Taylor Hollingsworth | Musician

Here it is, the inaugural episode I.

Did with Taylor Hollingsworth way back in.

2021, as we all wondered if the ebb and flow of COVID would end a lot of doubt in the air during that time.

You might hear it in our voice, even.

I don't know.

There are some dated references in all of these episodes that they're coming, but the four questions remain everlasting in their importance and revelation for the artists.

Maybe you're an Alabama native and you've seen Taylor play solo or with the Dexa Teens or with his super group the Blips.

They're some of his other endeavors.

I asked him about the Blips here, actually.

Perhaps you're a fan of Connor Oberst and you know Taylor from working with him in the Mystic Valley band.

That was really cool.

Either way, there's something here for everyone.

I wanted Taylor as my first guest because he's incredibly talented.

He's a really nice guy.

I love his songs a lot.

I'm not so sure he's not one of the best songwriters in Alabama right now.

And he and I go way back to the days of Egans in Tuscaloosa and the Bottle Tree in Birmingham.

You remember those places.

Here I ask him about his creativity, his philosophies about life, what he wishes people knew about music, what problems he faces, and of course, what's done up real good for him.

Every episode starts with some brief chatter.

Again, those references may be dated, especially if they hear about shows, but anyway, let's start the audio only version of Short Takes with Taylor Hollingsworth.

Hey, welcome to the Alabama Takes latest endeavor, which is exclusive to the Alabama Take website and to our YouTube channel.

We are called Short Takes.

At the beginning, we'll have a introductory bit and then every episode will feature four questions, with the fourth question remaining the same for each guest.

We like to sit down with our favorite artists and it is a pleasure for me to be talking to Our first guest, Mr.

Taylor Hollingsworth.

How you doing, man?

Man, I'm doing great.

Pleasure to be here.

Yeah, it's really great to see you.

It's been too long.

I know, man.

It really has probably been over.

Shoot.

I don't even know, man.

Maybe eight to 10 years ago, I think.

I think it might be.

Yes, very much.

Eight is what I was thinking.

Once the kids come around.

That's very true.

Well, before we get in our four questions for the Short Takes episode, I want to set you up for viewers.

People know you, I'm sure, but you're you're a Birmingham based rock and roller.

You.

You've toured with various bands as well as Conor Oberst.

A lot of people might know you from that.

And you've recently put out a new song under your name, Taylor Hollingsworth, a few days ago.

And that can be found or bought on different mediums including streaming.

And that tune is called Pinocchio's Kids.

And I'll just chime in really quickly that.

That song's brilliant, man.

Thank you, man.

Yeah, thank you.

It's really good.

I've had it stuck in my head since Saturday.

In a good way.

Good.

Yeah.

But also coming in a few days.

By the time our episode releases, honestly, it may already be out.

You will have a record with this band, the Blips, which you are part of with some well known Birmingham legends, I would say.

I'm pumped about it.

I've already pre ordered my copy.

People can do that with Cornelia Chapel Records.

Yeah, that's right.

Thanks, man.

What else have you been working on that you.

That might be coming out and you wouldn't talk about or any shows or anything in the.

In late April or May?

Let's see, we have.

The Blips are working on a show I think we've scheduled it for.

I want to say May 6th is the day.

It's going to be at a brewery here in Birmingham.

I'm not doing the booking so honestly I forgot which brewery it is.

But yeah, it'll be like our first show since like the day before the COVID shut down.

We played our first show at Seasick Records.

Like an in store thing.

Yeah.

And everybody was in a panic and it was like, what is happening?

Nobody knew.

I didn't know if anybody was going to come to the show or not.

And it ended up being.

Being good.

But that was it.

We like literally made it on the last day and then the next day it was like everything shut down.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

You.

You've also been selling paintings.

Right.

Online recently.

Is that a new endeavor or is that something you've dabbled in, man?

I started doing art around the time when Ava was born.

So she's eight now, so about eight years ago, you know, the first, the first few years, I just totally didn't know what I was doing at all.

I was literally using Sharpies and just drawing psychedelic weird stuff.

So it took me a while to figure out my thing or what I was doing.

