“I was crossing the street last week and I passed by some girl in her car who yelled, ‘Syd Taylor! I love your album!’ That’s never happened to me before [laughs], so I’m really enjoying meeting people out in the wild,” Syd Taylor herself tells me during a recent phone chat. The album her admirer was referring to is After the Fact, which dropped independently last June. After the Fact is the first solo LP from the Detroit-born, Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, model, and producer who spent the previous decade as one-half of alt-pop duo Stereo Jane alongside twin sister Emilia Page.
Those who caught the latest edition of Philthy Radio, my monthly show for Y-Not Radio, heard “Dream About You,” a non-single off of After the Fact that would seem to fall about halfway between Best Coast and La Luz in the best possible way. “I was in my car when I came up with that. I was in a very rock mood that week and I was like, ‘Just go full-on rock with it!’” she says of the track, going on to explain that there had been a plethora of sounds she’d been dying to explore leading up to this solo debut: “I felt like I was in a pressure cooker for so many years… With this one, there were just so many ideas that were held in for so long pouring out of me.”
“It all felt super seamless, in that it all happened so quickly,” Taylor says of the making of After the Fact, which she wrote and produced herself during a three-month period in her Los Angeles apartment. She also tells me that she would love to continue doing production for future releases, which are already in the works: “I’m actually meeting with new producers to talk about the next album right now, but I would love if I could do a lot of the production myself.” “I really love creating on my own, and when you’re relying on these other people, you can’t do that at four in the morning,” she says jokingly, admitting that she appreciates the coffee table art books and movies regularly playing in her home that often serve as inspiration.
Syd Taylor is gearing up to hit the road as support for Goldie Boutilier on a nearly sold-out US tour that begins February 24th in Detroit and includes a March 7th stop at First Unitarian Church. “I can’t sleep, I’m so excited! It’s all I think about!” Syd exclaims when I inquire about the tour. And while she tells me she’s exceptionally excited for Lincoln Hall in Chicago (which is already sold out) and Basement East in Nashville (“Everyone’s been telling me about Nashville, that all the writers and producers and industry people are there.”), she also says she suspects our most famous DIY venue is going to leave quite an impression, as well: “I feel like those are the rowdiest shows, I feel like it’s going to be the rowdiest audience… But I’ve been planning my outfits around the shows and it’s such a gorgeous venue!”
Taylor tells me she’s a very visual person — recently taking inspiration from BBC series Killing Eve and Bond films — and has designed every aspect of her upcoming show, which will likely include one or two new songs. And she says this setlist has been curated for maximum energy: “The live show is super upbeat. We’re not gonna do any of the slower songs. A lot of times you can hear people talking through the ballads, so I’m gonna keep it high energy and exciting!” But when I ask what she has planned for after these dates wrap in early April, Syd tells me that those who dig her more subtle sounds might get a chance to hear them live in the near future: “I’m working on a lot of new music and potentially doing a tour of my own, so playing more of the US in smaller rooms.”
*Get your tickets here.
