Music

MARVIN Exclusive with Taylor Acorn: New LP announcement and “Hangman” world video premiere

On August 20th, Taylor Acorn put on an electrifying performance at the MARVIN Issue 17 release event. She captivated the crowd with her amazing vocals, energy, and emotion. We had a chance to sit down and talk with her about her upcoming album, Poster Child, which releases October 24th via Fearless Records. From songwriting to storytelling, and the anticipation of performing these new tracks, Taylor gave us insight on her process and what we can expect.

MARVIN: What was going through your mind when sitting down and putting together the songs for Poster Child? How do these songs differ from your previous works? How are they the same? 

Taylor: I really feel like I was in awe of everything that we had created. This album is my favorite project I’ve ever done and so I was just super excited, proud of what we made, and I still am even now. I hadn’t written by myself in a long time and a few of these songs came from ideas I had just sitting in my room, but it also was so collaborative in such a cool way. I got to work with writers who I love and admire so much and the vibe in a whole for the entire creation process was so positive. I think the songs still feel like me and feel like previous work, but fresh and different at the same time. I think they just feel like me and not to say that past pieces of work didn’t feel that way, but I just felt so much more in my own lane and in my own sound if that makes sense. 

MARVIN: Leading up to your fall tour, you did a summer tour. How has that tour prepared you for the shows you have next? What can your fans expect or not expect in comparison during your fall tour? 

Taylor: So leading up to the tour this summer my band and I hadn’t played together for about 6/7 months. I was so focused on being creative and it was the first time that we had that much time off so there’s always this fear going into a tour thinking “do I still remember how to do this?”. I feel like the set time and the tour in general was a good test to see if we can still put on a show and we did. It was a blast and so I’m super excited to come back in the fall and do it again. My band and I are really taking the time to map out the show to make it as special and different from past tours as we can. We will have more time to play around with set times and creative ideas and I’m so excited to play this new music! 

MARVIN: Have you thought about how performing these new songs live will be? How do you envision the stage presence of these songs versus the studio recorded versions? 

Taylor: I have and I am itching to play them so badly. It’s been hard to keep them a secret and every song I feel like could be a really special live moment (which is good but also bad for me because I don’t know what songs to choose for the setlist). I want to play every single one and I feel like that’s a really cool problem to have. The songs feel so real and genuine to myself and whenever I picture playing them I see really cool intimate moments with fans. I don’t see a huge crazy production, I just see genuine emotion and connection. I feel like that’s what this next tour will be. Just enjoying the music and the songs for what they are and getting to experience it all together. 

MARVIN: How did you come up with the concept of the Hangman music video, especially with the visuals being focused on others rather than yourself? How does the music video add onto the meaning behind the lyrics? 

Taylor: I was going through a really trying time. I had lost a friend who was super close to me and despite everything in my career moving in such an incredible direction, in my personal life I felt a bit stuck. Like I wanted to genuinely celebrate my wins, but I couldn’t because there was always this looming feeling of sadness or insecurity that stuck with me. I think that feeling is so relatable, how we can be doing everything right but still feel stuck like the universe doesn’t want us to move on or move forward. I felt like that felt so hand in hand with being on a train – the destination your trying to reach is so far but you have to sit and watch others who you don’t know and don’t know what they are going through simultaneously to you, get on and off at their stops in order to get to yours and sometimes it feels like it never ends, until one day it does. 

MARVIN: If you had to pick a favorite song you wrote off of Poster Child, which would it be and why? 

Taylor: This is so tough, because I love them all equally in their own right and I go through phases of a different one being my favorite but I think “Cheap Dopamine” and “Sucker Punch” are the ones I’m really loving right now. “Home Videos” as well!