Atwood Journal catches up with Irish singer/songwriter Harry Hudson Taylor to debate his debut solo single “Expensive You, It’s Me,” the deep imprint of sibling concord with Hudson Taylor, the symbolic detour of his Girl Hen Lad period, and the quiet braveness it takes to create from stillness relatively than the highlight, and extra.
“Expensive You, It’s Me” – Harry Hudson Taylor
I feel there’s energy within the quiet. We’re so surrounded by noise – music, media, information, opinions – and generally essentially the most radical factor is to whisper as an alternative of shout.
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Harry Hudson Taylor provides one thing quietly radical, in an age of digital noise and fixed efficiency: Presence.
Finest often known as one half of the folk-pop sibling duo Hudson Taylor, Harry has lengthy been acknowledged for his ear for melody and the pure chemistry of familial concord. However with the discharge of “Expensive You, It’s Me,” he takes a daring and introspective flip, rising not simply as a solo artist however as a storyteller reclaiming his voice in its rawest type. The monitor, a spoken-word piece born from a spontaneous journal entry, marks a return not simply to self, however to supply: unfiltered, unvarnished, and deeply human.
This inventive shift comes after years of progress, reinvention, and reflection. Following the dissolution of Hudson Taylor, Harry briefly explored music underneath the moniker Girl Hen Lad, a persona that gave him area to experiment and detach from outdated identities. But it surely was solely when he started releasing music underneath his full title once more that issues clicked into place. The vulnerability of standing behind his given title mirrors the emotional transparency of his newest work, much less about perfection, extra about fact. The result’s one thing that feels extra like a dialog with the soul than a standard single.
Rising with one thing altogether extra private, uncooked, and resonant, his newest launch, “Expensive You, It’s Me,” marks a hanging new chapter. One which abandons the acquainted constructions of folk-pop for the susceptible cadence of spoken phrase, ambient textures, and emotional excavation. Born from a journal entry and carried by rhythm, breath, and intuition, the piece invitations listeners into an area of reflection and radical honesty.
Set in opposition to the ambient hum of Berlin, the place Harry now resides, “Expensive You, It’s Me” is a meditative and cinematic providing, non secular, grounded, and disarmingly trustworthy. With bodhrán rhythms, hushed textures, and spoken supply, it defies style in favor of emotional resonance. It’s a letter to the self, an invite to pause, and a name to melt the voice inside that calls for certainty and management. For an artist identified for his melodic instincts, this spoken-word departure shouldn’t be a detour, however a homecoming.
In our dialog, Harry displays on all the things from the early seeds of his musicianship to the quiet revelations of Berlin’s open mic circuit.
He speaks candidly about his relationship with identification, the facility of concord, and the tender act of releasing one thing that was by no means meant to be a ‘track’ within the conventional sense. All through, there’s a recurring thread: a need to attach, not by spectacle, however by stillness.
Atwood Journal is proud to current an intimate and soul-searching dialog with Harry Hudson Taylor, an artist redefining what it means to share area by music. This isn’t only a new chapter, it’s a return to one thing important. Weak, current, and profoundly actual, Harry invitations us into the quiet locations we regularly ignore, and reminds us that even a whisper can resonate loudly in the precise second.
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“Expensive You, It’s Me” – Harry Hudson Taylor
A CONVERSATION WITH HARRY HUDSON TAYLOR
Atwood Journal: Let’s begin initially. How did your musical journey start, and what drew you into the world of songwriting within the first place?
Harry Hudson Taylor: It began actually early – earlier than Hudson Taylor, even. As a child, my dad would sit me on the piano, and apparently I’d cease crying once I might mess around there. I additionally had a YouTube channel (just lately resurrected for this launch) the place I’d add all these little odd songs and covers. I used to be all the time drawn to melody, particularly to vocal concord. I felt that music might categorical one thing phrases couldn’t fairly contact. I didn’t know that on the time, however trying again, I can see that I all the time used it to get really current. I assume songwriting simply turned the best way I processed life in a while. I didn’t really write that many lyrics all by my teenagers.
Hudson Taylor had such a powerful identification constructed on concord and connection. What was it like rising up and creating music along with your brother, and the way has that formed you as a solo artist immediately?
Harry Hudson Taylor: Concord is a part of who I’m. Singing with Alfie taught me a lot about listening, mixing, and holding area for one more voice. That carried into all the things. Even now, on this solo chapter, I can’t assist however hear concord in all the things – the hum of a fridge, a police siren, random metropolis noise. It’s instinctive. I really like singing in concord. And I nonetheless invite different voices in as a result of I don’t assume I’ll ever cease craving that connection by sound. I do miss the mix of me and my brother.
