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“I won’t fight back, not against this swelling sound.”
On Taylor Bradshaw’s debut album Twine, there is a tangible dichotomy borne from Bradshaw’s early attraction to the muscular high energy of alternative and punk, joined to a more measured sensibility centered on the emotional power of words and the textural nature of acoustic folk music. Tempered by careful study of the technical aspects of the craft and an inherent flare for the romantic, Bradshaw’s debut is a full-bodied expression of self in 11 expertly composed and produced tracks that get the blood pumping with the same verve with which they tug at heartstrings.
Never one to rest, Bradshaw is a true 21st Century troubadour who continues to leverage his talents and vision to bridge gaps between disparate genres on future projects and collaborations beyond his sonic center. These ambitious pursuits are setting the stage for a multifaceted career that’s just beginning as Taylor Bradshaw continues to build his own legend on record and on stage. Keep him on your radar.
Taylor released his debut album Twine in February of 2020, kicking off his tour of the American Northeast.
He is now working on his sophomore album, with the first singles beginning to release in January of 2023.
Based in New York City
Genre: Indie folk pop, Alt Rock
Littlefield – Brooklyn, NY (Drown Your Boots, Jude River)
The Bowery Electric – New York, NY (The Aberdeen)
Arlene’s Grocery – New York, NY (Pan Arcadia, Holy Vulture, LOVECHILD)
Arlene’s Grocery – New York, NY (Jess McAvoy, L.A. Girlfriend)
The Delancey – New York, NY (The Aberdeen)
Berlin Under A – New York, NY (Celeste Krishna, Xaxa, Waller)
Berlin Under A – New York, NY (Wakelee, Noah Rosner)
Berlin Under A – New York, NY (The Screaming Eyeballs, Connie Shi, Couvo)
Kung Fu Necktie – Philadelphia, PA (The 1940’s, Brain Peel, Fire from Flint)
The Sanctuary – New Paltz, NY
1880 – Boston, Massachusetts Askew – Providence, RI Ground Zero – Troy, NY
The Boom Room – Philadelphia, PA The Well – Brooklyn, NY
The Velvet Lounge – Long Island, NY Saghar – Long Island, NY
The Shovel Bar – Brooklyn, NY
Rockwood Music Hall – New York, NY
Over the years, when he’s playing his raucous full band shows, Taylor Bradshaw is all about full throttle, crank it up, get loud, roiling around in the audience and shredding, sometimes to the point where he’s got blood streaks on his guitar. One time, he famously pulled down a Boston police barricade and used it as a guitar slide. Before the lockdown, he squeezed in a bunch of these shows promoting his debut album Twine throughout the Northeast, playing DIY house parties and basement shows and popular venues like Littlefield in Brooklyn and Kung Fu Necktie in Philly. He balances this kind of energy with acoustic performances at private house parties and other intimate venues, including an underground speakeasy in NYC where he showcased his new gentler style as a singer, songwriter and musical storyteller.
"An emerging artist who boldly follows his own freewheeling muses into many different exciting musical territories, Taylor Bradshaw is the grand epitome of what can happen in a world where independent music and vision are encouraged over strict genre categorization and pigeonholing. Thematically, the 27-year-old’s debut album Twine may be all about love and relationships and trying to figure all the craziness out, but those stories are couched in a musical setting that whirl past the ears with breakneck speed with the constant ability to excite and surprise. He’s got the punk spirit at heart, but he’s also a folkie and loves to rock till he bleeds. You never know where he’s going to take you next, and that makes his generous 11 track album a wild and triumphant whirlwind.”
“Taylor Bradshaw has one of those voices that can go soft and emotional, or can ratchet up and hook you with an energetic Rock vibe. Bradshaw utilizes both on ‘Our First Date,’ to bring forth that flash bulb feeling of self revelation when you realize you are about to be madly in love with a person you barely even know. The emotions of being on that precipice and deciding to step off into an unknown come through in both the performance and the lyrics”
"Taylor Bradshaw is a favorite around Keep Walking Music and for good reason. Whether it’s his unique writing style or the way he performs his music, Taylor is a true artist from the inside out. This young artist not only demands your attention but he stands out amongst the rest. So, whether you’re a fan of indie rock, Taylor Bradshaw has a sound that will lock you in from the start."
“Taylor Bradshaw blissfully used his down time to take stock of his developing artistry, listening and responding to an inner creative voice that told him that the great audience responses to his acoustic ballads – even in an otherwise rockin’ show – were wisely pointing him in an inspiring new direction. While his debut album Twine was a solid, multi-faceted showcase for an artist finding his way, Bradshaw’s new, all acoustic material reflects the kind of focus, maturity, storytelling and intimate, ethereal vocal sparkle that is bound to set him on a more powerful and fulfilling trajectory as an indie folk artist in the years to come. Besides offering him the opportunity to share his amazing lyrics and the range of his voice, the songs he ultimately has on his sophomore album will be in part chosen by the fans that love him best. This shows that he’s an artist that isn’t just there to entertain his audience but develop a long-lasting relationship with them. It will be exciting to see the impact of Bradshaw’s beautiful new vibe in the coming years.”
