Taylah Carroll
RETURNS WITH NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO ‘SLEEP ON MY SIDE’
Naarm/Melbourne-based singer, songwriter and musician Taylah Carroll today shares latest single and video ‘Sleep On My Side’, out now via [PIAS] Australia.
Spiritually somewhere between the piano bench and the barstool, ‘Sleep On My Side’ delves into the messy emotional terrain of dating, Carroll unfurling her heart as she wryly mulls the push-and-pull of how we project onto other people. Carried primarily by woozy, balletic keyboards, a light backbeat and Carroll’s deep vocals that wander between weary, defiant and self-lacerating, there’s an uncluttered musical openness and directness to ‘Sleep On My Side’ that belies its ambiguous heart.
Carroll shares that “‘Sleep On My Side’ is about navigating the murky waters of the dating pool for the first time, and as an adult. It’s about learning what I liked in both solitude and togetherness. It’s about realising myself again.” On the recording process, she comments: “When I took the song into the studio, I’d only ever played it solo. It was one of those songs that was so exciting to record because I walked out of the studio that night with something completely different. The song grew before me”.
The accompanying, characteristically striking visuals find Carroll co-directing alongside longtime creative collaborator Nick Mckk (Julia Jacklin, Spacey Jane, Stella Donnelly). On the video’s origins, she shares: “After recording one of the takes I announced that this was my ‘Cruise Ship Band’ song, so the accompanying video was centred around an imagined 60’s Cruise Ship adventure. Thanks to the clip, I’m now also a proud goldfish Mum. The goldfish is supposed to symbolise the little tender part of yourself, that is sometimes hard to connect with, but always important to carry and care for”.
Transportive and with a penchant for drama, Taylah Carroll wants to lay the world before her listener - a world she characterises neatly as: “a 60’s Parisian detective, meets dystopian desert cowgirl”. Hallmarked by commanding vocals and seamless transitions between vulnerability and strength, Carroll’s music melds confessional and dreamy alt-folk with pop sensibilities and flourishes of Angel Olsen-indebted indie rock.
But it’s her lyricism that forms the centrepiece of her craft; a mixture of brooding, contemplative introspection, tender emotional intimacy cast in all its complicated glory and a sense of wit that is, at turns, both charming and withering, Carroll’s writing finds potency in precision and specificity. Often spooling out from some external interaction or observation to reveal something deeper and more honest about herself, Carroll’s music balances the self-aware and conversational songwriting of a post-Phoebe Bridgers world with the dusty, beyond-her-years wisdom of a 60’s Greenwich Village folk singer. The result is like stumbling upon a well-loved, once-lost cardigan in the corner of your wardrobe again; there’s comfort to be found in how it feels as though you’ve always known Taylah Carroll’s music, as though it’s always existed somewhere deep but unplaceable in the recesses of your memory, even if you can’t pin down precisely where you’ve heard it before.
‘Sleep On My Side’ follows the release of Carroll’s 2022 debut EP Have A Party On Me. Threading together singles ‘Gumption’, ‘Intentions’, ‘I’m Not Sold’ and the title track, the six-track collection, written over a period of 3 years, explored themes of self-actualisation, growth and loss as the lyricist cast her observational, poetic lens over the mise-en-scène of her everyday life. Support for the EP and singles flowed from Double J, triple j, triple j Unearthed, Spotify, Apple Music, The Guardian AU, Music Feeds, Scope Magazine and more, including community radio stations around the country.
PRAISE FOR TAYLAH CARROLL
“Taylah's so amazing at getting you to hang off her every word. I'm moving to the strut of her grooves and leaning in closer for everything else.”
Declan Byrne, triple j
“...All it takes is one song to gain the attention of the masses, and 'Have A Party on Me' invites listeners into her musical universe quite powerfully.”
The Revue
"Dark and smoky and a little bit magic."
Gemma Pike, triple j
"ever-so-beautiful..."
Wickked Childd
“Taylah? She's a natural. And rightly, this song just feels so easy for her from the woody vintage bass to the Nancy Sinatra-like stride.”
Dave Ruby Howe, triple j unearthed