After Hudson Taylor, you re-emerged underneath the moniker Girl Hen Lad. What did that title characterize for you, and why did you finally resolve to launch music underneath your personal title once more?
Harry Hudson Taylor: Girl Hen Lad was type of a sandbox play area. It gave me permission to take myself much less significantly – to strive issues, experiment, make stuff that didn’t have to suit any expectations. It separated my “artwork mission” from the on a regular basis man who pays lease and buys groceries. My entire identification had been wrapped up in Hudson Taylor, so it was good to take a break from that a part of my identification (my surname) for some time. However ultimately, one thing shifted. I felt able to launch underneath my very own title once more. Another excuse for the shift is that the Hudson Taylor model had already been effectively established and is sort of robust. It felt like an additional uphill battle to get Girl Hen Lad going. I nonetheless maintain on to the insignia I created for Girl Hen Lad as a part of the branding going ahead. The little Girl Hen continues to be crucial to me.
Do you see Harry Hudson Taylor as a brand new inventive chapter or a return to your truest self?
Harry Hudson Taylor: Truthfully, it’s each. It’s new within the sense that I’ve by no means launched something like “Expensive You, It’s Me” earlier than. But it surely’s additionally a return – like circling again to the voice that was beneath all the things all alongside. It’s extra susceptible to make use of your given title. Extra rooted, extra trustworthy. And surprisingly, that looks like dwelling.
Congratulations on the discharge of “Expensive You, It’s Me.” The track feels extremely intimate and uncooked. What compelled you to share one thing that started as a personal journal entry?
Harry Hudson Taylor: It got here out of nowhere. I used to be working in a café in Berlin – my first correct job after 12 years of Hudson Taylor – and through my break, I simply began writing in my journal. I’d been listening to a great deal of hip-hop on the cafe playlist that day, and the 80 – 100BPM rhythms acquired underneath my pores and skin. I wrote the piece in that rhythm and recorded it immediately once I acquired dwelling that night. It felt like a obtain. I might have polished it, tightened it, made it hookier – however one thing advised me to depart it precisely because it got here out. I wanted to listen to the phrases.
How did the piece evolve from a diary entry to a spoken-word monitor with visible storytelling?
Harry Hudson Taylor: It began with a journal entry, become a voice word with a meter. Then I went dwelling, recorded a clear vocal take, and simply adopted the intuition to construct round it. I heard a bodhrán rhythm in my head and initially discovered a loop on YouTube to make use of, and ultimately I requested Dermie Sheedy from Hermitage Inexperienced to file a correct go. From there, I simply constructed textures round it – like portray a little bit world the phrases might reside in. The video got here even later, spontaneously, because of my pal Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern. He had a uncommon free day and we squeezed in a six-hour slot of filming a journey from my house to my favorite park in Berlin, Viktoria Park. All of it occurred quick, however felt aligned.
Why did you select to maintain it in spoken phrase type relatively than shaping it right into a melody, particularly as somebody identified for robust melodic instincts?
Harry Hudson Taylor: It simply didn’t wish to be a track. It needed to be mentioned. I write melodies on a regular basis, however this one – I don’t know – it felt like it might lose one thing if I attempted to suit it into verse-chorus-verse. It was a stream of consciousness, and I didn’t wish to interrupt that with an excessive amount of construction. It felt extra true to let or not it’s what it was. There’s a little little bit of a chorus which is sung. When I’ve performed the piece reside, I’ve gotten a little bit of a sing alongside happening that static “pricey you, it’s me right here to remind you what you already know.”
Spoken phrase looks like a susceptible act – not fairly singing, not fairly poetry. How did it really feel to face in that in-between area creatively?
Harry Hudson Taylor: Yeah, it was positively susceptible. Spoken phrase doesn’t allow you to disguise behind melody or concord. You’re simply on the market – your voice, your breath, your pauses. It’s very uncovered. However that was additionally the purpose. It was much less about efficiency and extra about presence. I needed to let go of sounding “good” and give attention to sounding actual.
What was your course of for translating a private emotional area into one thing cinematic and shareable?
Harry Hudson Taylor: For me, the method wasn’t about making one thing cinematic within the conventional sense – it was extra about creating one thing that spoke on to the frightened, reactive elements of myself. I used to be attempting to deal with my ego, that inner chatter, from a spot of stillness and consciousness. So relatively than telling a narrative outwardly, I used to be holding a mirror inward. I needed to be the Inside Loving Mum or dad to my “inside youngsters.” In that approach, the “cinematic” high quality got here from displaying the richness and depth of that inside area and the vastness of consciousness that exists beneath all of the noise. I didn’t wish to gown it up an excessive amount of or distract from that. The ambient textures, the tempo, the breath – they had been all there to help that sense of presence. Hopefully, it invitations the listener into their very own inside panorama, too.
