Taylor Waters released her debut single on March 8.
Waters, 20, is originally from Quesnel and goes to Simon Fraser University in Burnaby.
She released the single, Little Sister, through Uni-Fi Records.
The song is a sort of pep talk for her younger sister, Paige.
One night, when Waters was home in Quesnel, she and her sister had a long talk about the pressures they faced to look a certain way and to live up to other people’s expectations.
“So, we were just having this really big heart to heart,” she says.
“We were crying … and so after that, I was just inspired to write this song and to hopefully inspire her to be herself and continue going on, because she’s kind of awesome.”
With the lyrics telling her little sister to stand her ground and that she belongs, the song is a reminder to stay strong in the face of adversity.
The indie pop song runs three and a half minutes long, and according to Waters’s Spotify profile, it has listeners all over Canada, with a total of 13,230 monthly listeners as of press time.
The single has also been added to a few playlists curated by the streaming service, including the Indie Pop Chillout, Chilled Pop Hits and Fresh Finds: Poptronix playlists.
Waters became interested in music as a child with two musical parents.
She says growing up, her mom always sang to her, while her father would play songs on the guitar with her, and together, they would practise harmonizing. Her father also played piano, so she learned some piano too.
“I was just always encouraged to explore that area,” says Waters.
Waters started writing songs around age 10 and got a ukulele a couple years later.
“And that’s when things started coming together,” she adds.
Although Waters was originally more of a folk singer-songwriter accompanied by her guitar or ukulele, her new music has veered into indie pop. It’s still her writing the songs, but now they’re accompanied by beats instead.
It wasn’t until Waters began posting clips of her original songs and covers on Instagram that she began hearing from music producers — and reaching out to them herself.
That’s how she first got in contact with Uni-Fi Records.
“They saw potential in me, and I liked their stuff,” says Waters. “They hadn’t worked with, as far as I know, any female artists before — they mostly work with male hip hop artists — so to them, it was also a challenge to work in a different genre than what they were used to.
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“So we just saw it as a good opportunity for both of us.”
Waters says she’s thankful to the people she has worked with at Uni-Fi Records, which is based out of the U.S.
Whether she has a question about something she wants to post on Instagram or a new song idea she wants to talk about, they’re there.
Waters wrote Little Sister in Quesnel, recorded the vocals in Vancouver at a local studio and then sent it off to Uni-Fi Records, where they worked on the production of the song together.
Waters says she is hoping to release another single, followed by an EP.
She says her main priority at the moment is finding time to keep recording her vocals.
Waters says most of her songs tend to follow a similar theme of facing adversity and dealing with difficulties in her life.
“However, I definitely find that I’m writing more songs about boys than I meant to,” she says with a laugh.
“They’re definitely ranging, that’s for sure.”
As a student, Waters says it can be difficult to find the time to work on her music — particularly during exam season. But, she says, “I think that when you are a creative person you’re always doing it.
“There’s no setting a time aside, necessarily. You just — when inspiration strikes you find that time to work on it right then, and it just hits you are random moments.
“Everything is just kind of all over the place. But it’s definitely happening.”
A sociology student, Waters spends her summers in Quesnel working at Seasons House.
She says she isn’t sure what she wants to do after graduation, but she has been thinking of pursuing a master’s degree in Social Work.
You can listen to Waters’s debut single now on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Soundcloud.
Little Sister is also available for download through the iTunes Store.
Heather Norman
Community Reporter
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