
With her stunningly sparse melodies and minimalistic guitar riffs, 19 year old Taylor Janzen may seem softly spoken, but her staggering lyrical narrative and deeply personal writing sends a resounding message.
Today, she returns with “Shouting Matches”, the title track from her forthcoming EP due for release May 3rd. The song opens with folk-twinged riffs set against a haunting soundscape and building drums, and sees Taylor explore her struggles with mental health and how that affects her as an artist.
She explains, “This song is about being a little too attached to my sadness. I think sometimes when I’m so used to feeling a certain way and turning it into art or something useful, I start to feel a little trapped inside of it. It’s almost like I don’t know who I am outside of my feelings. This song is just me shifting through that, and trying to find a balance.”
Growing up Taylor wasn’t often able to speak through her feelings, so turned to songwriting as an outlet. As a result, with each song we’re granted an intimate and almost painstakingly brazen glimpse into the most heart wrenching pages of her diary. She writes candidly, musing that, “the music that I write is very honest, so it speaks for itself.”
“The thing is, my personality isn’t as depressing as my music is,” adds Taylor. Often tweeting about Dennis Quaid, her cat Rory Gilmore and the occasional Paramore cover (one of which went viral with 25k+ retweets and got the endorsement from Hayley Williams herself), every little thing Taylor shares with the world is magic, shining a light and finding beauty in even the darkest, and seemingly mundane moments.
With the release of the first track from the EP, “New Mercies” at the end of 2018 and support from CBC Radio and Apple Music, it was a banner year for the artist. 2019 looks to be much the same with Taylor appearing at Shaky Knees Festival and Bunbury, and the highly anticipated release of “Shouting Matches” on May 3.