Taylor Simone Harvey is a singer, songwriter, and producer based out of Los Angeles. Previously the lead singer of the group Jazze Belle, Taylor has performed at notable venues such as the Lincoln Center, and opened for the likes of Jamila Woods, and Noname, to name a few. A 2022 Baldwin for the Arts Fellow, she’s created music that draws inspiration from her musical influences and elders, and thoughtfully infuses them into her work. These influences have helped shape her sound but it’s her personal perspective on what it means to be black artist and woman that truly shines. 

Taylor’s debut album Everybody’s On Stage is the sound of that homecoming, but it’s also the sound of a young artist coming into her own. In the tradition of Solange’s A Seat At The Table and Tyler the Creator’s Flower Boy, she dances across genre lines and steps boldly into her queerness, sounding just as lithe singing classic soul as she does spitting a quick 16. Co-produced with longtime collaborators Jess Best and Connor Schultze, Stage is a warm album full of lush r&b harmonies, swung breakbeats, disco glitter, and deep g-funk bass. Across this canvas, Taylor’s style is rife with dualities. She is brash and tender, surefooted and conflicted, swaggering and vulnerable, irreverent and deeply reverent.

Everybody’s On Stage is nothing if not a journey. We listen as Taylor flirts, falters, flexes, and wrestles with the questions in her gut. Is my dream of success worth the risk of failure? Can I stay true to myself in an oppressive industry? How do I bear the burden of expectations? How do I carry my father forward with nuance and purpose? As she slowly unearths answers, we can feel her bravery — not a lack of fear, but an ability to stay in process with her fears until she can work through them in song. Somewhere between the self-liberatory snarl of “Breathe” and the closing meditation “Everybody’s On Stage,” we hear Taylor finally set down other people’s dreams for her and begin to make some for herself. Yes, Taylor Simone Harvey was born for this. But even as she honors her lineage she’s carving out something new, on no one’s terms but her own.