Through introspective cabin retreats, emerging NYC-based singer/songwriter Taylor Bradshaw has honed in on his personal voice as an artist. During that time, he feels he has finally found his cohesive artistic vision, and has created a full length album that shifts to a soulful brand of indie folk-pop. Bradshaw’s music is not only self-expression for him, but he hopes to help others process their own emotions through his songs, bringing catharsis to both him and his listeners.
Releasing his admittedly “all over the place” debut album Twine in February 2020, he squeezed in a bunch of high-profile DIY house parties and club shows (including a big release party at Littlefield in Brooklyn) with some high energy full band rocking. At every gig he played, he realized that despite the high intensity of his show overall, the two tunes that seemed to resonate most with his audiences (mostly the folks in the back of the room, he laughs) were the softer acoustic ballads “Twine” and especially “Laura,” which currently has more than 150,000 streams on Spotify. He started feeling that this vibe best reflected his truest, most authentic voice as an artist. Since then, he has focused his writing sessions on the indie folk style that includes a lot of beautiful atmospheric touches, thoughtful and heartfelt storytelling and, when the emotion calls for it, his stunning falsetto.
Bradshaw’s instincts regarding his new style were confirmed with a series of post-lockdown shows at an underground speakeasy in NYC, where he presented some of the acoustic songs he had been developing in a low pressure environment of encouraging supporters. “People love to rock out and party for sure,” he says, “but what really captures them is singing a song with a story they can relate to.” His songwriting pace accelerated this past winter when he gathered his recording equipment and hightailed it to the Catskills upstate for a dedicated creative retreat.
Fully immersed in the natural surroundings with no outside distractions, he didn’t quite meet his goal of writing a song a day, but he sparked a dynamic wave of great tunes that continued in the months after he returned to his digs in Harlem. One of the songs he wrote up in the woods, “The Final Night,” is sure to make the final tracking on his currently in the works followup album. Bradshaw, who self-produced Twine, is working with an outside producer for the first time, traveling up every few weeks to Bethel Woods, NY (home of the Woodstock Festival) to work with Julian Giaimo, whose specialty is indie singer/songwriter and bluegrass artists. Bradshaw appreciated his “acoustic mind and songwriter vibe” and the way he is helping the singer hone his craft, guide the recording process and pick the best songs for the project.
Bradshaw has whittled the possibilities for the album down to 20 songs from countless more and is engaging with his most engaged fans via social media, messaging and texting for input into the creative process. He counts his personal influences as everyone from Johnny Cash and Simon and Garfunkel to contemporary alt country greats Tyler Childers and Zach Brian and singer/songwriters Keaton Henson and Frank Turner. But he always asks his fans who they are listening to and enjoys being turned on to new artists all the time.
“I want to help other people process what’s going on in their lives through creativity and self-expression,” Bradshaw says. “Hearing someone else process their emotions and sharing their journey is a remarkably therapeutic action. I want to feel these emotions and process them through creativity, rather than letting them sit bottled up inside. And I want to facilitate that catharsis in others. I will continuously try new creative pursuits and share the journey. Everything can be learned, and I want my audience to feel that they too can participate. I’m excited that I am finally focusing on my own authentic musical style. My first album was fun to make, but now I’m really focused on what feels right for me – which offers me a greater opportunity for musical storytelling that connects with people.”
Over the years, when he’s playing his raucous full band shows, Taylor Bradshaw is all about full throttle, crank it up, get loud, roiling around in the audience and shredding, sometimes to the point where he’s got blood streaks on his guitar. One time, he famously pulled down a Boston police barricade and used it as a guitar slide. Before the lockdown, he squeezed in a bunch of these shows promoting his debut album Twine throughout the Northeast, playing DIY house parties and basement shows and popular venues like Littlefield in Brooklyn and Kung Fu Necktie in Philly. He balances this kind of energy with acoustic performances at private house parties and other intimate venues, including an underground speakeasy in NYC where he showcased his new gentler style as a singer, songwriter and musical storyteller. These spaces often remind him of his days in high school, when he would perform in the cafeteria as part of coffeehouse events which raised money for the school’s literary magazine, which he contributed visual art and fiction stories to.
Finding this authentic voice in this lower key acoustic style is even more remarkable considering Bradshaw’s background before becoming a solo artist. He was the frontman in two different kinds of bands. Influenced by Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes, his high school alt-rock band participated in many battles of the bands and Long Island hotspots like Broadway Bar and Crazy Donkey. He later formed Real Horrorshow, an alt rock/electronica duo with a sax player that headlined such venues as The Knitting Factory and Santo’s Party House.
