“ I can only say that I ’ ve been a bit shocked because I have put out records in the past ; this is my eleventh or twelfth record since 2000 ,” he notes for Canadian Musician . “ You know , when my first record came out , we had some good radio play and we were signed to a major label , but reviews were weak for the most part . That sort of continued , really , until I released the first Julian Taylor Band record , Tech Noir , and then they started to soften up on me a bit . That ’ s how I felt . Maybe the music wasn ’ t great – I don ’ t know . I ’ ve listened to my previous records quite a bit and I don ’ t hate them . I really enjoy them , actually .”
There are great tunes throughout Taylor ’ s discography , which begins with the alt-rock of his old band , Staggered Crossing , from 1997 to 2004 , and then a mix of solo and Julian Taylor Band records from 2009 to now . His solo releases have mixed rockier songs with the soulful folk that he perfected on The Ridge . The better-known albums by Julian Taylor Band , though , like 2014 ’ s Tech Noir and 2019 ’ s Avalanche , are characterized by a blend of rock and roll , funk , and R & B .
“ When The Ridge came out , I think it shocked everybody , including myself , because this record is pretty much live off the floor . There are overdubs with the fiddle and pedal steel and the cello and whatnot , but the rest of it is just me in the studio with my cousins and Derek Downham . I was just going , ‘ Well , I ’ ve tried so many times before to get people to like me , so I ’ ll just give up and play ,’ and there you go !”
On The Ridge , there ’ s no genre-hopping . It ’ s an Americana record , yes , but that label alone feels reductive . It takes the listener on an emotional journey , full of highs and lows , and the mixture of joy and sadness brought by memories of lost loved ones . From the opening title track to the closer , “ Ola , Let ’ s Dance ,” the album ’ s production , vocals , and acoustic instrumentation wraps you in a warm hug . If “ comfort ” could be its own genre , then that is where The Ridge falls .
“ In a five-year period , we lost five people . My mom is the only one left in her immediate family . Every time I say that out load , I just think about my mom ; I can ’ t even imagine ,” Taylor shares . “ I just went for long walks , you know ? When something like that happens to you , I think that you just get stunned … You don ’ t really talk to people and I just didn ’ t . I just started reciting whatever was on my mind on video on my phone as I walked through the forest . I took them and looked at it and was like , ‘ Wow , there ’ s something there .’”
That ’ s where The Ridge began – as self-therapy . “ I was not aware whatsoever that those videos , in any way , would turn into songs ,” he says . “ It was just me trying to get out what was inside of my body and my heart and soul . I was just pretty torn up .”
After a summer spent walking for mile after mile , Taylor began transcribing the recorded messages . Deciding to translate this prose into songs , he rented an Airbnb . There , days and nights were spent listening to the messages , transcribing , and reading them back to himself . From this exercise , the first song to emerge was “ Human Race .”
I can ’ t begin to imagine all the things that you ’ ve been through I know it isn ’ t only strangers that have hurt you You ’ ve been so misunderstood , I ’ ve seen things cripple you I only know this because they ’ ve crippled me too
From “ Human Race ”
“ I ’ m not going to tell everybody who that particular song is about , but it ’ s about a close personal family member and the experiences I had . I left a lot out , by the way – a lot out . I remember coming home and falling on the floor and just lying there crying sometimes because of the pain that I was in . So , I left a lot out and tried to fill in the holes and tried to tell people that I loved how much I loved them ,” Taylor openly recalls . “ Everybody in my family looked at me to have all this strength and I looked at this person with the utmost respect for being a human being .”
Flash forward to March 2020 and the world is suddenly shut down , with everyone stuck at home in a state of confusion and worry . With the encouragement of a couple friends who worked on the album , Taylor rush-released “ Human Race .” The reaction was overwhelming , including that glowing review from American Songwriter , and so he pushed up the LP ’ s release . It was a song and album people needed .
