a mechanical robot that made a really threatening sound and people backed away from the stage

 

HK: I’m surprised there weren’t many guest vocalists. You were friends with all the scenesters of the time. And during your Mudd Club residency Basquiat was dating Madonna, right?

 

NT: I introduced them at a bowling alley, even though I had the hots for her. The next day, when I went to his place, she was there, and they both had very coy expressions. We all used to dance in the same circle at clubs. We all thought fame of some kind was inevitable

  

HK: The recordings at this point, well all of the recordings to be honest, are so rare. There weren't many done at all, which is odd for a band that dominated the scene, gigging at Max's, CBGB's, Hurrahs, and Mudd Club

 

NT: Well, we recorded rehearsals on cassette tapes. Michael, Justin and I have just finished remixing old rare tapes and we used old samples and original Gray instruments and instrumentation, the LP is gonna drop soon and it’s breathtaking to hear this genre again

 

HK: Strangely, Gray's sound is almost more palatable these days - like it was before its time

 

NT: Wait till you hear this new LP!

 

HK: Is it the same industrial sound? The same sound Basquiat described as "incomplete, abrasive, oddly beautiful"...?

 

NT: Perfect description!

 

HK: How much discussion went into this sound? What were the influences? I mean you were at the epicenter of New Wave - Talking Heads, Blondie...

 

NT: We were in that group of musician friends, but Atro Lindsays DNA and the John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards were closer to us. I think we really related to “The Chicago Art Ensemble” and that avant sound

 

HK: Your exhibit is celebrating Basquiat, and his role in Gray, and you talk really fondly of your time together, but fellow band member Gallo has pretty much described a sour experience in which Basquiat was just using the band as a stepping stone, "Anyway a month later he was a millionaire art star" he said in one interview…

 

NT: It wasn’t that he wanted to get away from us, he needed to paint. He was making thousands a month later, but not millions. He was never a millionaire, because he spent the money right away on his lifestyle and drugs

 

HK: Well, by the time the band broke up in 1981, Basquiat was already showing regularly alongside the likes of Julian Schnabel, David Salle and Enzo Cucchi, and was being courted by Warhol…

 

NT: Jean let me watch him paint most of the great paintings he made after Gray broke up in ’81-84. He would call me to come over to Crosby Street and quietly chill with him Stephen Torton and Suzanne Mallouk

 

HK: You’ve had quite a bit of success in music away from the band, and you're still in music today doing motion picture soundtracks, collaborating with the likes of Debbie Harry, Brian Eno and Gilbert & George. What's brought on this trip down memory lane? You don’t need the exposure or the money…

 

NT: It was 30 years ago today we were in Gray; time to release some photos, memoirs and music!

 

HK: Looking at the photographs and, of course, the title ‘Jean Michel Basquiat through Nicholas Taylor’, is it a retrospective of the band, or a celebration of Basquiat?

 

NT: There are photos of the band in the book and enlarged ones in the gallery, other friends in there also but I am always inspired by my old friend Jean, he’s the focal point here. The automatic composition Jean evokes in his poses are what appeals to me

 

HK: What's your favourite picture?

 

NT: Jean dancing at the Mudd Club, no other photo of him I have seen has captured that innocent smile

 

 

Jean Michel Basquiat through Nicholas Taylor runs from October 5 to November 1 at Front Room, St Martin’s Lane.