One of the greatest reasons Taylor Bradshaw began focusing on developing his acoustic based artistry is the success, both in streaming numbers and audience response to his song “Laura,” a gentle, stripped-down romantic ballad with trippy, swirling atmospheres about the challenges of being in love with someone from a great distance. It offers a hypnotic showcase for his intimate and sometimes ethereal vocals and otherworldly falsetto. While some of the rhythms are more up-tempo, the overall vibe of his current material, vocally and instrumentation/production wise, is in the vein of “Laura.”
While Bradshaw’s sophomore album is currently a work in progress and the final set list is still TBD, there are a few songs which are good bets once they’re in their final produced form. He wrote the soulful, seductive and easy rolling “Unkind” early in the pandemic. Despite its overall soft-spoken vibe, it perfectly captures his reality that songwriting comes from a place of friction where the tension of a relationship needs to be sorted out. Featuring some of his most impactful lyrics ever, it offers intense imagery of the destruction of a relationship and asks a question we can all relate to: Once we split will we ever speak again?
The singer introduces “The Final Night” with plucky guitar and a whistle, setting the listener up for an upbeat take on the end of a relationship where he and his significant other are covering their real feelings and pretending they won’t be kissing goodbye. It’s a song that speaks to the mindset of lingering feelings that may stir and prompt those who broke up to potentially connect again. It’s like the breakup is all make believe. Driven by a whispery, intimate vocal (and later, his glorious falsetto) and hypnotic, plucky circular guitar riff, “The Man I’d Rather Be” is all about misfires in communication, wondering if she’s talking to him or through him or to someone else. Most lapses in communication, the singer believes, is based on our insecurities and traumas. Addressing these frictions in relationships allow both sides to take a step towards truly understanding each other. The chorus is endlessly intriguing: “Are you talking to me/Or straight through me/Or to someone else? Your father, Or your mother, Or your boyfriend, Or the man I’d rather be?”
Another gem worthy of final consideration is the edgier acoustic jam “Firefly,” which finds Bradshaw reflecting on childhood summers where he learned the secrets of successfully catching fireflies and applying those metaphorically to human beings trying to catch and hold onto those we love. If you give them a proper place to land, they will stay with you. Also on the list is the spirited, tempo shifting “I’ll Do The Same,” another song about moving on and hoping the two lovers won’t forget each other or rewrite history – and instead will choose to let their experience live on as the pretty thing they had.
Hailing from a port town on Long Island, Taylor Bradshaw grew up learning about the contrasting realities of nature, its natural beauty offset by the devastating forces of hurricanes and flash storms. Though he would swim for a mile from one beach to another, his greatest fear is of dark, open water at night – a fear instilled in a child’s mind from a flash storm that struck while on a night kayak ride with his parents as a toddler. It is a fear he frequently exposes himself to out of willpower in the form of night swims. These natural experiences shaped him and seep into the lyrical content of his songwriting.
In high school, Bradshaw joined some alt rock bands, marking his foray into songwriting and singing as a frontman. They played rock venues and basement parties all over Long Island, blood often soaking his guitar by the end of a performance. He would often take the train out to New York City to see concerts and was introduced to its thriving punk scene and mosh pits. After the concerts, Bradshaw and friends would spend the night in Union Square, drinking and making new friends with the locals. He later moved to Harlem to study music and audio tech in the Sonic Arts Program at the City College of New York, spending his days studying, writing songs and composing classical music. At night, when the school studios emptied, he would bring in bands to record and produce, working his way through college as a music producer.
Bradshaw then became involved in the DIY music scene in NYC, performing his acoustic songs at frequent open mics and underground shows of original music, slam poetry, and nude figure drawing. These songs led to him forming a band for his solo work and culminated in his debut album Twine in 2020.
“Taylor Bradshaw blissfully used his down time to take stock of his developing artistry, listening and responding to an inner creative voice that told him that the great audience responses to his acoustic ballads – even in an otherwise rockin’ show – were wisely pointing him in an inspiring new direction. While his debut album Twine was a solid, multi-faceted showcase for an artist finding his way, Bradshaw’s new, all acoustic material reflects the kind of focus, maturity, storytelling and intimate, ethereal vocal sparkle that is bound to set him on a more powerful and fulfilling trajectory as an indie folk artist in the years to come. Besides offering him the opportunity to share his amazing lyrics and the range of his voice, the songs he ultimately has on his sophomore album will be in part chosen by the fans that love him best. This shows that he’s an artist that isn’t just there to entertain his audience but develop a long-lasting relationship with them. It will be exciting to see the impact of Bradshaw’s beautiful new vibe in the coming years.”
– Jonathan Widran
management@taylorbradshawmusic.com
