Written By: Rob Lucchesi
God has always been a woman, but it’s high-time people realize Jesus was a lady. If you’re a pop junkie looking for your next big fix, an iron-willed audience in need of a new soundtrack to your life, or just someone with good taste, then I can guarantee UPSAHL’s going to be your next sonic obsession- and that’s coming from someone who grew up exclusively on Foo Fighters and the ‘Stones.
Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Taylor Upsahl, known commercially as UPSAHL, began her long and healthy relationship with music at a very young age. In her home, there was always music. There were always instruments, there were always records, and the Phoenix pop-punk scene was always in her living room. Upsahl was practically destined for the industry, and with a family as musically inclined as hers, there could only be one option- the spotlight.
But that’s not even half of what makes Upsahl so special. Anyone can pick up an instrument- several in her case- and bang out a four-chord melody. What sets a dummy with a guitar apart from the genuine article is the X-Factor. The drive, the want, the need to make their voice heard, and the baked-in ability to not only invade our ears, but also our memories, and Upsahl is nothing if not memorable. Her music leaves a good taste in your mouth and a new chip on your shoulder, and her internet footprint leaves a trail of confidence in oneself that we could all only hope to follow.
But don’t misunderstand or misconstrue- Upsahl is no industry plant, nor a classically-trained snore. She’s 23 years old, barely older than most of you reading this, and yes, she’s had her music on the radio longer than Ed Sheeran, but she’s still one of us! There’s no scheme, she’s not trying to sell you on anything, she’s seeing and feeling all the same things us poor bastards are trying to put into words everyday. And that’s the biggest appeal of her latest album, “Lady Jesus.” It’s all the rage, frustration, apathy, uncertainty, and glory of being a young person in the modern day- an unapologetic celebration of all things life in your 20’s, free from the facade of kitschy writing and melodramatic theming.
But beyond Upsahl’s greater understanding of the everyday lies her unwavering and unreal stage presence. While she’s still new to the touring game, she’s already been on the road with Olivia O’Brien and quickly picked up a reputation for electricity. Her live sets are picking up a legend status rep faster than her contemporaries can put out a single, and Upsahl’s first 2022 headline tour is going to rock her already insane repertoire of shows.
Ahead of her first set of shows in Brooklyn and DC on January 12th and 14th, I had a chance to chat with the maestro in the making and get a better idea of who UPSAHL really is, and also get a closer look at the menace behind the madness, Taylor. I sat down and did what we here at the ‘zine do best: have a Small Talk.
Upshal: Yo, how's it going?
RL: Hey hey! How you doing today?
Good! Thanks for doing this!
Thank you so much for coming on, we appreciate you having us, thank you so much on behalf of myself and on behalf of Small Talks, really excited to get this going!
Hell yeah I’m stoked, thanks man.
Before I start off, do you prefer UPSAHL, do you prefer Taylor, what do you prefer I call you?
You can call me whatever, I mean UPSAHL’s my artist name but my name is taylor
I mean, I’m not that much younger than you so i figured Ss Upsahl was probably out of the question
Love it, yeah UPSAHL, Taylor, whatever.
Well fantastic, thank you so much for coming on, Taylor we’re very excited to get this going. If you don’t mind, we’ll start off with a movie rec, have you ever seen That Thing You Do?
The what?
That Thing You Do, it’s a great old Tom Hanks movie, it’s about an american band back in the 60’s, they start this band out of Eerie, PA, to meet up with the Beatles during Beatlemania, and there's a scene in that movie when they first get their song on the radio and they go running through the streets of Eerie, pennsylvania- now my first question is, in the golden age of streaming here in the great year of our lord 2022, what was the first time you ever heard yourself of the radio and what was that like for you?
First of all, I need to watch that movie, because that sounds amazing, I hate myself that I haven't seen an old Tom Hanks movie. The first time I heard myself on the radio I think I was 12 and i had this song called “the serpents” that was so emo, so depressing, which is weird because I was a very happy kid, but I was writing all these very sad songs, and this local radio station in Phoenix played. I think my dad sent it in or something, being such a dad, like “you should listen to my daughters music,” and they ended up playing it and they kept it on rotation for like my entire childhood pretty much, I got to hear my song on the radio while I was driving around in my parents car. It was kinda trippy, it still is very surreal hearing songs that you just wrote in the studio with your friends on the radio, yknow? It’s the weirdest feeling, I still don’t really process it, it’s strange.
