Taylor Lally

 "I love the guitar, it saved me. I decided I would make it my career and that was that." 

Up n’ Comin NI is proud to present this weeks artist, Taylor Lally. Taylor was born and raised in Millisle but now lives in Belfast. 

Music has always played a huge part in Taylor’s life! As a kid, she performed for her family, friends and in school concerts. “I loved Disney movie soundtracks the most.” 

Taylor is a multi-instrumentalist. “I was encouraged to learn the clarinet in school, which I picked up quickly from the love of it. Then I dropped it in high school because the teacher made me cry. I picked up the guitar shortly after that because I wanted to be like my dad who played guitar late at night in his office. I would sit at the top of the stairs and listen to him play. He doesn't play as much now sadly because he says I'm better than him at it.”

School, like for many people, was not easy for Taylor. While she said she found it “fun” she didn’t fit into the crowd and “became an easy target for bullying.” She found solace in music during this time. "I listened to music on the bus, got off on my stop and walked home immediately to pick up the guitar just to remind myself how beautiful a C chord sounded."

While Taylor still says that she doesn’t necessarily feel like she fits in anywhere, “be yourself” is still the motto she tries to live by! 

“I've enjoyed living so far and don't mind having a bad day every so often. I love learning and playing outside. When I'm not doing music, I like juggling. I'm not naturally good at it but it's really fun.”

Finding your sound can be a process that takes years and years to perfect and while Taylor says that she is still in the process of finding her sound, I think that we can all agree that she should continue to do what she is doing, because it’s definitely working!! 

After creating the sound world, Taylor then writes her lyrics. “Sometimes I don't know what I'm writing about until I make a connection after the song is finished. Mostly I can connect it to a thing that happened in my own experience.” 

Taylor’s favourite gig to date took place at the Court House in Bangor. “It was awesome because all my friends and family came and all the people I know from Bangor.” In fact she takes this a step further saying that her proudest achievement to date was “making my mum and dad proud at the Court House gig.”

So what’s next for Taylor Lally?

“The future is exciting! I have a gig at the Court House on the 27th of August! Apart from that I have plenty of Cathedral Quarter Arts Festivals gigs since I'm their artist of residence this year”… how cool! 

Make sure you follow her and keep up to date with all her songs, events and gigs: 

Spotify: Taylor Lally

Bandcamp: Taylor Lally

YouTube: Taylor Lally

Instagram: taylorlally

Facebook: Taylor Lally

Twitter: iamtaylorlally