A Chat with Simon Taylor (05.10.23)
Combining elements of funk, rock and Latin pop infused with classical guitar and profound lyricism, listening to Simon Taylor is a kaleidoscopic swirl of genre-diverse skill. We speak with Simon Taylor about his new EP Karma, early memories, future plans and more.
OSR: Why did you choose to become a musician? What drew you to music?
Taylor: It took me until I was 24 before I really knew that I wanted to pursue music seriously. This process had begun five yours earlier when I was on holiday in Spain with my girlfriend of the time and saw a flamenco guitarist teaching a pupil. Something about the scene resonated with me and soon afterwards I ended up getting my first guitar. I played it for a couple of years but then put it down for a couple of years after that and ended up writing a lot of poetry instead. This saw me in good stead, though, for when I picked up my guitar again at the age of 24 as the poetry-writing helped me when I started getting musical ideas and wanted to put words to them thus beginning my career in songwriting. In terms of what drew me to make music, there was a need to express some of the intense experiences I had gone through as a young man.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Taylor: Music makes life bearable and liveable for me, I have it on practically all the time when I’m at home and travelling. Music is practically proof that there is a God for me personally. As a listener, I use music to anaesthetise feelings of loneliness and overwhelm that I might have. As a songwriter, it has allowed me to fill my time most productively over two decades now and has given meaning to my life when before its arrival in my life I felt largely lost.
OSR: You recently released your EP Karma, what can you tell us about it?
Taylor: Karma was recorded at a time of great personal difficulty for myself. I had to postpone my first recording session as I had ended up in a psychiatric ward in Majorca (in Summer 2022). It is a long and painful story as to how I ended up there. In terms of that story, I was basically getting harassed by my neighbours and it ultimately led to me having some kind of mental health meltdown over the summer of 2022. Which ended up with me being sectioned. The whole situation seemed monumentally unfair as they seemed to get away with their behaviour scot-free. Ironically, when I was in the ward I got chatting to one of my fellow in-patients and, after I told him some of that story, (using the word “karma” in the process), he suggested that I should call my EP that. I resolved with myself that I would indeed.
I wrote a song about the neighbour situation that appears on the EP called ‘Judgement Day’. I also wrote a song around that time called ‘Karma’ that didn’t actually end up getting recorded. But overall it seemed to me the EP was from a time when I had to put my faith in the idea that God above would deal with the people hurting me in His/ Her own sweet way. As I was finding justice in this terrestrial world impossible to achieve by myself. Hence Karma is the title.
OSR: If you could change anything about the EP, what would it be?
Taylor: I’m happy to say that the only thing that I would change is one missing note in one of the tracks that I would prefer to have been in. Otherwise, I was able to share ideas satisfactorily with producer Lisa Murphy about how things should end up sounding so I have no regrets there.
OSR: What do you hope people take from Karma?
Taylor: Some nice melodies hopefully. As much as my EP is called Karma and I have explained more about its concept, overall it is more important to me that people have some more pleasant tunes to listen to as they go about their day-to-day business. I tend to go with the sensory side of music over the intellectual, personally.
OSR: What do you take from Karma?
Taylor: A sense of satisfaction that I overcame a very difficult period in my life to be able to release more new music to a decent standard.
OSR: What makes you unique as an artist?
Taylor: Wow, tough question. I’m not unique in my influences being Leonard Cohen or Serge Gainsbourg. A lot of songwriters could say that. Perhaps what I would say is that my music is diverse in terms of genres and style. One review recently said my music was “hard to pigeonhole” and I took that as a compliment. This EP features a rock track, a trad jazz-style song, a European-influenced folk song and a Latin funk track. So I think that makes me different in some regards, if not necessarily unique.
OSR: Some random questions: what is your earliest memory? It doesn’t have to be music-related at all.
Taylor: My earliest memory is also practically my happiest. I was on the top of a double-decker bus in London aged possibly two years old, if that. I was looking out at the city at night-time in a state of utter excitement. Cities have interested me ever since really, all the lights and the action although I am aware of the dark side of urban living too, obviously. I think this formative memory influenced some songs I wrote decades later, such as one called ‘Les Rues de Paris’, which paints an impressionistic picture of that city.
OSR: If you could un-invent one thing, what would it be?
Taylor: Cars. Hate them.
OSR: What can we expect from Simon Taylor in the future?
Taylor: More music hopefully. To my regret, I haven’t been writing much over the last year or so. But on the flip side, I have many folders of older songs that I am determined to record and that process has already started as I was back in the studio working on one of those songs last month. Hopefully, I can get back to gigging more often after a quiet year in that respect too.
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
Taylor: Be kind to one another as you don’t know what the next person is going through. A simple observation but one that is worth bearing in mind. Also, yes, I do believe in karma.
Many thanks to Simon Taylor for speaking with us! Find out more about Simon Taylor on his official website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