It’s gotta be amazing- so it sounds like your family has always been a huge supporter of your musical career from what I’ve read and what you’ve told me now.
Yeah, for sure.
How have they reacted to your newfound success in the last couple years? They’ve always been very musically inclined, it sounds like.
Yeah my dad was in a punk band all throughout my childhood, so I was always surrounded by music. We had a band room in the house, there were instruments available to me to just mess around with and figure out how to play piano and guitar and drums from a young age, and my parents were very encouraging of that. As of recently, I mean, they still play such a big role, I send them demos every day, like “this is what I made in the studio today!” I annoy the shit out of them all the time still. They're still along for the ride, it’s great.
And on that subject of music from your childhood, what's that first memory of music from your childhood? I know your dad was in a couple punks bands, bands like Stereotyperider and High Horse, I read a little bit about Stereotyperider, big fan of them. I’m a big fan of Wrens and that lies in that same category, but I know for me, my first memory was always classical music and Elvis Presley records playing in the house- what's that one sound that always takes you back?
Oof, that's a good question! Probably Radiohead, we always had vinyl in the house, so Radiohead had a big influence, it just reminds me of running around my house as a kid, but also a lot of Weezer. I’m pretty sure when my mom was literally in the hospital giving birth to me, she was jamming out to the Blue Album by Weezer, so that was the first album I’ve ever heard was the Blue Album. Yeah, Weezer and Radiohead.
Amazing. Weezer, you don’t hear that too often for a first album, for sure. You always think it’s going to be something more classic, but it’s a great place to start I think, it’s a great intro to greater rock n’ roll.
Hell yeah! I also think that that album was so, like- what is it? It started a shift in pop music, because it is such a hard rock album but it’s pop writing, and I think it created this whole shift in the 90’s for music. It’s my favorite album ever, it’s so good
So if i remember reading this correctly, you started learning classical piano when you were 6, so it’s safe to say this is fulfilling a lifelong dream for you- is it everything you’d hoped it be? Is the dream still the dream? Is it living up to the hype you thought it would be?
Totally! For me, music has always been the only option, it’s always been the only thing I was remotely good at and the only thing I enjoyed doing. I remember once i graduated high school, I was like “I need to just full send it in music because I will not be happy doing literally anything else,” so just the fact that music is my job now and that I can do this everyday, and that I can call this a job and a career, is the dream. Obviously, I want to continue to grow, and meet more fans, and tour more, and put out more music and grow, but yeah, I would say everyday I get to make more music as my job is me fulfilling my childhood dream. It’s so cheesy, but yeah.
But not everybody gets that, it’s always a question to ask- is it what you thought it would be. Now did ever expect you’d be as big a pop star as you are now? Of course, it’s the dream and everyone thinks they’re going to be the next Led Zeppelin, touring multiple countries all over the word, but did you ever expect it was going to be this, and what was that moment where you thought “oh shit, I’m going yo make it?”
Oh, I still don’t think I’ve had that moment of like “oh, I’m going to make it,” or “I’ve made it.” I think just the fact that I get to tour- my first tour was a big moment for me, it was in 2019 and I got to go on the road for a month, I was like “this is literally all I’ve wanted to do forever and the fact that I get to do this now is crazy,” so I just want to do more of that. But I think my entire life the past four years, just little things, like I get to go to a meeting with a songwriter or a producer i really respect and they want to listen to some of my music, or I’m doing a writing camp with my friends who I love in a dope house on the beach somewhere making music- those moments for me are little like “Oh I’m doing it, I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do” type moments, so they happen a lot. I feel like there will never be one big moment for me, it’ll always be sorta building.
More of a culmination of smaller moments into this greater scheme of things.
Totally, yeah.
Now that being said, it can't be all business all the time- how has your approach to writing and producing changed since you’ve gained all this different access to different studios and different songwriters, or has it always been the joy of creation for you?
