Julian Taylor: “I would like to keep on recording records that excite me, that I feel I’m learning more from…”

Ahead of hitting the road for a full US tour with Matt Andersen, Americana/folk singer-songwriter Julian Taylor has the small matter of a nomination for his 2024 album Pathways in the Contemporary Roots Album of the Year category at this year’s Juno Awards to deal with.

Fans of the singer-songwriter would say that a nomination like this is the minimum that Taylor deserves after a career in the music business that has lasted three decades. Throughout those thirty years, there have been lows and highs as well as a period out of the business where the songwriter took up bar jobs and gigs.

For our latest Cover Story, V13 sat down with Julian to discuss his life in the music industry, what the award-nominated Pathways means to him, and the lessons he has learned along his journey.

You’ve been part of the industry for over 30 years. First of all, how does it feel to be in the industry that long? I know you took a break, but in terms of being in the industry for that long what keeps it exciting for you?

“It’s funny, for the first time in my life I feel like I’m older and that maybe I could be like a young vet. I never really thought of that beforehand but, after 25 to 30 years, you have to. I got in really young as a teenager so it feels good.”

Going back to the very early days and your musical upbringing. It seems quite varied. You talk about influences from soul music through to kind of 90s alternative music and I guess everything in between. Where did that diversity come from?

“I think it was something that I grew up with. My family listens to a lot of different music. I think that’s part and parcel of how I’ve become the musician that I’ve become. We’re all influenced by the things that we listen to and the eclectic taste that my parents and my uncles, my aunts, and my grandparents have. It’s pretty amazing.”

A lot of people grow up with their parent’s record collections, but you talk about your grandparents as well. That musical history goes quite deep then, doesn’t it?

“It certainly does.”

V13 – MagazineCover – Issue84 – JulianTaylor

Who were the artists that made an impact on you when you were growing up?

“Well, there’s different stages of when I was growing up, I think and each one of those different stages affected me differently. When I was young, it would have been 80s pop because that’s what I was listening to in my house. The big records were the self-titled Whitney Houston record. Thriller was really big. Talking Book by Stevie Wonder was really big. Billy Ocean was big so that was what was happening in the pop world.

Tina Turner. Dire Straits, those records were big. Money for Nothing was certainly massive at the time, and I was young so that, plus Motown, because my mom loved to dance, and she was a go-go dancer. She listened to that, and my dad listened to classical music, and also gospel then there was Nat King Cole. Then it was Bob Dylan, then singer-songwriters as I got older and started my own thing…”

From Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, right through to Nat King Cole and guessing everything in between, that’s quite a diverse range. Is that diversity important for you to keep in your music when you’re writing?

“Sure it is. It’s very important to me.”

“For the first time in my life I feel like I’m older and that maybe I could be like a young vet.”

What about your local music scene you kind of immerse yourself in that?

“Later on, yeah. That’s something that happened when I was a teenager. Around 12, I picked up the acoustic guitar because when I was younger, I played piano and loved to dance and mimic those pop stars and stuff like that. After 12, I started to listen to singer-songwriters like Dylan and Richie Havens, because I watched the Woodstock movie and I was blown away. Then I started to do Battle of Bands with my High School bands. My High School bands would go to open stages, even though we were underage and try to get in and play with the musicians there.

That was the first initiative to play with anybody in the Toronto music scenes. One of the first guys that I met was Tony Springer, Wild T and the Spirit. He was hosting a jam at this place called Broadway Bobs, and I really liked his stuff, so my dad went to take me down, and I got to sing sitting on the dock of the Bay with him, and we’re still friends. He was one of the first people in the music industry, and the musician scene for that matter, that got me going, and then we met some other people, the band, The Crown Jewels, and that’s how it started to flow. All of a sudden, now that I’ve been in it for such a long time, I know a lot of people in the industry because this is my business and my livelihood.”

You still obviously look back on that with a lot of fondness. You talk about the friendships as well you made back then that are still friends now…

“We don’t see each other very often, but they still come up.”

Your first proper band you formed as a teenager. You had a little bit of success with that, but what did you learn from that experience I get the impression that it was an up-and-down experience.

