One-man band performs improvised music

Starting in 2000 with his first gig in Bloomington, musician Denis Taaffe has recorded and produced 161 albums.

In each album, he loops the sound and then adds layers while playing the entire song himself.

“What he does is totally amazing,” Paul Siwko-Bajon said. “I have never met anyone else who does what he does, and it is mind blowing.”

Siwko-Bajon has worked in the Jacobs School of Music for 17 years. He met Taaffe in a local music store, and they have been friends for about 13 years.

Taaffe said he started playing guitar seriously when he was in high school.

“I started playing as something to do, and it is fun,” Taaffe said. “It takes two weeks to a month to produce an album. I produced 75 albums in 2006 because I had been holding back. Everyone said I couldn’t put out that many albums, and I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

Although Taaffe has been successful, Chuck Terrell, Taaffe’s friend since childhood who helped him with his earlier shows and promotions, said he thought Taaffe would be more popular than he is now.

However, Taaffe said he has always been motivated, which has helped him.
“I actually imagined him going further,” Terrell said. “He would practice eight to 10 hours a day, lock himself in his room and be there all weekend.”

Terrell added he thinks Taaffe had a lot of talent, even back then, and knew he would go somewhere with it.

Taaffe’s music is purely instrumental, which he said is not very popular. But he said he makes music because he loved it, not for the esteem.

“Music and making is what is important, not stardom or success,” he said. “If that were the case, I would have quit a long time ago; that’s a fact.”

After 12 years of playing, recording and producing his own music, Taaffe said he has learned to be successful despite what other people think.

He added that he uses the skepticism as motivation to prove people wrong.

“Believe in yourself and what you’re doing,” said Taaffe. “When I started, people told me I couldn’t produce that many albums or do it myself or loop music. Once you are inspired, it is effortless. So many people say you can’t, but don’t listen to them.”

Siwko-Bajon said he thinks Taaffe’s music is “creative and so terrific,” and he should get more exposure than he does. He said the reason Taaffe is not trendier is because people do not know about him.

“What he plays is the raw form of music, and it is sad people do not recognize him,” Siwko-Bajon said. “They don’t because they are not aware of his style of music. I don’t know why he does it, but it is his life.”