Taylor and the Wild Now, an Austin based band, has hit a landmark in their journey as a band. They released their first self-titled EP on August 12. Before the official release, the band had released Wanderlust as their first single. Other tracks such as Sun Song and Bewildered were featured as exclusive releases on Roughstock and the American Songwriter Magazine respectively. Since then, they have been sharing their new music with gigs all round Austin and other cities in Texas with other band such as Jericho and Blue Bear to help spread their names and music.

“I try to find ways to engage with the audience. I’ve watched other more well seasoned performers who have this ability to captivate the audience. They’re funny without trying. We just want to be ourselves and let people be drawn to that,” Taylor Baker, lead vocals, said.

The band currently consists of Taylor Baker, guitar, lead vocals and banjo, and Drew Walker, guitar and trumpet. Walker is a former Creek Alumni. During his time here he also pursued his music passion by participating in marching band and jazz band. The pair have a full band made up of good friends who accompanies them time to time for bigger gigs, but there are no other current permanent members.

Taylor and the Wild Now has opened for others such as Lee Brice and Noah and the Whale. This is in addition to their appearances on Good Day Austin, Sofar Sounds, Balcony TV Austin and their performance at Durango Sound Stage at the CMA Music Festival. Taylor was named winner of the Durango Sole Performer Contest earlier that year. Winning this performance landed her in an issue of the Rolling Stones, a “surreal experience to see in real life.”

Their self-described sound “spans the spectrum from wild, upbeat sounds to stripped-back acoustics.” With influences such as Dawes, The Head & the Heart, Ben Howards and “just a little bit of everything”, Taylor and the Wild Now have been able to create a folksy soul sound of their own. For them it not about fitting into a genre but rather “finding a sound that is just [their] own, something that doesn’t remind [them] of everyone else.” Their lead single Wanderlust has hit over 50,000 plays on Spotify alone and their other track Wild is at over 80,000 plays.

“It was a fan favorite, and we get the best crowd response to it live. It’s also very radio friendly. It’s catchy, and I’ve found it gets stuck in my head. We need our music on the radio to sound like that so fans will remember us,” Drew, on the song Wanderlust, said.

A theme throughout the band’s EP is wandering, which reflects the current growth stage of their music. According to Taylor, this comes from “the constant need to wander until we find our place in the music world.” This theme can also be see in the band’s name itself.

“I came up with it just out of the blue. We wanted it to be something really unique, and it kind of speaks about where our music is going and what kind of music we create,” Taylor said.

Both Taylor and Drew wrote all of the songs on the EP before going into the studio. Taylor, who is self taught, and Drew combined both of their separate talents together to create songs they felt best represented themselves as a band. Drew claims his strengths in song writing comes from the instrumental side by “embellishing songs to help bring out a new sound” to the “beautiful melodies and lyrics that Taylor writes”

“Writing music for us is like blank canvas that we can just throw our ideas out there on. There’s no specific goal in mind, other than for me personally, I want to write something that’s never been heard before. Whenever I write something that I think has been heard before, I try to delete it from my mind. I want our music to be fresh and new,” Drew said.

The pair plans to continue to share their music with whoever they can reach as they continue to wander their way through following their passions.