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After the Fact, Syd Taylor’s debut album as a solo artist, is, for lack of better words, a hell of an album. It seems effortless, creatively and modernly blending rock, pop, and even a bit of country to create a sonic experience that never loses its spark. Even better, it’s truly Syd’s labor of love, earning its impressive status as entirely self-written and produced. We were lucky enough to chat with Syd about her album, her journey since going solo, and how she used her music as a method of self-discovery. 

OnesToWatch: To start, we’d love it if you could please tell us about your album! 

Syd Taylor: To really explain this album, I feel like some backstory is necessary. I have been in a band with my twin sister since we were about eight years old, and about a year ago, I decided that it would be best for both of us if I left and did my own thing. It was the best thing that I could have done for myself and our relationship. Writing this album was a goal that I set for myself because I had never entirely produced anything by myself before—I wanted to not have to rely on anyone else to complete it. That's sort of how it started, so I wrote the album within a few months, and have been working on finishing it for the last year. It was the most insane thing I've ever done. I think that the writing process was really just about me discovering who I am as a person and as a musician. I have never had a full opportunity to do that because when I was with my band, it was just always up to the people around me. I felt like I was always trying to please my family and the people that we would work with, producers, writers, A&Rs. I wasn't truly doing it for myself; I was doing it to try to convince people to help me release stuff. After the Fact was the first time I've ever sat down and done something 100% for me.

That's really amazing. I was already going to ask you what it has been like going solo and having so much autonomy in every choice that you're making? Have you noticed anything that you didn't expect when you decided to make music independently?

I just didn't expect how hard it would be. I mean, sure, I had an idea, but it was a really scary decision to go solo and to do everything myself. There were just so many little things that I was unaware of when it came to fully producing a song, even the process of getting it mixed and mastered. Doing that whole process by myself, and even the external stuff like setting up shows, kind of felt a little lonely, but I think forcing myself to do things solo really helped me find my confidence.

When you do shows, do you play with a band?

Yes! My boyfriend is actually a drummer, and so he's been playing drums for me. My guitarist, Danny, is the same guitarist that I was playing with in my band, I've been playing with him for years, and he's the best. 

Do you feel like that dynamic is a little bit better for you?

Definitely, when it comes to the live stuff, it really helps me stay grounded and feel like I have a home. Our communication is always so amazing, they've both been around for so long, it just feels natural. That definitely helps when it comes to shows and rehearsals.

Are they also the ones that are playing the instrumentals on your album? 

No, that's actually all me. 

Wait, you’re telling me you recorded all your instruments by yourself, too? That’s a lot.

It is a lot. I had so much fun adding and stacking everything because it started out so bare-bones. I would just go in and stack random instruments and guitars. Danny did record some guitar on “The Wind,” and then I blended our two guitars together because I wanted to keep the demo guitars with my demo vocals. It was cool having him be a part of that, but the whole production of the album was all me. It’s really insane to say that, because I still don’t consider myself a guitarist. Of course, I'm like, “Wait, I just did a full album of guitars,” but in my head, I'm still like, “I’m not really a guitarist.” I just felt like every studio session I would go into with my band, it always kind of felt like what we were making was heavily influenced by our producer. It was always a producer I loved, but I was never able to get the sound that I really wanted. So I told myself, “I'm gonna produce this,” because I figured that if I'm the one in control of it, it's gonna sound exactly how I want it to sound. I taught myself how to do everything, so it was a lot of hard work and learning, and to be honest, I still have so much more to learn.

That’s insanely impressive. Do you have a favorite track on the album? 

It changes every day, I swear. I would say right now, it's “La da da dee die,” but honestly, you could ask me tomorrow, and it's gonna be different. “Leave Me Out of It” is another one that I really love. A lot of people said if I had to take one song off the album, it should be that one. But I had one friend who was like, “If you remove that from the album, I'm gonna kill you.” So I took that advice and didn’t listen to anybody else. That one grew on me for sure. 

So there are five singles that are out so far. How did you go about choosing those? 

