Texas Critter Talks New Single "Northern Facing (Boston Too)" and Influences
Evan Taylor has always felt music running through his veins. In April of this year he started recording music solo, most recently releasing the single “Northern Facing (Boston Too).” Inspired by artists such as Adrianne Lenker and Blaze Foley, his heartfelt folk music is unique in its Texan influence within Boston.
Taylor started his music career in middle school with a failed stint playing the trombone. While the instrument didn’t stick, his love for some sort of creative outlet did, manifesting into acting first. Now an acting major, Taylor has admitted that his “career career” will probably remain acting. “I love acting, but I like having both. With acting I can step into someone else’s shoes and learn something about the world in that way. But, writing music and performing it is a head rush. When you get to look out and see the crowd on a hook and know they’re relating—there’s not a better feeling in the world.”
Image courtesy of Sadie Swayze.
Over quarantine, he really had the chance to come back to this craft and practice more. After teaching himself to play guitar, he joined Proxy War, an alt-rock band, where he was able to become familiar with the Boston DIY scene. The band was formed with three friends: Georgia Jaffe, Nick Powell, and Alex Vassilopoulos. Powell and Vassilopoulos both ended up studying abroad their sophomore year, leaving Taylor with a lot of time to develop his ability to play and write on his own. He figured out how much he enjoys the acoustic style, and how he wanted to explore the genre, which is less common for many college musicians, especially in this area. His experiences in this style have given him a new perspective on writing and producing.
Along with those mentioned earlier, some of Taylor’s biggest inspirations include his fellow Boston musicians, such as his bandmates. He specifically brought up JOBIE, another prominent Emerson singer-songwriter, as a person who finally pushed him into performing, telling him to “just go out and do it!”
Image courtesy of Sadie Swayze.
Someone else who Taylor brought up as a major help in his process and trajectory is Ricky Vasan, an independent artist from the Boston area. “I’ve never listened to somebody before Ricky and had it be a new experience, where I find something new each time,” Taylor professed. For a while, Taylor believed he only wanted to write songs for other people to perform, but after bringing a piece to Vasan, the artist denied the song, telling him he “needs to do his own shit” and “make music for himself.”
Now, Taylor is trying to experiment with his music, pushing the boundaries of his sound as far as they’ll go. “Working with Ricky, I’m adding completely new stuff. I would never have considered synths and slide guitars before!” He’s currently working on a new song, heavily inspired by the previously mentioned Lenker and their band Big Thief. While there’s no official release date set yet, Evan hopes to get it out sometime in December or January.
Image courtesy of Sadie Swayze.