Talking To Taryn Everdeen
Fatea writer Nic Rigby catches up with Norwich's new songsmith
The 20-year-old singer songwriter Taryn Everdeen has been developing a strong following - with more than 4,000 followers on Instagram - in the indie scene with her atmospheric music and strongly personal lyrics. Fatea's Nic Rigby caught up with her in Norwich.
The last few years have been a busy time for Taryn with her first EP Ramblings out and living life between Norwich and Paris - where she's gone to study film-making and photography.
Growing up, first in Essex and then Norfolk - in Stalham and then Norwich - she wrote her first song aged 12 and learnt piano first before going on to guitar.
"I found Sonic Youth, a development programme at Norwich Arts Centre and got a gig there which was really cool and that led to other opportunities," she said.
"I found song writing. At the time I was going through a lot of things emotionally which was quite difficult and song writing gave me a way to channel those emotions into something beautiful."
One of her early influences was the Norwegian singer Aurora, and some of Taryn's tracks have a similar ethereal beauty to them.
"The first songs I wrote were pretty bad. I'm ashamed of them now. They were cliched, but I think as I have gotten older, I have gotten better," she said.
"I'm exploring more interesting melodies. I feel a lot more confident when I'm performing. My performances have gotten so much better."
She said she found it easier to compose on guitar as "I find it easier to experiment with chords in a different way".
"I really like improvising. So I'll choose a chord progression that I think sounds nice and might start with a phrase or just a word and play off that.
"What I have learnt to do is not censor myself and let myself sing whatever comes into my head.
"A lot of the time it is a bit ridiculous but I just go with the flow and follow it and see if something good comes out.
"I do this all the time with my voice recorder on my phone so if something good does come out I have it recorded.
"More recently things have come to me while I'm cycling. Sometimes tunes will pop into my head. My song Alcohol came to me on my bike. I had this phrase 'All the words I'd never say without the alcohol in my brain' That just came into my head while I was cycling. I stopped and recorded it and then continued cycling.
"Otherwise it just disappears."
Before preparing to study in France, Taryn went to the US for two months. I'd got the impression that it was a formative experience for her, I asked her if that was the case?
"Massively," she said. "I discovered open mics for the first time. I did not know anybody apart from the lady I was staying with. So I looked for things in the area - Albuquerque- and saw this open mic and went there every single week and made friends and was able to share my music for the first time in that format.
I had always been too scared to do it in Norfolk. I'd thought it was intimidating, and people were so supporting so that was a real lifeline for me.
I came back to Norwich and thought 'well, I've done this where I didn't know anybody, why don't I try it at open mics in Norwich.
So I went to the Pear Tree in the city for the first time and it was amazing.
I was really scared but I found a community that changed my life and was so supportive.
Since I started going to open mics my performance has got so much better, I'm so much more confident, I feel more inspired and I'm so much happier as a person."
Since then she has been a regular on the Norfolk music scene as well as playing gigs in Paris.
No doubt she'll be one of the names to look out for among the rising stars of the singer song writing community.
Taryn Everdeen's improvisional EP came out in 2021. Her Instagram is @taryn.everdeen.
(Nic Rigby is part of the band Nic Norton and the County Band. See nicnortonmusic.com)
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