Taylor Talk

Due to perform ‘The A Team’ tour at the Orange Civic Theatre, we were lucky enough to catch up with Taylor Henderson, where we quizzed him on everything from his favourite memories within the industry to his pre-tour rituals.

M: What first got you into music?
T: My Dad, my Dad is an amazing singer songwriter and I grew up just listening to him, even though music was all around the house I never thought it could be something I could actually take on as a career, it was kind of like this imaginary - you only see people doing this on tv, it’s not going to happen to me, now seven years later I’ve been touring around the country, with a few no.1 singles.

 M. What’s been your favourite memory within the industry?
T: “Man… As you come off a show you get this huge peak of engagement, I’ve learnt to appreciate if there’s a small crowd, you have fun with them - if you have a big crowd… even better. I’ve had crowds when I’ve played to 19 people before, and it used to really throw me off, though I’ve learnt that music is such a powerful thing whether one person comes, or a sold-out show comes, it’s like- we’re gunna have some fun and I’ve really learnt to understand that.

So I’d have to say, I mean yes I’ve met famous people and that aspect of it has been amazing but when you’ve got a crowd of people that are singing your songs back at you that you wrote in a little room somewhere you just think ‘this is so cool’ and that will always be my favourite memory.

M: If you could open a show for any Artist who would it be?
T: “I’d love to open for Ed Sheeran to be honest, that would be so fun, just because he’s a huge influence in my life and doing the A Team tour at the moment, it’s like when you start singing the first line of any Ed song the crowd just sing it and you think ‘Ahh Ed how are you so damn good’. *laughs*

M. What’s your favourite Ed song?
T. Oh jeez, it changes every week, it really does, I’d say right now it would be ‘Thinking Out Loud.’

M. What are some of your pre-tour rituals?
T: Okay so whenever I get to a hotel for a show, I do this whole jumping on the bed slow mo video, that’s one, the other is that I always, always have a freezing cold shower. Just to hype me up. This is like 15 minutes before the show, it’s kind of like an electric shock, it’s only cold and I’m under there for like a minute.

M: What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
T: “I’ve been told, as soon as you give with expectation in return, you lose. Game over. When you give to someone, whether that’s through music or any aspect of my life, give because you want to. As soon as you want something from it, you’re going to be unsatisfied.

Its shifted my life, I used to be a stubborn kid back in the day, I was a bit difficult to work with, I was 20 years old when I was thrown into all of this... I didn’t know what I was in for and I didn’t have a lot of stability throughout my life early on. I learnt that the hard way, you’ve got to be grateful and just enjoy your life and have fun with it.”

M: What do you love most about your career?

T: I’d have to say the travel, I get to see so many awesome and quirky places, and Orange is one of them!