In late 1997, a replacement for Jimmy was found in the form of Daniel Hall, whom Tim Wild discovered busking in Melbourne's Camberwell Markets. The new four-piece decided that a name change was required since there were an abundance of Taxi’s playing around the traps. In honour of their mate Terry Green - who played the group’s demo tapes whilst driving his taxi around Melbourne - they christened themselves Taxiride. So with a new name in place and a bevy of catchy demo's under their belts, Tim, Dan, Jason and Tim were ready to hit the big time.
Taxiride begin recording their debut album in Melbourne in 1998 and went over to the USA to mix and collaborate with renowned producer, Jack Joseph Puig. Whilst mixing in LA, the people behind the Matthew Broderick / Reese Witherspoon movie Election, took a fancy to the single Get Set and snapped it up immediately for the film’s soundtrack. Word got around about how richly melodic and exotic this song was with it’s mix of vocal harmonies and sitars, and it was soon played on the highly influential MTV. So, mid 1998 saw the group signing a unique deal between the US' Sire Records and Warner Music Australia. Once Get Set was out, their debut album, Imaginate, had to be released in a hurry. It's release was supported by a 40-city tour of the US, taking in LA, Chicago, New York, Nashville, New Orleans.
Early pic from the US Imaginate (1999), Get Set filmclip, Election soundtrack, Get Set single, US Imaginate (1999)