Soul Audio » Features » Travis Taylor

Travis Taylor

Travis Taylor might not be in heavy rotation in your CD player or during your church worship gatherings yet, but that’s about to change. The Los-Angeles-by-way-of-Nashville songwriter pens tunes of all kinds, including those destined for the corporate worship atmosphere and his new album – You Have Loved – is ready to hit shelves even though he’s going the DIY route.

In this interview, the new artist tells us about his background, starting his own label and navigating some of the overcrowded waters of the praise and worship genre.

Soul-Audio: Travis, I’d love to start with living in Los Angeles. Was that a career move for you to move there?

Travis Taylor: Yes, I was living in Dallas, TX at the time in 2003, just wrapping up a three year venture with some of my best friends, a worship band called Ten Thousand Flying. We were playing right at 200 dates a year at our peak, and life on the road was getting pretty cramped in that 15 passenger van (although I would not trade a minute of that experience). My wife Tracey and I were expecting our first child at that time, and the band’s guitarist felt compelled to join the military to help in Iraq, so we decided to go different directions as a band.

That led me to some intense prayer for direction, which ultimately led to Los Angeles. I knew I wanted to move to a place where there was a strong music industry, so Nashville or LA were the two obvious choices, even though I had never even visited California before the day of my interview at our church.

SA: If it was a career move, what has the move brought you that would be different than what you envisioned?

Travis: I thought things would be on a much faster pace musically, but I found myself wanting to invest the majority of my time into the church I was working for, building a music ministry. I think I envisioned moving out here and surrounding myself with the music industry, but it’s really been a time of getting our feet planted as a family and developing strong roots in our community. I need that, and I did not have that when we were traveling so much before. God has a way of slowing you down and helping you do things His way, the best way of course.

SA: Can you tell me about You Have Loved? Why that title for this specific collection of songs?

Travis: “You Have Loved” is a song I wrote sitting at my kitchen table looking out at the Pacific Ocean one morning – I had the privilege of living in an apartment for a few months that overlooked the ocean. The beauty overtook me, and I began to feel overwhelmed thinking of how much God had blessed my family over the years. Not just with a great view, but with the blessings of health, great family & friends, and on and on. The song just came out in about 30 minutes. I guess I picked it as the title because, when you get down to the nuts and bolts of what I’m saying on the album, that song says it best.

SA: You write songs that are good for corporate worship but then also about relationships, which seems to present an issue on how to categorize you. After all, you don’t see Chris Tomlin writing songs about the love of his life or Matt Redman on politics, etc. How does that mixture of songs affect your approach or how you are presented? Or do you even worry about that?

Travis: Funny you ask that. It’s not the first time I’ve been asked this. I guess what I’m trying to do as an artist/worship leader, and even as a businessman, is just be myself. I’m a songwriter who is inspired by Christ. I write songs out of that relationship. That means it can be a worship song, or it can be about my son and the blessings God has poured over my family, or it can be about humanity, etc. If I were to commit to only writing worship songs, I think I would be too tempted to write the ‘next big thing’ and not write from a pure heart.

I think the great worship songs that rise to the top are from the Lord anyway, you can’t pen them by yourself. They always come from movement of God, or a real experience that the songwriter pours into melody. I just try and write from something real, and hopefully that comes across to the listener. I think people can relate to that kind of song writing, and I’m confident people will not be confused or think a song is out of place on this record.

SA: When you went in to record this album, was there a specific vision for what you wanted to do?

Travis: I wanted to make something really good first of all. I’m really striving to offer something solid musically. Beyond that, I just wanted to encourage people in all walks of life. The church, and the guy who’s thinking about going to church but just hasn’t given it a shot yet. I think that guy will like this record, and be encouraged by it, as well as the church.

SA: There’s such a glut of worship artists out there and the trend never stops or seems to be slowing down at all. So what do you bring to the table that’s different from other artists next to you on the shelf?

Travis: Hmmm, more than worship? If you’re looking for a new worship song to do at church, I might have some good ones for you to try out, but if you just want to hear some good songs to crank in your iPod, then I think you’ll dig this record, too. Honestly, as a worship leader, I really value good worship songs to introduce to my church, and they are hard to find. I think people will find some depth of content and honesty in these songs, which in my opinion make them good songs for worship.

SA: You’re releasing your record on Periday, which is your own imprint or label. What was the reason behind this and how does that work?

Travis: I went down the normal road and talked to lots of major labels, but somehow kept getting nudges to take the plunge and start my own thing. I’ve always wanted to do this, a label that is, but it was never the right time. I talked to a few investors and figured out I could do more on my own than what some of the more established companies could offer in this market, so I just went for it. My goal is to develop this into something much bigger than just my music. There is a large community of artists even within my own hometown that need to be heard in the world. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to introduce some great new artists in the future.

I think it’s definitely a crazy time to launch a new business with this economy, and thus the name Periday – a made up word derived from “perilous day.” Sometimes you just have to put your trust in the Lord despite what the world looks like, and take it step by step. We have an amazing team of people within Periday, so I feel confident we’ll get some good work done.

SA: How are you partnering specifically with Koch?

Travis: Koch is our distributor. Barry Landis – head of Koch’s Christian division – and I met a while back and felt like it would be a good match. Periday handles all of the basic “label” functions like marketing, PR, radio promotion, and Koch makes sure we’re on the right shelves and are hitting release dates, etc.

SA: Finally, what’s the sense of anticipation for you surrounding the release date?

Travis: I’m ready to get going, I’ve been working on this for a long time, so I can’t wait to finally get some music out there in people hands. We’ve had some great reviews already, so we’ll see how things go.