But yeah, now I'm.

I'm really excited about the.

The stuff I'm doing right now.

I think I finally have gotten to a place where I have my own thing, you know.

Yeah.

I'm selling small ones on my website.

They're all like a one foot by one foot just so.

Because they're easy to ship.

I actually sold, sold some a while back in the first few years that were bigger paintings and I would have to ship them and it was a nightmare.

Like there were these oversized shipping fees and all this stuff and it ended up, you know, they would, it would cost so much to ship them and kind of such a pain.

I just, it.

I kind of stopped doing that after a little while and was like, got to figure that out another way.

So did a few art shows around town, mostly at Rojo.

But now I'm hoping to kind of try to, you know, do that some more.

That'd be great.

Try to do Kentuck.

I want to figure out how to do.

To talk to for that or what I got to do.

So I'm not sure.

But that's a, that's a good idea too.

Yeah, perfect.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it'll fit in real well there.

Now my newer stuff.

Yeah.

Well, are you ready for the four questions?

Yeah, let's do it.

Alright.

Our first question is tell me a philosophy that you try your best to live by.

Maybe why you did that.

One of the things one of my personal philosophies is in my mind it's important, you know, one of the greatest gifts, I guess, or one of the most important things people can do is create.

And I try to create something every single day, whether that's painting, writing songs, obviously.

Me and my wife created a child which I think would be the greatest gift you can give.

But you know, that's really a.

Almost a defining thing between say a man and a robot.

You know, it's like a robot could perfect everything eventually.

But you know, do they have that spark of true creativity?

You know what I mean?

I do.

So, yeah, I like when I write songs and put them out there or create a piece of art or whatever, you know, it's sort of in a way, you know, like giving birth to this creation that will now have its own life, you know, will live on past you, I guess, unless our world blows up or something.

But I think that would be my philosophy in life.

What would you say to someone who thinks they're just not creative or they can't produce anything if.

If you like that philosophy and you would say it's useful for others too.

Yeah.

Well, one thing is create positivity in the world.

I mean, you know, I think people get, and I understand it, but people get very focused on money and, and the, their own image of how people see them.

And you know, I think that's human nature to some extent.

I don't think that anybody can fully 100% get away from that, but I think you could try.

And if you, you know, if you can, you know, to somebody who says they're not creative, you know, a lot of times I wonder if they really tried to be creative.

You know, you don't have to.

And when I say creative, I mean I don't.

You don't have to copy something or mirror something and try to do exactly what somebody else did.

But, you know, you certainly could create, create beauty of some sort, you know.

Yeah, more, more beauty we leave here on earth, you know, I think the happier we all are as a whole, you know.

So.

Yeah, I don't disagree with that.

Speaking of creating, you know, that is part of what you do for a living.

What's something you wish people knew about your job, your.

Maybe specifically music, but anything that you've done recently.

It'S a tough one.

I wish people would look deeper into what I do.

You know, I, and I'm sure many do.

You know, I'm not saying nobody does that, but I think a lot of times, you know, I don't consider myself a super successful musician or artist by any means.

And I wish, I wish people would, could, would respect originality more and, and I think that people who strive to, to do something that's not what's popular at the time.

I wish people would look into that more, you know, on a deeper level.

Do you, do you kind of mean like unpacking the.

All the things that go along with making music or booking shows or.

And doing the show poster?

You mean that sort of stuff?

No, more like the actual art itself, you know, like, like, like diving deeper into the sound of it as a whole.

The lyrics.

You know, one thing I, I think I, I work on the lyrics a lot more than.

I know that a lot of my friends do say.

I've had many conversations with like, a good example is some of the guys in the Blitz.

You know, a few of them have told me that lyrics really don't matter to them as long as they're not horrible, you know.

But like, you know, and to me I'm like very obsessed with the lyrics.

You know what I mean?

Like, yeah, I thought that's surprising considering you're in the band with Wes MacDonald.

I think he's A great lyricist.

He is.

He is.

He's not the one who said that.

Let's, let's shift to question three.

What problems do you commonly, fairly commonly face and what do you do to cope with them or even solve them?