When it came to releasing singles, the first was “Love Of Your Life,” simply because it was the first song that I had written and fully produced for the album. Following that, it was honestly just whatever song felt the most ready. So “Honeycomb” was next, and then “Heaven” and “My Man.” Really, just as I was producing them and finishing them, whatever song I was the most obsessed with at the time, I put out as a single. That's really how I chose them, which is a pretty rushed way to do it. I'm sure that if I had finished the album and fully completed it, and had time to pick out singles and set up a release strategy, I would have done it differently. I think because I just was in such a rush to release my music, after holding on to so much for so many years, whatever was ready was what I put out. Last was “After the Fact,” which is also the first song on the album and the title track. I think it just felt the most powerful and the most confident and honestly, the most bitchy, which I felt was the best way to express the album. I was with my roommate one night before a show, actually, and had no idea what to name the album. I had all of these different titles, like random song lyrics, etc. I had “After the Fact” on there, and I was like, “What if I just named it after one of the song titles?” I feel like the song is so me, and it feels like the embodiment of my writing over the last year. My roommate was like, “You know what? That actually sounds like a really cool title.” So I decided then and there that on stage that night, I was going to announce it to everybody so that I could force myself to stick to it, because once you put it out into the world, that's what it's called. I wouldn’t let myself be indecisive, and I can’t sit on things for too long, so that’s how that kind of came about.

I personally hear a bunch of different genres and sonic influences on this album. Who do you think are a few of the main ones? 

A lot of it was some older music that I used to listen to when I was a kid, because over the years, my taste sort of evolved into something more pop-oriented that I honestly was never fully in love with. I think that a lot of my songwriting tends to lean pop with the melodies and the lyrics, but I wanted to keep the music really organic. So I was listening to a lot of Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Fleetwood Mac, so very classic rock-inspired, but I still wanted to keep it current. I was also really inspired by Lana Del Rey’s vocal production. I took so many different influences from so many different places for each of the songs, but I feel like because I was the one producing all of them, I was re-using a lot of the same plug-ins, instruments, and vocal tones. That's probably what makes them all still in the same world, even though there are so many different influences. 

Oh, I almost forgot to ask about music videos. Are you into that? Is that also a solo endeavor for you? 

Yes, we actually just shot a music video a few days ago and I’m actually at the director's house right now. We are editing the music video for “Time To Go,” and it’s gonna come out the same day as the album. We're finishing the coloring right now. This is my first music video that I haven't directed for this project. It was very collaborative. I did the initial treatment, and then we ended up getting a shot list together, and I styled it all and did my hair and makeup. It's a very fun world that we created. It's very like ‘60s Brit rock vibes.

What's on your music rotation right now? In true OnesToWatch fashion is there any new music you're really excited about? 

I love the Miley album. I'm obsessed with her. I think I listened to that album, and was like, oh, I should have done something like this. That is just a really inspiring album creatively. I'm like, praying she goes on tour, because I really want to see her live. I'm listening to the Sam Fender album as well. I’ve also been obsessed with Olivia Dean. Have you heard of LOVECAT? She's new and has been popping off over the last couple months. I just saw her at The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever, and she killed it. She's kind of like this Baroque-pop like, just holding a glass of wine while she's performing kind of vibes, and she's awesome. I really love her new stuff. And I think she only had like three released singles, and an album's coming, and I'm so excited for that.

We’ve talked a lot about live performance, are you maybe touring the album? 

Of course, yeah. So I have my album release party show in LA on June 25th, where I’ll play the whole album. And then a show at Gold-Diggers on July 30, and then after that, the goal is to go on tour. That is the hope. We're trying to look for a tour to hop on to right now, because that is my dream. I want to tour this album so badly. We don't have anything locked in yet, but that is the goal. 

This album would be so good live.

I mean, I’ve been playing live in bars since I was eight years old. It's something that comes so naturally to me. A lot of the time, it just translates even better than when you listen to the album. After the Fact is just such an emotional body of work, and I think that it comes to life when performed live. It's my favorite thing. 

Other than touring, what are you most excited about for this release?

I am so excited to have a catalog of music for the first time. With my band, all we ever did was release singles very far apart from each other, and we had one EP that was five songs. I've always wanted to release an album, and I'm so excited to have these songs out in the world and just be able to say that, like, like, “Hey, I have an album out. Go listen to it!” It’s so special to be able to promote it and post a different song every day and to have a new favorite song every time I listen. I'm so excited to have it out there.

Is there anything else about After the Fact you’d like to leave readers with? 

I really want people to feel all of their feelings when they listen to this album. Even on the songs that might be very specific to me, I want people to be able to find themselves in those songs and find their vulnerability and their confidence and their voice. That's something that I truly found when I was writing it. I just hope that it can help people who listen to it, really get into those feels and discover who they are and have the confidence to speak up and be their most beautiful selves.

Listen to After The Fact below: 

Release Party RSVP here!