The paintings incorporates the handwritten journal textual content. Why was it necessary to visually hyperlink the ultimate piece to its origin?
Harry Hudson Taylor: As a result of that’s the place it began. That journal entry is the track. I needed folks to see that – that these weren’t lyrics I sat all the way down to craft, they had been one thing I wrote to myself, unfiltered. It made sense to let the handwriting be a part of the paintings. It’s a approach of claiming, “That is actual. That is from the precise web page.”
The quick movie ends in a quiet embrace. How did you direct or develop that visible metaphor, and what does it personally symbolize for you?
Harry Hudson Taylor: That second simply occurred. Wayne, the person within the video, lives close to Viktoria Par,ok the place we filmed. I requested him if he’d be up for being in it, and he mentioned sure. That ultimate hug – that was all the things. To me, it represents mentorship, help, and restoration. I’ve had folks like that in my life – sponsors, guides, brothers. That protected vitality. The hug didn’t want phrases. It mentioned what the entire video was about.
You described this as one thing you “wanted to listen to.” What a part of the message feels most necessary to you now, trying again?
Harry Hudson Taylor: That I’m allowed to be the place I’m. That I don’t must know all the things. That therapeutic isn’t linear. That I can forgive myself. I feel all of us want to listen to that every now and then. We’re so good at being laborious on ourselves. This was a approach of softening that voice inside.
You’re mixing folks roots with ambient textures and now spoken phrase. Do you are feeling like style issues anymore, or are you extra occupied with emotional texture than musical class?
Harry Hudson Taylor: Style feels much less and fewer related to me now. I’m chasing emotional fact. If a track must be ambient, or acoustic, or spoken, or full of silence. I’m not as occupied with becoming right into a field anymore. I’m occupied with how one thing feels.
In a time when a lot music competes for consideration, you’ve created one thing quiet and reflective. Was that intentional?
Harry Hudson Taylor: Yeah. I feel there’s energy within the quiet. We’re so surrounded by noise – music, media, information, opinions – and generally essentially the most radical factor is to whisper as an alternative of shout. This wasn’t about attempting to face out. It was about being nonetheless and providing an area folks might step into in the event that they needed to.
Now that you just’re based mostly in Berlin, how has town influenced your sound, your writing, or your sense of self?
Harry Hudson Taylor: Berlin gave me permission to decelerate and experiment. It doesn’t care who you might be or what you’ve executed earlier than. I began doing open mics once more, simply to get issues shifting, to check out new songs always. That helped me reconnect with songwriting in a uncooked approach. Town’s additionally a bit nameless, which let me go inward and get trustworthy.
What has the transition from Hudson Taylor to solo artist underneath your personal title taught you about storytelling and identification?
Harry Hudson Taylor: It’s taught me that your story retains altering. And that’s okay. With Hudson Taylor, I used to be one half of a concord brotherly duo. With Girl Hen Lad, I used to be experimenting with distance and disguise. Now, underneath my very own title, I’m studying to inform the reality in a brand new approach. It’s extra uncovered, but in addition extra entire. Additionally, in these years I’ve explored all kinds of various non secular practices which have been about working to completely let go of identification and returning to Supply consciousness. In that area, the story of Harry and my identification are simply pebbles dropped on the ocean.
Now that you just’ve put one thing so intimate into the world, what sort of response or dialogue do you hope it sparks with listeners?
Harry Hudson Taylor: I hope folks really feel seen. I hope they hear one thing they’ve felt however perhaps haven’t mentioned out loud. And I’d find it irresistible if it invitations them to mirror – on their very own story, their very own therapeutic, their very own voice. And to understand I’m saying all of the phrases on this piece however all I actually did was put myself in a seat and allow them to come by., I would like extra conversations about what this entire human expertise is all about.
Wanting forward, how would you like your music to carry area for listeners, whether or not by lyrics, silence, or sound?
Harry Hudson Taylor: I would like it to really feel like a pause. Like a breath. A reminder. Whether or not it’s by lyrics, music, melodies or silence or rawness. I would like it to really feel like a spot you may relaxation in… Someplace actual. Remembering our shared humanity.
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Disclosure: The author of this piece additionally serves because the artist’s publicist. All opinions are their very own, and this characteristic was written with the intention of celebrating and supporting the music.
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“Expensive You, It’s Me” – Harry Hudson Taylor
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