“I learned that you gotta stick to your guns and the most important thing that you could do as an artist is to be what you want to be not what anybody else wants you to be. I’m not saying that anybody else wanted us to be anything. It just felt that we were being pushed and pulled in several directions.
It was a tumultuous, but also a very exciting time. We were young and so, at that particular time in my life, I had to sort of figure out what it was that I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. The next record we came out with after the first sort of successful one tanked. I’ve had all my records pretty much tank since, except for the fact that some people like them and the audience continues to grow a little bit.

So, whatever you do, there will be an audience that finds you but, if you want to stick to your voice and have your voice that’s important to you. That’s the most important thing for me as an artist is to do that so I haven’t backed down in those ways for sure.”

How challenging does that become?

“Very challenging. Of course I would love more success and monetary success, but I’m happy which is the main thing at the end of the day.”

The other side of it is that there’s a very big DIY mentality running through everything you do. Again, you’ve carried that throughout your career. How important was that for you?

“I think it’s one of the things that allowed me to stick to my vision as a musician and as an artist because, at the end of the day, the books and the marketing decisions and the story, the narrative and how things went fell on my shoulders. There are certain things that I can’t control when people grab something and and the media wants to grab something it becomes unrecognizable to even me sometimes but I just have to sometimes shrug it off.

They’re trying to sell something that I do not necessarily want to sell because I know how important that is to the livelihood of what I’m doing, but I’m not trying to sell. I’m trying to create a way of shaping my voice so that it means something to me first and foremost, and to the people that listen to my music. So doing it yourself is pretty much one way to guarantee that it will sound like you.”

When the band broke up, you spent several years out of that industry. I think you described yourself as flying under the radar of the business. In that gap where you were doing bar gigs and things like that, what did you learn from those experiences and what did you take that you then brought back when you returned to the music industry?

“I think one of the most important things was I became a bartender. I was pushing pints and things like that. One of the things that I realized after that was how interesting it is and how important it is to have that sort of humbling experience happen to you. I was on the top of the world, so I thought, it came to a very quick demise and left us depressed and anxious and trying to figure out what the next move was.

At a certain point, I just had to give up and that’s when I became a bartender. Since then, I think that everybody… it should be mandatory. One year, mandatory hospitality industry for anybody. It teaches you a lot about people and it teaches you a lot about humility. I wish it was mandatory. People would not treat each other the way that they treat each other after that.”

Julian Taylor ‘Pathways’ Album Artwork

Is there anything you do differently?

“I don’t know. Yeah, there are lots of things I would do differently. Mostly in my relationships. If those relationships pertain to music then maybe but, other than that, I have to realize that everything that’s happening is happening for me, not to me.”

Since you returned you’ve released a number of albums pre and post-pandemic. What was different about the way you approached writing music, handling the business, and handling the industry?

“I think the only thing that I could say about that is the ability to have my music heard in different territories without having like a label or distributor have to do it physically. That is maybe one of the only good things about streaming because I wish that streaming paid us a decent wage. I think that we deserve it. That being said, the fact that people can listen to my music all over the world allowed me the opportunity to focus on other places in the world.

When I released The Ridge my idea was to focus outside of Canada first, like so many people have done before and it seemed to work. Oddly enough, that was the formula and it wasn’t anything crazy. I just thought UK first and asked the press there if they’re interested. Then I’ll send it to Australia and blah, blah, blah. When the international press started to come in, that’s when people at home started listening to it.

I’m not saying that they weren’t listening to it before. The other thing that happened for me was that pandemic was a chance for people to listen to my music and what I was saying, rather than, just listening to it. They were ready to receive it at that time, I think. People were going through a lot of emotions.”

You write from a very personal point of view. Do you think that is why your music is connected then? It was a good time to release music like that at that time…

“It turned out it was, yeah. I didn’t know if it was or not, but my friends who played on the record and they were telling me that people needed to hear this. It’s got a lot of emotion. It was the right time to do it.”

Talking about the emotion, what do you get out of writing like that? A lot of people, when they when they write based on their emotions, find that it’s a very cathartic experience…

“It takes a lot out of me even performing them live. It’s funny that when I played it and when I play rock and roll and I sweat and I get really into it in that way on stage there’s less energy sucked out of me than the emotional energy. Emotional energy sucks more out of me than the physical.”