When Taylor wrote “ The Ridge ,” a portrait of childhood summers spent at his grandparents ’ farm in Maple Ridge , BC , he knew it was the title track . “ I was going to call the record ‘ little big man ’ because that ’ s what my grandfather used to call me when I was a kid , or ‘ captain ,’ and then was like , ‘ Wow , The Ridge is a lot better ,’” he laughs . The photo of the farm that adorns the cover Taylor took himself the morning after he learned his grandmother had died .
The title refers to the town , of course , but also being a Black man of Mohawk and West Indian roots in a white world . “ It also stands for the divide within myself , whether it be being a mixed person and feeling unwanted and not belonging in either / or , growing up in a dominantly-white area . Or whether it means my battle with my own feelings of self-worth .”
Self-worth is a recurring theme throughout the record , and not for the first time in Taylor ’ s music . One of the album ’ s standout tracks that focuses on this theme , “ It ’ s Not Enough ,” is a reworking of a song from his debut solo album . “ I ’ d recorded it in 2009 and never felt that I got it right . I didn ’ t think I got the lyrics right , and I didn ’ t think I got production right . That ’ s okay , but I went back to it and started reworking it ,” he says . “‘ It ’ s Not Enough ’ is , again , about self-worth and trying to struggle with that and knowing if you ’ re good enough or not . And to just take it easy on yourself and take it easy on other people at the same time . Realizing that this whole mindset of perfection , this whole mindset of being enough , is really a strain on what we actually are . We are enough , every single one of us , exactly as we are .”
And in sticking with the autobiographical themes , “ Ballad of a Young Troubadour ,” which has amassed over 1.6 million streams on Spotify , is another tune taken straight from his life . In this case , it ’ s the story of Taylor at 17-years-old — with Bob Dylan in his headphones and reading Jack Kerouac ’ s On the Road and Daniel Richler ’ s Kicking Tomorrow — hitchhiking and busking his way across the northern United States .
“ The interesting thing about that trip is that as a kid I didn ’ t realize how segregated things really were . As a teenager this was a bit more prevalent . Not a lot of white people talked to me on that trip until I got to the west coast , really ,” he adds .
In Taylor ’ s mind , The Ridge and the last Julian Taylor Band album , Avalanche , are companion pieces . “ If you listen the lyrics on both of those records , they ’ re both very personal records . Certainly , The Ridge is a bit warmer and feels closer . The vocal is closer ; the effect of how we recorded it . I wanted it to sound like a rural record that was done in the city and that is exactly what it is ,” he explains , noting that it was recorded at Blue Rodeo ’ s The Woodshed Studio in downtown Toronto with Saam Hashemi as the engineer and co-producer .
Adding to that effect , Taylor ’ s cousins from Gananoque , ON , Gene and Barry Diabo , joined him in the studio . “ We always have a little kitchen party when I ’ m up there and I just thought , ‘ Wow , it ’ d be nice to play with those guys because there ’ s a family feel that runs deep .’ So , they came out and played bass and drums and I played guitar and it felt just like being in their backyard by the campfire .”
Early in our conversation , Taylor asked if I ’ m familiar with Aesop ’ s fable of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse ( I wasn ’ t ). “ It ’ s an old fable and I always felt that way ,” he says . “ I felt going out to British Columbia and to Maple Ridge , that when I stayed out there I was a country mouse and when I came home for the school year I was a city mouse . I really wanted the record to reflect both of those elements . I wanted the record to reflect my Blackness and my Indigenous side , I wanted the record to reflect my feelings personally about life and about those people around me . I wanted to tell stories about the people I loved , and I believe that I did that .”
He did indeed . But the funny thing about telling personal stories and being emotionally vulnerable , especially in music , is that it often finds an eager audience . Even in good times , we all have personal struggles and doubts . But especially in hard times , we need to know we ’ re not alone . To know that such emotions are universal , and that sadness and joy are often intertwined . And so , in embracing the personal , Julian Taylor created an album for everyone at a time when we all needed it most .
Michael Raine is the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Musician .
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