Taxiride

Taxiride is a rock band from Australia. They had three singles which impacted on the charts in the late 1990s and early 2000s - Get Set, Everywhere You Go and Creeping Up Slowly.

Tim Watson, Tim Wild, Jason Singh, and Dan Hall started out in 1997 wiriting and playing in a lounge room in Camberwell, Melbourne. By 1998, they recorded a demo with songs for their first album. The bands' first demo was given to a friend who was a taxi driver, so that he could play the demo to passengers in the cab. They would later ask how the demo was received whilst on the "taxiride". This was the inspiration for the group's name. Soon after, they signed a joint deal between Warner Music Group in Australia and Sire Records in the U.S., where they relocated to Ocean Way Recording studios in Los Angeles to work with producer Jack Joseph Puig. Their debut album Imaginate hit the #1 spot on the Australian charts and went double platinum spawning the top 10 hits Get Set and Everywhere You Go, along the way snaring a Best New Artist ARIA award. To support the global release of their debut album, the band toured Australia, America, Japan and Europe through 1999 and 2000.

In 2001, with the departure of Dan Hall and the entering of new members Sean McLeod and Andy McIvor, Taxiride started penning songs in Melbourne, followed by a four month move again to Los Angeles to work with producer Fred Maher and record at Conway Studios in Hollywood. In July 2002, they released their second album Garage Mahal. The album delivered the band a consecutive top 5 album and a platinum plus seller. Garage Mahal featured the top 5 hit single and number 1 radio song of 2002, Creepin' Up Slowly. As with Imaginate, Garage Mahal was released globally and supported by the band undertaking a hectic promotion and touring schedule through Europe and Japan.

In 2004, Tim Watson left the band, and the rest of the members recorded the band's third album Axiomatic, which was released in September 2005. Recorded at their own new studio in Melbourne. The new album featured songs co-written with Chris Bailey from the Australian punk band The Saints. Two singles were lifted from the album, "Oh Yeah" (released in August 2005) and "You Gotta Help Me" (released in December 2005). Neither the album nor the singles charted in Australia. A video was shot for a third single "What Can I Say", and it gained heavy rotation on VH1.
The band took a six year hiatus and reformed with the original line up in 2015, Dan Hall left in 2017, and the band played their last show in 2019 shortly before COVID hit.
The band fractured in 2021 with the outcome that 2 versions of the band exist. "Taxiride featuring Tim Watson, Tim Wild, Sean Mcleod, Andy McIvor & Ripley Smith" (TAXIRIDE ft TTSAR) features two founding members and two 25 year veterans. "Taxiride featuring Jason Singh" features one original member. Both versions continue to tour.