Basement Finds 002: Taylor Noelle

The Nashville artist is far from being a "Loser" after finding success online with a viral cover on TikTok.

Welcome back to Basement Finds, a series where I dig deep on the internet to find music and artists that have been buried or unheard. All music deserves to be heard and shared and The Basement is a vehicle for exactly that.

Like many others, I get caught in the vicious cycle of scrolling on TikTok in bed when I should’ve been asleep hours ago. I can’t help it! There’s so much to consume with so little time. I can’t be the only one right?

Thanks to my social media addiction, I stumbled across a video of someone named Taylor Noelle who posted a beautiful rendition of a song that has been done by some of the greats: The Carpenters, Stevie Wonder, Frank Ocean, The Cranberries… that song being, “Close To You”.

I found out that not only does she make amazing covers, but she also releases her own music. And trust me when I say it’s good.

I had an opportunity to speak with Taylor Noelle on a calm spring Saturday and discussed her newest single, “Loser”, her unexpected virality online, and her music creation process with her closest collaborators.

This is Basement Finds: Taylor Noelle

courtesy of tidal.com

TB. Thank you for making the time to talk, I really appreciate it! So, “Heaven or Nashvegas” is your bio everywhere online, what does that exactly mean?

TN. [Laughs.] I honestly just picked it because I thought it was funny. It just came to me one day but it’s a song that I love and I think there’s just something about Nashville that I find really funny… like I personally love going downtown to Broadway (Street) and being a woo girl once a quarter, you know? We can have this energy in batches so that’s sort of what I’m channeling.

TB. I know you grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Nashville some years back. How has living in Nashville since moving from LA affected your music style and approach to songwriting? I feel like those are two very different music scenes within those cities.

TN. Yeah, definitely super different. I moved to Nashville a little more than 10 years ago, so it’s been a minute. I moved when I was a child…I was 17. I felt like the music I was making was exactly that: a child making music, which was very special but it was more personal and just me growing up and doing stuff I loved. I guess moving to Nashville at that time was kind of the same time when I turned and thought, “Okay what is it to pursue this and write songs to release?” Even though I’m from L.A., I grew up in the Nashville music industry.

I went to Belmont and there’s a songwriting major there, I went for music business but there are songwriters, producers… everything. It’s funny everyone’s like, “We should write sometime.,” [Laughs] That’s the running joke. You do the rounds and write with a bunch of people. There’s good stuff that I got out of that. I learned and figured out what I wanted to do. It was great to narrow down and go, “Okay I’m hitting the target of what I want with these specific people more often than not, so now I can move on from meeting everyone that I could possibly meet and go from there.” We already know what energy we want and can now dive deep into it.

TB. I sensed that you had to be a Belmont grad!

TN. [Laughs] Yeah, it’s like you can smell it.

TB. Looking through your entire discography, I’m taken on this journey that just gets better and better sonically and lyrically. I see early on that you were formulating this sound that we have from you today. From “Prove” which has funky bass and some R&B vocals… A certified bop, which has 1.2 million streams on Spotify alone, to your Be Around EP, which includes jams like “West End” and heartwarming, “Be Around.” I just hear a lot of different sounds within your tracks on these projects and I wonder who are some of your musical influences?

TN. It really is just a big jumble because I feel like I’m a pretty eclectic person. I just love so many things for so many reasons. I grew up listening to oldies more than I listened to modern pop. So I just kind of missed the 90s and early 2000s musically and jumped in around 2012. Until that point, I was listening to Motown, the Beach Boys, and The Beatles. I feel like that affects the way I see music, what music comes out of me, and what tools I have as a songwriter.

TB. I see similarities with Fleetwood Mac when it comes to the vibe and aesthetic that you put out.

TN. [Laughs.] I developed an obsession with Fleetwood Mac in either my junior or senior year in high school. I became completely obsessed. When I learned about the story of how they made “Rumors", I was like “Oh my gosh, how did this get created in this turmoil?”

TB. After you released the If You Want That EP in 2023, you followed the next year with a cover of Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight” and this leads your listeners to your next release, A cover of “Close To You” by the Carpenters/Frank Ocean’s rendition. I saw this cover of yours on TikTok and by the time I saw the video, it was already at nearly 100k likes. Now sitting at over 250,000 likes and nearly 40k shares, tell me what's going through your mind when you see the number of likes and comments growing. Comments like “I want this version as my wedding song.” Have you ever seen a response from listeners like this before online? How does it make you feel?

TN. That was a brand new experience for me and I was so touched. It was a very affirming experience because I was working on new music and I knew that was going to take longer to get finished the way I wanted it to be, but I still wanted to be present and share things with people. So, I recorded those with my producer Bobby Knepper at his studio and we kept it simple. It’s kind of vulnerable for me to be alone on a piano. I’m not some amazing instrumentalist but I have enough to sing and play. That’s just the way I play when I’m at home and don’t do it out (in public) very often. It took a lot of courage and vulnerability to show up in this way. I expected it to be, [laughs] you know, the same as it always is. People are nice and whoever appreciates it is great. For it to reach and touch people like that meant so much to me. Especially for it to be a song that is so special to me— both versions, The Carpenter’s version has been one of those oldies that have always been around in my childhood. Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” is one of my favorite albums of all time, the greatest album ever made [laughs.] Yeah, if I show people things that are very special and tender to me and give it to them…the promo doesn’t matter…[laughs] cliche but just be yourself.