What problems do I commonly face?

Getting the gigs that I want.

That, that can be a problem sometimes.

And I remember those days.

Yeah, yeah, it's tough.

It's really tough making, you know, enough money to keep it, to make that your living so where you can fully focus on that and not have to.

I've always had to do like side stuff, you know, side jobs and stuff.

And in the.

Just until the last couple years, I've finally kind of gotten to where I can live off of what I do, you know.

Great.

It's been really hard.

I mean, you know, I just turned 40 and I think I started playing digs when I was like 19 or 20.

Yeah.

So, you know, you.

I've had to learn.

I definitely had to be open minded and not, not like be upset to have to do certain things, certain kinds of gigs say, or certain kinds of things that a lot of people would look down upon or not want to do, you know, I've had to be open about that and, you know, to make.

To truly like to make a living as an artist, you know, you.

I've learned that most of the guys that really actually do make a living as artists, you know, they all, you know, you're gonna have to do.

Do the gigs you don't always want to do as well.

Yeah.

You know, I used to arrogantly say, way out of my wheelhouse probably, that if I didn't have to work, I could be an excellent songwriter, but I don't know if that's true.

You are a great songwriter from what I remember there.

Well, thank you, man.

That means a lot coming from you.

Blame Duncan and the lookers.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So we'll go to our final question.

Same question for every guest.

One of my favorite questions.

And I borrowed this from my friend Corey Hannah's this original Alabama Take podcast, which is on hiatus now.

But what's done up real good for you can be anything.

What's done up real good for me?

I had something that I was thinking about the other day, and now I.

I'm spacing on what it was.

I had something good.

You know, there's a.

There's a taco truck in Homewood called Los Balladoris.

Yeah.

And man, the chicken tinga tostada.

Yes.

You haven't found that from that specific truck man, that tostada is done up real fine.

All right, man, I'm talking like you.

You would never think this thing's coming out of a truck.

I mean, this is like some gourmet fancy.

Good stuff.

And it's cheap, man.

It's good.

That does sound good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm getting hungry now.

They have a steak burrito, too.

That's done up real good.

I'm telling you.

It's good answer, man.

I like it when people go outside the box.

I usually stick to movies or TV shows, but that's a good answer.

Myself, too.

Oh, cool, man.

Yeah.

Let's remind the audience where they can find your music.

Enjoy your music.

Where they can buy the upcoming Blips album, which, again, it might already be released by the time our episode drops.

Tell them where.

Where folks can find you, obviously.

Spotify, Apple Music, all the normal places these days.

You can go to my website, Taylor hollingsworth.org okay.

And I sell my.

I have.

I have finally, in the last couple years, or last year, really started doing all my albums and everything myself.

No more labels or anything.

I'm just shipping it myself.

I pack them myself, everything.

So, yeah, you can get records, CDs, cassettes, T shirts, art.

All of that is there.

You remember this bad boy?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Life with the Slow Earth.

That's a great album.

Well, thank you, man.

And then the Blip stuff is Cornelius Chapel Records, and I believe they have some sort of distribution, so it might be in some indie record stores as well.

I.

I would guess that the, you know, the guys in Tuscaloosa will have it, and I think seasick here will have it.

So for the.

For the Blip stuff there.

Yeah, I think that's.

And for.

For viewers who are.

Who are joining us, I recently ordered an old Vulture well record that's currently being repressed by Cornelius Chapel Records, and they're fast on delivery.

I think I got it the next day.

So really good.

Kudos to them, I think.

So.

It was fast.

I was like, this can't be what I think it is.

But.

So, yeah, thanks, man, for taking a few minutes with me today.

You've always been just a great melodic songwriter, one of my favorite musicians around, and I'm just thrilled that you're gonna be doing new things with the Blips, because those guys impress me so much as well.

Yeah.

So take care.

Hope to talk to you sooner than eight years from now, but.

Yeah.

All right.

And for our viewers, there's a lot more to be found@thealabamatake.com and on all of our social media sites.

Thanks again to Taylor and I will talk to you soon.

Awesome.

Thanks Blaine Sa.