Check Out Bryse Taylor’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryse Taylor

Hi Bryse, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve been writing and recording music since around 2017. In 2022, I was brought into a theatre company, Springs Ensemble Theatre (SET) to create some original music for their October show, Hand To God. I learned that having someone to create original scores for plays wasn’t common place, and after a couple of volunteer shows, I was brought on to my first professional job as the sound designer/composer for Othello at Theatreworks in 2024. Having an outlet for the more grandiose compositions I wanted to make allowed me to look more internally and strip back my personal music endeavorers. That’s when I really got into the singer/songwriter style that I have been releasing as of late, because I had an outlet for the complex, multi instrumental compositions, and no longer had to worry about translating that into a live setting.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being self taught in nearly every aspect of my creative life leaves a lot of gaps that I didn’t even know needed to be filled. Mixing and studio work are things that I am constantly trying to absorb, because unlike songwriting or composing, those things (in my opinion) can be objectively incorrect. Without the academic background and learning from professionals, I’ve had to rely entirely on my ability to research and create a “lesson plan,” some guiding to-do list cobbled together from thousands of different sources, and hope that what I’m reading or watching is a reliable source of information. I’ve deleted songs, scrapped projects, and started completely over hundreds of times.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a folk musician aswell as a composer and sound designer for live theatre.

As a solo musician, I’ve spent the last 6 years of my life refining my ability to play finger-style guitar and write lyrics. I started this focus after my first show in 2022, where I realized that without the benefit of an entire band or backing track behind me, I didn’t really resonate with my music, or find it to be something I could confidently share with others. I went all in on this genre, mostly drawing from folk records of the 1960’s, and have established myself around town as the person that rarely uses a pick when they play. I’m most proud of my 2023 EP “housesitting,” because it was the first time I released something that was just acoustic guitar and vocals, without any of the “one-man-band” aspects that defined my earlier releases. I think the ability to lock down a crowd as a solo performer (whose usually sitting down) by just my lyrics and guitar playing is what sets me apart, and has lead to the opportunities I’ve been afforded this last year.

In my theatre life, I’ve made a name for myself as being one of few sound designers in town that markets themselves as a creator of fully original scores. In the last year, this had lead to me being personally requested by a handful of directors, mostly at Theatreworks at the Ent Center, as a local person thats able to offer that level of custom work. I’m most proud of the work I did for Shakespeare’s Henry IV-V, in which I researched a genre completely foreign to me, Punk and Hard Rock, and created essentially an albums worth of material for the show.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Covid was when I learned that music was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, in whatever capacity. I was 19 at the time, fresh out of high school and working two jobs trying to figure out what I wanted to do. College wasn’t something I ever planned for, but had no idea how to find a career that wasn’t in retail or food service. The pandemic put me out of both jobs, and I was left with an abundance of free time that I put almost entirely into music. I wrote hundreds of songs during that first year, learned about theatre, and used whatever spare cash I had in savings or from unemployment to slowly build a home studio.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Brysetaylor.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brysetaylor/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5PgDHiti8aqtxFbJzR8cPL?si=BUMt0yW8RKi1BeakFM2deQ

Image Credits
Katherine Hertz
Tyler LeBeau
Black Rose Acoustic Society