I think it depends on what my life is like at the time. The songs I’m making very heavily depend on just how I’m feeling that day, and I feel very fortunate to have like a little crew of writers and producers that I work with on the reg, on the daily. Yeah, I think it just depends. I think the biggest thing for me in the past year, making my album, Lady Jesus, and working on new music right now is just making it fun. For a while I was just overthinking it in every session, and once we started getting into making my album, I realized all my favorite songs were just once we were having fun making, and as cheesy as it is, I think that gets you the best outcome. SoI’m just there to vibe, and if we get a cool song, we get a cool song, if not, at least we have a good hang, yknow?
It’s all about the process, it's not always about the destination every single time. On the subject of the album, what I think was always drawn people to your music is how open and how honest, and especially unapologetic your music has always been, especially in your writing, and also as a young person in modern-day America and the absolute shit-storm we’re running through these days- my biggest questions, and I think my biggest of this interview today is what did it take and how long did it take for you to become so straightforward with your outward persona, with your writing, and what does it take for someone to become that open and honest?
I think my like unapologeticness, I guess, in my songwriting kind of started once I started to figure out who I was. When I first moved to LA I had no clue what the fuck going on the majority of the time and then I wrote the song called DRUGS that I wa so scared to put out i was like I'm never putting the song I like this it's saying too much like people are going to get pissed when I hear it and then I finally like had that sort of like turning point where I was like that's the whole point of music is to like be kind of jarring and like maybe someone will hate the song but maybe someon will like the song and like that doesn't matter you know? So releasing the song drugs was kind of like the big turning point for me, not only as like a songwriter, but just as a person and just being like fuck it, like I'm putting out whatever music I want to. Yeah.
Man, I can tell you though I remember DRUGS a bit more painfully than other people probably care to admit, I used to work a lot of retail the last couple years, I remember working a couple Black Fridays and that song was just beating us to death.
You're like please stop playing this song, that’s so funny.
Like you can't just be at the party for the drugs, there's got to be something else.
That's amazing, I’m so sorry, that’s the greatest.
It’s a fantastic song, I still come back to it today, now it's just a few fun memories attached to it.
That’s hilarious.
Now, last question, of course always the phone one- what you listening to these days, what's the next big thing for you, and what are you most excited about for this next big show in DC?
I'm so excited for this show in DC last time I was in d.c. little literally like 2 months ago I was opening for Olivia O'Brien, and where did we play? I think we played somewhere in Silver Springs, I wrote it down… oh yeah, we played the Fillmore, and it was so. Sick. Have you been to a show there?
Not at the DC Fillmore, but we have one here in Charlotte that I've been to. I saw Khalid there, I saw Weird Al Yankovic there twice, and Why Don’t We?, I saw them there too.
Okay, fire! It was a stick venue and it was like my first time playing DC since like I did like a smaller tour like two years ago so, DC went so hard and I can not wait be back, especially getting to do like a headlining show, I feel like there's something so fun abou-t I know like this time around we're too much smaller venue- but I love just being in like a small, just like, sweaty room with a bunch of people raging, it’s going to be really fun.
They're the best, they're the most personal shows, you get all these people, its such a different connection than a stadium show.
100 percent. And for me it's really fun because I don’t get to do a lot of headlining shows, so when I do it feels like I'm just like literally having a dance party with everyone there like we're all just like in it together, it's so fun. Yeah, I’m excited to be back, I was- sorry, what was the rest of the question?
Oh! Whatcha listening to these days, what’s top of the playlist?
I've been listening to a lot of Doja Cat, obviously. I feel like everyones on her now.
Oh, Planet Her was just *chefs kiss*
She's just such a baddie. Doja, a lot of Radiohead always, some old SZA, yknow. I feel like I just repeat a lot of albums recently, and then obviously try to keep up with new music that's coming out. But yeah, I've just been going back to old albums, and I guess whats coming this year just a lot of fucking tours or a lot of shows and a lot of music. I'm back in the studio working on whatever is to come in and I'm very excited to share what I've been working on with everyone.
Amazing. Can we expect any new music showcased at the next couple shows?
Ooh… Maybe! Actually, yeah, maybe, wink wink, we'll see!
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