Emerson Musician Texas Critter Talks Debut Single “Thief Song”
Cover Art for Texas Critter’s Debut Single “Thief Song”
Evan Taylor really does it all. The singer/songwriter is a part of two Boston-based bands, Frogger, an indie surf rock band, and Proxy War, an alt-rock band, and also lends a hand in the musical project Last Violets, led by Vincent Paz. But now, he’s going solo as Texas Critter— a stage name reminiscent of his home state, and a shirt he giddily showed me donning various native critters. On April 8, he’s coming out with a brand new debut song, “Thief Song.”
“Thief Song” falls into a folk genre, but can be further categorized as “yallternative” or “twee,” as Taylor put it. As a folk lover at heart, Taylor wanted to do more with the music. “There’s not a ton of people on campus that like to do that kind of stuff, so I just figured, why not? I’m writing all these folk songs, so why not?” Taylor said, adding “I could just do it myself.”
Songwriting is “like a compulsion” for Taylor, something he does often to pass the time. As the pandemic started and he spent more time alone, learning a new instrument and writing songs began to fill that time. “I wouldn’t rather be doing anything else,” Taylor says. When it comes to songwriting for his solo project, Taylor takes more freedom than he does in his other bands, in which he must write lyrics that everyone agrees with. He explores everything from love songs and relationship-oriented lyricism, to lyrics with extended metaphors, such as a song in which he is a cigarette, that he plans to release in the future. His Texas roots also have an influence on his songwriting and sound; country and bluegrass artists hailing from the South inform his writing, as well as “using the imagery, iconography, and just the general feeling of, like, space that comes from the South,” he says.
As for “Thief Song,” these songwriting elements shine right through. “It’s about doing the wrong thing with the right person,” Taylor says. With its acoustic, nostalgic sound, this track describes the thrill of shoplifting with someone you’re close to. It is a “love song,” as said by Taylor, to a few different people he cares about. “I have, like, a lot of people in my life that I love that are known to shoplift,” he says while laughing.
With many other songs written, “Thief Song” is the first of Taylor’s releases for a few reasons, one being it begged for more than just him and his guitar, as many of his others will be. “The song itself, I knew, lent itself more to like a full band feel than it did just me and a guitar, so I figured like, oh, this will be a good one to start with because it won’t just be me, and I’ll have like a little bit of everybody else to lean on,” Taylor says. Several people helped to create it, including production from Vincent Paz of the previously mentioned Last Violets, and his friends and bandmates who played bass and guitar. Taylor also wanted to start on a “positive note,” for his first solo song. “I feel like this is, like, a very happy song,” he says. “Mischievous,” he adds about the song.
With “Thief Song,” Taylor hopes to inspire more folk, bluegrass, and country music at Emerson. “I don’t know if that’s necessarily the taste that’s go-to at Emerson,” he says. “I think there’s so much value and worth, like, within these [folk, bluegrass, country] songs,” he adds. Taylor wants the song to introduce Texas Critter to the world. But, he also hopes listeners take what they want from it. “I feel like it’s much more powerful when people go into it with their own goals,” he says.