Ed Tailorpatch grew up in an artistic multifaceted family. He began singing at church with his parents and sisters at an early age. Due to his parents decision to forgo television, Ed could often be found at recess absorbed in a stack of library books, thoroughly reading all of the classics that his parents and siblings recommended, while many of his classmates excelled in sports, earning the state championships in middle school and high school. He entered the Tacoma Junior Symphony in the 8th grade and played violin in the orchestra at high school. His stand partner created a new wave band “Mental Floss” and Ed saved up his paper route money so he could play keyboards (a Micro Moog and Casio) in the band. This led to an interest in composing classical, global, new age and electronic music. After high school Ed created a recording studio with several friends, and began publishing with BMG while going to college for interdisciplinary studies. He attended several colleges, earning two scholarships, studying both music and literature with a multimedia perspective.
After producing the cartoon character MC Skat Kat with Gemma Corfield, Paula Abdul and the College Boyz for Virgin Records, the song "Skat Strut" appeared in an animated video for MTV, after the character originally appeared in Paula's video for "Opposites Attract". The noted hip hop band he collaborated with, The College Boyz, was also formed from this team and they were signed to the same label. Arsenio Hall invited them to perform for his show twice, and they toured the United States, finding appreciative fans who still remember their college anthems.
Finding a home at DreamWorks, Ed worked in the animation department dreaming up musical ideas for Shrek with his bandmates. Interesting alternative art songs and videos of the global-classical, alternative dance music and old fashioned folk songs written for several projects, including the Alder Ensemble, Soulful Toes and the Recycling Music Stand Band, were developed during this time. Since meeting success in musical endeavors Ed has dedicated his efforts to environmental and educational purposes. He is currently working with the Tree of Life Guardianship non profit organisation creating an artists compilation to raise awareness about environmental causes.
Ed works with talented members of the community to co-write and co-produce multi media, including e-books, videos and songs for Alder Publishing, with the blessings of nature's natural artists whom inspire us, the songbirds, frogs, squirrels and crickets. He works integrally with his family and friends, including several Grammy earning virtuosos, 2004 nominee Angela McCluskey (her vocals appearing in Soulful Toe's song "We Can Make a Difference") and best new age album winner for 2019 Lili Haydn (her violin appearing in Alder Ensemble's song "A Rooted Rain Dance" and Soulful Toe's song "We Can Make a Difference").
We have two main literary branches of Alder Publishing, one being for younger children, Alder Yarn Books and a division for older readers, Alder Library. We also delve into the art of tune smithing at Alder Dance Music, where you can find links to the bands we work with. Multimedia presentations can be found at Spirit Whale Multimedia and links to some of the non profits and artists we support can be found at Optimistic Web Librarians.
The goals we have for our employee owned business, Alder Publishing, still in the process of development, is to bring equality, peace, education, altruism, coexistence, and environmental studies to your local library with books and music that are true to the original works and prayers of our ancient ancestors, with whom we all share family ties. You can find us at https://www.alderpublishing.com and also https://www.alderdancemusic.com.
