 At age 12, he sang with harmony groups and performed rhythm and blues, or soul music, influenced by the African American culture in his neighborhood at the time.At age 15, he initiated his first band “The Fuzzes,” an R&B band.TaliasVan began professionally recording in the early 1960s, first with the Snyder recording company in Cleveland, Ohio and then at Gateway Studios in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Joni Wilson and the Debonairs.