Eric Taylor, 32, the guitarist and vocalist for Campaigning for Zeros, grew up in Healdsburg (in Northern California), and now calls Coachella home. Catch the Best Buy warehouse supervisor at a solo acoustic show on Friday, March 1, at the Red Barn, 73290 Highway 111 in Palm Desert. The free show is also slated to include Rob Lawrence from Sol Jah Rock doing a solo acoustic set, and full sets from Blared the Surface and The Rebel Noise.
What was the first concert you attended?
Green Day at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland in 1994.
What was the first album you owned?
Michael Jackson, Bad, on cassette.
What bands are you listening to right now?
Green Day, ¡Tré!; Pearl Jam, Backspacer; Led Zeppelin, Coda; Unwritten Law, Swan; and The Strokes, Angles.
What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?
I am tired of hearing about Taylor Swift. I don’t see what the big deal is.
What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?
I would have loved to see Nirvana.
What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?
It would have to be trance music. I still have an album by Mars and Mystrë, from the Bay Area.
What’s your favorite music venue?
The Fillmore in San Francisco.
What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?
The lyric that is currently stuck in my head is the chorus of “Nevermind” by Unwritten Law: “I never get what I want when I want to. I never do what I need when I need to. I never say what I mean when I see you. I guess you’re never gonna know so never mind.”
What band or artist changed your life? How?
Michael Jackson changed my life. I met him in 1989, after I had been shot in a school shooting. All the injured students and their families ended up getting a promo pack with a shirt, signed picture and a copy of Bad. I listened to that tape nonstop for a couple years. That’s what led to me playing music.
You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?
I would ask Daniel Johns from Silverchair if there is any chance the material they were recording before they called it quits would ever be released.
What song would you like played at your funeral?
“Nugget” by Cake should be played!
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?
Nirvana, Nevermind.
What song should everyone listen to right now?
“Never Trade You” by the local band The Rebel Noise. (Scroll down to hear it.)