TB. Does that add any pressure to keep the momentum going?

TN. I didn’t expect it to happen so I won’t go into my next releases expecting it. If I like it and enjoy it, that means I should share it.

TB. Jumping back to the present, your single Right Back In It had new fans coming from your TikTok fed pretty well. I would say it's in the realm of The Marias, Men I Trust in terms of bass and drum similarities and dreamy vocals. Right after that, you recently released your first single of 2025, titled “Loser.” May I say as a listener and frankly, a fan, that this song is objectively good. You worked with Boone Wallace as well as Bobby Knepper on this one, as you have with them on a majority of your songs. It seems like you have found people that you collaborate well with.

How did this song come about and what is your music creation process like?

TN. Well, this song in particular has been on such a journey. You mention the EP from 2023, those songs were written at the same time. “Loser” was the first one written of the batch. It was Boone and I’s first time writing, just the two of us. We finished writing it and were kinda flabbergasted, like “Where did that come from?” We wrote it a week right before COVID-19 hit and it was so special to me for a long time. We tried so many different production things on it, too. I just care about this song so much and I wanted it to live on a project and be with other songs because it was important to me. It was a song that I would play live now and then. I brought a batch of songs from across several years to Bobby to record. He and I came up with what we’d consider our principles as far as production and applied that to all of my songs across the board. Recording with Bobby was a good time.

TB. How does the songwriting process go? Are you writing in a journal and presenting it to your co-writers or are you in the room together writing from scratch?

TN. I do a lot of collecting, if I feel a poem floating up, I’ll jot down a few things. It’s like I have to do all this scavenging and play Tetris and kind of fit them together…then it gives me a picture. I’ve never been a songwriter who’s like, “Here’s the title, here’s the concept.” I respect songwriters who are like that. To me, it feels like reading tea leaves and pulling meaning out of things… like the way a tree looked to me… and it reminded me of this thing which leads me to that thing… you know, what’s the larger umbrella of why I’m noticing things.

TB. What should fans anticipate from you following your single “Loser”? Maybe some visuals?

Yes! We have a visual on the way. I’ve been working on it with my friends Abby and Sarah. There’s just so much that could be communicated by what you’re showing. I care about what I am sharing with people and what is being communicated. I wanted to promote this song but I didn’t have a full music video prepped. I just needed to promote the song in a vertical format and get it out there. Now, I’m working on this visual almost like a journal in a way. I spend time on it, see how I feel, and walk away. I’m almost done with it! There’s the visuals you have to do to say, “Hey, here’s a new song!” versus the music video being art to me. It’s nice to spend time with it like an art piece and not just a piece of promo.

TB. As a viewer, the Right Back In It video is very refreshing and cool, to simply put it.

TN. Thank you! I want the visuals to create this world and put you in the universe of the music. Sarah and Abby did that one with me. They are so talented with analog photography and video and they help so much!

TB. What’s Taylor Noelle doing outside of the studio?

TN. I’m typically outside, 20 minutes ago I was just tidying up things in my backyard, thinking about where I want the hammock [laughs]. Crazy lore: I’m getting married in 3 weeks! We’re beyond excited, it’s going to be the best time ever. We’ve been so deep in planning. I’m gonna look back on this time in life and go, ”Oh my gosh, that was such an era. The wedding planning/music rollout and everything else…” It’s been a ride and I’m so grateful for my partner, who is also a musician and is so talented! It’s been a fun season for us. We’re sharing music, working on stuff, and bouncing things off of each other. His name is Croozer!

TB. I did some digging and I have to ask, are you a self-proclaimed Bonnaroovian? I attend the festival myself every year!

TN. I LOVE Bonnaroo. It’s like heaven on earth. I haven’t been able to go since before COVID, which breaks my heart. I’ve just always had some insane conflict every year. It’s a special place and I’ve seen so many amazing acts there. My proudest moment was when I waited in line by myself for 5 hours to be front and center for Anderson .Paak.

TB. Are there any hopes and dreams to one day play at places like Bonnaroo?

TN. Oh my gosh, that’s like the dream. I love a good music festival but Bonnaroo in particular is a massive goal. Honestly, my ideal show would be one of the tent stages at Bonnaroo. Either that or a Tiny Desk.

TB. Well, I just want to say again, thanks for talking with me today. I really appreciate you finding the time to chat.

TN. I appreciate you, thank you! It’s nice to talk to someone that feels excited about the music.

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Keep up with Taylor Noelle with this link to all platforms.

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