If you are feeling the weight of daily life, its challenges and hard times, its heavy realities and the pressure we self-inflict, Julian Taylor’s new album, “Pathways,” will ease your troubled mind. You can hear the truths he’s found in self-reflection in the songs on the record, be it the reminder to go easier on himself in “Weighing Down” or the succor he shares for one who needs it that flows through the title track, “Pathways.” There is an overwhelming sense of hope that Taylor brings with this record, and a comfort in being reminded that we’re all going through things in life and should be there for each other. With warm, engaging vocals and storyteller lyrics, Taylor has, yet again, created an album that will make everyone who listens to it feel not so alone is this big world of ours. This is a definite contender for album of the year. We sat down recently with Taylor to discuss the new album in all of its Americana and folk glory.
Hi, Julian! You have a terrific new album out now called “Pathways.” How did these songs come together and what broad strokes can you tell us about the collection?
Thank you for describing the album that way. I think it’s pretty terrific, too. I’ve been working on these songs for a while; some of them are old songs that I’ve gone back and reworked and others are quite new. I’m always working on music. I’m always writing, or at least trying to. This particular record was one that I wanted to make with Colin Linden, because we’ve been talking about working together for really long time – almost 20 years now – and finally this just sort of clicked. It all came together. We got to make part of this record at Jukasa Recording Studios, which is on Six Nations by the Grand River, and the rest was recorded at Pinhead Recorders, which is in Nashville and is Colin’s Studio.
I got to have some really amazing players on the record to help me reinterpret my songs. As a result of that, they came out sounding a lot different than I thought they would. There’s a lot of sparsity in this record that I’m really proud of, and I had to be coached into doing that. Colin, as a producer, was in charge of trying to get me to look at things in a different way and coach me in a different way, and that was really an amazing gift that he gave me. I always love learning from people. I’ve made records in so many different ways, and this one is no exception.
One of the songs on your new album, the title track, “Pathways,” is really great and stood out to me. What can you tell us about this song? What inspired you to write it and what is it about?
Again, thank you for the compliment on the song “Pathways.” I love it, too. It’s a great collaboration between friends. It is the interconnectedness of friendship, and I think that’s what the song is about. It’s about being there for people. It’s about supporting people and about loving people and being kind to people, as well as being that way within ourselves, and hoping we get that in return from the people that we love.
How did you come to have Allison Russell join you on the song?
We’ve been friends for some time now, and we performed at the JUNO Awards together and did a tribute to Robbie Robertson. It was incredible. I got to do that with her and some other friends like Logan Staats, Shawnee Kish, William Prince, and Aysanabee.
Allison is based in Nashville, where Colin Linden is also based, and they live pretty close, so we were just having a chill and I thought maybe we should call Allison. I was thrilled that she said yes. She was really amazing, and I’m so honored to have her on this track because when she heard it, she really fell in love with it and made it her own. She just brought something incredible to the table, something intangible. She always brings something incredible to everything she does. I am grateful to be in her sphere, in her world, and she makes this song glow.
What was it like recording this album overall? What was the vibe in the studio overall, and how did this song, in particular, come together?
It was amazing recording the record with Colin Linden. The guy’s been around a long time recording records, and he knows what he’s doing. He actually worked on a T Bone Burnett record just before he worked on mine, and the vibe in the studio was great. Most of the stuff is live off the floor. It was incredible to be in the same room as some of these amazing musicians who just hear a song and then instantly know how it’s mapped out and how to play it. Victor Krause blew my mind. He played bass on a couple tracks and simply played the song, and then boom, he knew how to play it. I’ve never seen anything like that.
What do you hope this album conveys to those who listen to it?
I hope that the album conveys hope and support for our own personal preservation and the preservation of others. It kinda deals with the fact that we’re all going through the same thing and we’re going through it together, whether we know it or not. I hope that it relates to people that way.
If you look back over your career, you probably feel like quite a different artist now than when you began for a number of reasons – life experience, industry experience, studio and performing experience all factoring into that. Do different things inspire you now? Where do you tend to get your biggest inspiration from these days?
Of course I’m different. I’m different every day. Every day that I get up, I feel different. It’s one of the reasons why I understand how mental health is such a part of this world, and that so many go through rough patches some days. I feel amazing some days and I don’t others.
I’m affected by the day before me and ahead of me and the day that was behind me, so as an artist I’m inspired by the things that come in contact with my emotions and react to all of the people that I meet and all the things that happened to me. I am inspired because I love listening to music, and I think that’s maybe one of the reasons I got into it in the first place, the vantage point at a concert stage, and I get to be there a lot and see my friends perform. It’s pretty cool.
Songwriting can be a really personal endeavor, yet when you release a song or an album or an EP, you share the music with so many people. How does this make you feel, and is it ever difficult to share songs widely like that? What kind of feedback do you get from fans who have connected with the music or had a song impact them in a deep and meaningful way?
Yes, it is a very personal thing, and it can be quite difficult. There are some songs that I have a hard time performing. For example, I wrote a song about something that happened to a friend of mine, which in turn happened to me and other friends of mine, called “Murder 13.” It’s a hard one to play in public, but I think it was important to write because of the subject matter. Sometimes people just need to hear these things that have happened to other people so that they can have a better understanding of what goes on in their world. It’s a very strange world where everybody’s sort of focused on themselves. I can’t say that I’m too different in that regard, because I’m human, and, a lot of the time, my ego gets in the way of things and even the person I want to be. I am trying all the time.
What has been the most exciting thing to happen for you this year?
There have been a couple of really exciting moments this year. The JUNO Awards performing with my friends, like I mentioned, was incredible, and then I got to see a lot of them again at Massey Hall in Toronto when we honored the late, great Gordon Lightfoot. I got to be on stage with Blue Rodeo to perform a song written by Gordon called “All I’m After.” Playing shows in front of people and having them take in what I’m saying and singing about is amazing and healing for all of us in the room. After all, we’re all in this together, aren’t we?
Got any tour plans? Where can fans see you on the road?
I’ve been on the road a lot this year, on the East Coast and the West Coast of Canada. I’m heading there in the fall. I’m in the UK at the moment as we speak, and I was in Italy and Holland and Belgium, and then I’ll be in California a little later in the year. It’s been a busy year filled with wonderful shows. You can check juliantaylormusic.ca and find the list of tour dates there.
