Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Morse.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I grew up in the suburb of Mesquite, Texas most of my life until I graduated high school. I guess from a young age I was always surrounded by music. My parents weren’t that musical themselves, but they have great taste in music, so I grew up listening to a lot of Motown jams and classics that still (if you ask me) are bops today. I like to say my first word, other than “mommy” or “daddy” was actually sung and the word was “chocolate milk.” Somewhere deep in our family VHS archives is a video of my mom singing the words “chocolate milk” to me and I attempt multiple times to sing them back to her until I actually said the words. I started singing in church choir when I was roughly 6 years old, randomly wrote my first song when I was 8 years old (it was a Christmas song that I wrote in the middle of summer), and was an active choir member in every grade of school from 5th grade until I graduated high school. Although I always was surrounded by music, I never really went after the dream of being an artist until I took my first voice lesson in middle school when I was 13 years old. I came home one day and sang for my parents who cried afterwards, and something in me just knew from that moment on that this was something I wanted to pursue. I picked up a guitar around the same time I took my first voice lesson, but that was short lived as my guitar was huge for my little body and I just couldn’t connect with the instrument like I had imagined I would. After about one year of failed guitar lessons, I saw a youtube video with a kid playing the ukulele and within days went to Guitar Center, sold my guitar for $50, and bought my 1st ukulele. That is when I really started to love to create music on my on and wrote way more once I picked it up. I graduated high school in 2013 and a few months after made the big move to Los Angeles on my own- a dream I had had long before I even wanted to pursue music. I was always drawn to this city for some reason, and once I got here at the ripe age of 18, I knew it was exactly where I needed to be to really feel like me. I studied music in college for two years before graduating, met a lot of great friends and musicians, and five years later, I’m still here. I just released my first EP in December 2018 after years of self-doubt and trial and error, and now I am actively pursuing songwriting and being an artist as my full-time career at the age of 23.
Please tell us about your art.
I write, sing, and play the ukulele. I have other art interest as well, but those are my main focus at the moment. I love writing songs. I love writing lyrics that (hopefully) people connect to in some way or form. I love taking other people’s experiences and stories and interpreting them in my mind and then putting them into a song. I’ve always been a bit dramatic…if you ask my family, but I like to feel. I like to relate to other people even if I haven’t had the same experience in life as they have. Which, let’s be real- most of us haven’t had the same experience as our neighbors. That is exactly what I like to draw my inspiration from. As far as a process, I guess my typical day-to-day with writing songs comes down to my iPhone notes and voice memos. There are WAY too many of both of them and I will literally never delete any of them and will probably cry for a while if I was to lose any of them, haha. I am always jotting down words or phrases I hear or singing a melody I came up within the grocery store into my phone, etc. I like to randomly go through my notes and voice memos about once a week and see what I came up with and see if there are any ideas I want to build on. I do most of my writing by myself, but recently I’ve been writing with others, and it has really shown me how much I want to be in the industry even more so just to collaborate with all of the minds that are out there. For me, my music is a part of me. It’s actually more like various parts of me- parts of me I imagine, parts of me I love, parts of me I’m not too fond of, parts of me I’d like to change, parts of me I would like to see myself as, parts of me I want to keep, and so much more. I feel like it’s very important to make music that is relatable to not just one certain age group, but music that can mean something to a 13-year-old and also maybe your grandpa. I want my music to reach as many people as possible because I honestly and truly believe that I can connect with people that may not know how to say something I’ve put into a song that they can belt out or jam to alone. I’d like to create something that feels like a release to someone when they hear it. Overall I just want people to relate to my music because for a long time I felt like I didn’t have music I really related to. I always loved music, but that deep connection didn’t always hit for me, and I would like to hit that connection with someone through the art I create.
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
Success is something that I think is always being redefined by not only society but as an individual growing and learning through life. Your view is often altered on what success really feels like the more things you go through and lessons you have to learn. It’s something that is so specific to each person that there is no way to say what success is for someone else-only yourself. For me, success is me being happy with my life choices, not repeating bad mistakes, living comfortably, helping as many people in the world I possibly can through my own art, and knowing that I can help my family be as stress-free and healthy as possible. To get to that big picture of success that I have for myself it is going to take a lot of elbow grease, long nights, less sleep, and tons of support. I know that I will get there someday and I’m hoping sooner than later, but I’m not going to put a timeline on myself because I think at a certain point timelines can become detrimental, but I know how hard it is going to be (at least I like to think I know, but I have no idea what the future holds). I think it is essential, no matter what your success looks like for you, to keep your focus on not just your goals, but your plan of action. Also, who you surround yourself with and who you share your energy with is super important. Beware of energy vampires.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Right now I am on most social media platforms as @taylormorse or @thetaylormorse, and I am active on all of them. Instagram is definitely the best way to see what I’m up to and to keep up with any new releases or projects or shows I’m working on. I just released my debut EP that can be streamed and purchased on literally every major platform you can think of, so giving that a listen and letting me know what you like about is all I am asking for right now. That is the kind of support I’d love. I just want people to hear me and share my art with as many people as possible, so if you’re reading this and you like my music, please let me know and please share it with people! I’d appreciate that sooooo much.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylormorse/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/taylormorsemusic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thetaylormorse
- Other: https://www.reverbnation.com/taylormorsemusic
Bobbi Lanea & Nicole Fye
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