Joel Taylor is a singer-songwriter from Australia currently based out of Los Angeles, CA. Joel moved to the US when he was 17 and quickly engulfed himself in the music culture, playing alongside a prolific list of reputable artists such as Prince and HAIM (to name a few).
Joel Taylor recently kicked off his solo music career, and the product has already been well-received by many. His style is a version of a multi-instrumental piano ballad, accompanied by soulful vocals that will get stuck in your head after just one listen. Joel Taylor is set to release plenty of new music this year that you won’t want to miss out on, so be sure to get him on your radar!
Joel Taylor took some time to talk about his musical origins, his “one-man-band” recording process, and what to expect from him in 2018.
How long have you been in the US now?
I’ve been in the US for almost 9 years now, I moved here as a teenager the week I finished high school.
Did you move to LA for music or was it for something else? I’m always curious when artists move to LA for music, what did you do when you got there to start pursuing your dream?
I decided when I was 17 to move to LA to pursue my music career. I always knew I wanted to move to LA, even when I was about 15 I was thinking about moving to America. At the time I was very heavily into Tennis and always wanted to be a professional tennis player (playing hours every day), but then one day it just clicked. Music was what I really wanted to do.
My uncle was living in Los Angeles at the time, he told me I should move there after I finish high school…so I did. Straight away. I enrolled in College to study Piano and began working on my craft. I pretty much was one of the lucky ones and started getting gigs around town straight away.
I met great people through the College, having jam sessions, music nights and pretty quickly began to feel home in LA.
It looks like you’ve only released a few songs over the last year or so under the name Joel Taylor. Were you a part of any other groups prior to these releases?
This year I began releasing my own music, and it has really been a great time.
For the first 5/6 years when I moved here, I was mainly a session musician, and would tour with different bands & work on TV shows. I’ve jammed with Prince, HAIM, and Slash. Played with The Doors, Jamie N Commons, Guy Sebastian and worked on the X Factor… it was my full time gig. But really I just wanted to be singer songwriter.
Is there any new music in the works? If so, would you be able to tell me a little bit about what’s to come?
There’s plenty of new music slated for 2018. I have a new song called “Moment’s Notice,” which will be the next song out. I just finished it last week – mixed by the legendary Bob Clearmountain. I’m in the middle of a bunch of brand new music that will be coming out on an EP later this year. I’ve been constantly recording here in LA and non-stop writing so far in 2018. It’ll definitely be a year filled with new music, and plenty of live shows across the US and abroad.
Do you record everything on your own or do you have a band that records with you as well?
So far I have mainly been recording and producing everything on my own. Just me. My piano, a guitar and my Macbook.
A few of the songs are a bit of a “mish-mash”, but Two Sides, What Good Is Love and Give Myself Away, were almost exclusively done either at my place or at friends houses. Everything except drums being played by me, which has been really fun – but definitely time consuming!
On this latest song “Moment’s Notice” I got to work half at my place, half at a great studio at Apogee Electronics with my super talented friend Sergio Ruelas. It’s been really awesome to work on a few of the newer tunes at a great studio, and have a great engineer – but I’m still playing every instrument. (which may be ill-advisable, but I LOVE IT).
Looking back, is there an artist that stands out, that kind of inspired you to make music?
I’ve had so many Artists that have inspired me along the way. I’m a Piano player firstly, so: Billy Joel, Elton John, Bruce Hornsby, and Ray Charles were huge influences on me. New York State of mind was the first song I ever learned to sing and play. In the recent years though, I’ve become obsessed with Bruce Springsteen and Ryan Adams…and more recently I’ve been loving James Bay, Ed Sheeran, Foy Vance and John Mayer – bringing singer/songwriters into the 21st century.
Joel Taylor will be joining Animal Years on a few of their tour dates! See the list of dates below:
May 9 – Valley Bar – Phoenix, AZ – Tickets
May 11 – Voodoo Room @ House of Blues – San Diego, CA – Tickets
Listen to Joel Taylor’s latest song, Give Myself Away, below!
Joel Taylor is set to release plenty of new music this year that you won’t want to miss out on – stay up to date through the following social links:
Facebook || Twitter || Instagram || Youtube
Support Joel Taylor by purchasing and streaming his music via iTunes & Spotify.
& special thanks to the team at Big Hassle Publicity for arranging this interview.
https://www.thisisjoeltaylor.com/
Leave a Reply