Gavin Taylor’s Muffled Sirens interview
I drive up to Classen Coffee. I order a matcha and sit down the smell of black coffee in the air and a mix of 90’s hip hop playing in the background. I am waiting to meet with Gavin Taylor who is a local musician.
We met on a film set a week prior and talked for two hours about music and such. The interaction was so great we agreed that I would interview him.
At noon Taylor walks in, his outfit was inspired by “David Lynch, Richard Hell, and Patti Smith”.
We exchange niceties and then I begin the interview.
Taylor has spent his whole life surrounded by music. “we were living in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma, my dad was deployed and he would send my mom and I pirated music and my mom would play it for me”.
“there hasn’t been an area in my life where I haven’t performed”
Taylor started band life at the age of twelve and started his first band ‘Treason 58’ which was based in Norman OK, with his friend at the time.
“bars started booking us and we were only 13”.
That was only the start. Once Taylor got a acting gig for the movie ‘Christmas in the Heartland’ he used the paycheck to produce a record for ‘Treason 58’, unfortunately
soon after the band broke up due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since then, Taylor now writes in Lawton and creates in OKC through the Catapult Recordings label. Taylor also takes advantage of his time at the University of Central Oklahoma’s Academy of Contemporary Music.
The ACM program is highly recommended by Taylor “I wanted to learn the theory of music so that I could write musicals”
“it’s a really good program because it is very liberating for artists”
Before we had even met for coffee Taylor had released an EP earlier in the day. The EP is called ‘For His Ears’ and has five songs all of which are for his musical that he is currently writing.
This is a concept album about a nursing home. After Taylors grandmother was put into a nursing home it inspired him to write about her experiences and his feelings surrounding her situation.
“In this story the main character records these songs on a four track, this is the precursor of the character”
The EP took around two days to produce. On the second day Taylor and his producer worked from 2pm to 1am to finish the EP.
The song that took the longest to write on the EP was the ‘Has been’ which Taylor had started writing when he was 16. It is his favorite song on the EP.
On Spotify Gavin is called ‘Gavin Taylor’s Muffled Sirens’ the Muffled Sirens being personas. This started as a solo project and then transitioned into Taylor having a set band.
Everyone who is featured on the project is a dear friend of Taylor.
“when you find likeminded people outside of high school, as an adult it is so liberating, it feels like another family”.
When Taylor preforms he has three favorite songs. ‘Glass Doctor’ which he loves to preform to with the band. ‘Nurse I’m Calling’ which is always the finale song. Taylor, said “It is the song that goes on forever, I think this is the song that people come to the show for”. The third song is ‘Drop Scene’ which is Taylors favorite song to play by himself. ‘Drop Scene’ is a unreleased ballad that puts Taylor at peace.
When thinking of his fans Taylor says to “allow yourself to rest”. Taylor believes that his music is made for empathetic people.
Taylor ended the interview with a quote that stood out to me, Taylor said, “Musicians are like doctors, you just don’t have to pay”
As the interview came to an end Taylor I agreed to meet up for coffee again and that I would go to one of his upcoming shows. If you want to check out Taylors socials his Instagram is @gavintalormuffledsirens and you can find him on Spotify by looking up Gavin Taylor’s Muffled Sirens.
Smelling like black coffee I walked into the bitter cold world with a warm feeling about local musicians.
