Nashville-based indie-pop duo Sawyer is stopping by the Modest House for a private show Saturday after their concert in Dallas Thursday. Consisting of Indiana native Kel Taylor and Dallas native Emma Harvey, the band’s folksie sounds have brought Sawyer exposure in Texas and Alabama, and they’re just getting started. The Battalion life & arts writer Taylor Siskind spoke with the two musicians to find out more about how their group formed.
THE BATTALION: Since Sawyer is based off of Kel’s solo project, from where do you draw inspiration for your lyrics, Kel?
TAYLOR: I think as a songwriter, you’re just kind of looking up where as your life changes, you change and you begin to grow, so does your music, so does your content. Pretty much all the things that are happening inside of me somehow end up happening inside the music, you know? And so and with Emma, I think we were able to find a partnership where we could start something where it’s like taking our stories, our lives and trying to better state them in a way that other people can connect and other people can feel understood and see a clearer picture. And I think a lot of that comes from faith, too, and I don’t know it’s a lot of things.
THE BATTALION: Well Emma, since you joined later, what were you originally planning to do before you decided to join the project and before deciding to go into a music career?
HARVEY: So I was kind of just playing music just a little aimlessly. I wrote songs here and there but wasn’t ever really passionate about “Hey I can do this.” Guitar was my main passion. It still is. But since joining forces with Kel, we just have the same mindset on the whole message and overall goal. So that’s helped a lot. More than just how to make music, but how to use music.
THE BATTALION: Your duo bio says you had “dorm-writing sessions.” How long have you been working on this EP?
TAYLOR: Well it’s kind of confusing. Okay, so this summer when I came out with that “Nightfall” EP, it was released under Kel. Those were all my songs. I wrote one song, “Nightfall,” with Emma, but I would always take the songs to her and she would reshape them with me. She basically was a co-writer on all of them. So we recorded them over the summer, released them as Kel, then when we switched to Sawyer we rebranded the “Nightfall” EP and now it’s under the name Sawyer. So that’s kind of confusing and we try to kind of not talk about the EP that much because that’s kind of an older sound whereas the single we came out with “Letting Go” – it’s kind of our sound now where the EP is more of just “Here’s something we did in the past.” I think we mostly want people to hear the single “Letting Go” because that’s kind of the introduction of what’s to come, what’s the rest of our sound. And that’s introducing a new sound, but not quite as folk genre anymore.
THE BATTALION: You said you started out with a folksy-indie sound? Now it’s kind of changed. So right now, what kind of inspiration lies behind your music? What kind of musical sound?
TAYLOR: We’re going for indie-pop. There’s still a little bit of folk in our roots and our harmonies. There’s still acoustic guitar. And it’s pretty much guitar driven. We’re going for indie-pop.
Harvey: I guess influence-wise, we kind of joke around and say that it’s like a mix of Coldplay and Fleet Foxes.
Taylor: If Fleet Foxes and Coldplay had a baby, it would be us.
THE BATTALION: So how can people wishing to connect with your music do so? Connect by internet? Like YouTube or soundcloud. Anything like that?
HARVEY: The best thing to follow us like day-to-day right now, we’ve just launched our Instagram and so we’re trying to get followers there. That’s probably the best way to keep up with us.
THE BATTALION: And where do y’all hope to play in the future?
TAYLOR: We’re playing at Samford University in Birmingham next weekend. And then we’re mostly trying to play a lot in Nashville this summer and a lot in Indiana cause that’s where I’m from. Emma’s from Dallas. So mostly Dallas, Indiana, and Nashville are where we are right now and then once we kind of home base in those big places, we’ll start touring around.
Harvey: We’re definitely open.