When you’re writing an album do you sit down and think of a particular theme, or are there emotions that trigger you to want to write a song?

“When I sit down to do something, it’s usually about what’s been happening in my surroundings. So, as an artist, I can’t help but comment on what’s happened to me in my own life but I also can’t help but comment on what’s happening around me. I don’t necessarily know if that’s what I would call inspiration or more so a catalyst. Maybe inspiration and catalyst are the same thing? I don’t know. What I’m trying to write, I’m trying to write from my heart and I’m trying to tap into a commonality with other beings.”

As a songwriter, you’ve kind of primarily concentrated on Canada and the US first, and then widened your horizons. Releasing albums somewhere like the UK, how does it feel when people connect with it like that?

“It is. One kid, when I was in Manchester came up to me and said that this particular lyric from “Weighing Down,” which is a song off my new record, it’s his favourite lyric of all time. I was like, ‘Wow, which one’s that?’ He said, “The one that goes, ‘The way that we choose to look at things is an attitude. Looking at the skyline tonight, I choose gratitude,” that’s his favourite line of all time. I asked him “Bob Dylan is a great writer. You don’t want to choose one of his lines to be your favourite of all time?“ It’s nice. It’s a wonderful thing.”

Even though you’ve been in the industry for 30 years, that still must blow you away when people connect to the music that closely.

“Oh yeah. I don’t know if it’s why I do it, but I know it is why I do it, if that makes any sense?”

The music industry is brutal but that side of it, is that one of the things that continues to drive you in this industry when people connect with you?

“Yeah, it’s a beautiful thing.”

“When I play rock and roll and I sweat and I get really into it in that way on stage there’s less energy sucked out of me than the emotional energy. Emotional energy sucks more out of me than the physical.”

You mentioned Bob Dylan, who were the artists that did that for you where you really connect with the lyrics?

“Bill Withers for sure. Jim Croce is another. Those two guys for sure.”

On the current album there are a lot of personal songs on it. What do you hope people get from listening to it?

“I think this particular record is about the inside of who we are and trying to move through. Trying to move through the pressures of the world. Trying to move through our thoughts and pressures and heaviness that we put on ourselves. I think that Pathways is about trying to move through those things.”

In terms of navigating the pressures of life. What about the music industry? What do you kind of think of the industry these days?

“I honestly think the internet was supposed to do wonderful things for all of us musicians, artists, writers. You name it. Anything artistic and tangible. The result of the internet has given you a broader audience, but it has not allowed you to have a decent working income to support your families.”

“I think this particular record is about the inside of who we are and trying to move through. Trying to move through the pressures of the world.”

What advice would you give a new artist these days from your own experiences?

“I don’t know. I’m still trying to navigate this new world myself. I think that what I would say is to find your community and try to navigate it with them. Navigating something on your own is more difficult.”

We’ve talked about music and new music especially being digested differently these days. You still have your radio shows. Radio is not, especially in the UK, as important as it used to be in how it could make or break a band. What’s the most exciting and the most challenging thing about running a radio show?

“I think the most exciting thing is about introducing people to artists that you dig and that you think they will like as well especially if they’ve got some real substance to them. It’s frightening to be on the radio and voice your opinions. That’s scary but, at the same time, it’s exciting too. I think the hardest thing is keeping up with the schedule and the demand and trying to keep those things on par.”

Just to finish off then. Your career has had a lot of highs, a lot of lows, a lot of success, and tough moments. Musically and personally, what ambitions have you got for the future?

Musically, I would like to keep on recording records that excite me, that I feel I’m learning more from and maybe outdoing myself. I also want to create music that unifies people and the more that I can do maybe the more I can help with the state of the the world. That’s a goal of mine because I am a humanitarian and I want to help right and the only way I know how to function is through my music.”

Personally, I’d like to be able to make more time for myself to just chill and not worry about those things as well. My health, my physical, spiritual, and mental well-being is something that’s really important. Sometimes, I’m really on it, and sometimes I’m not which, essentially, is what Pathways is all about.”