Shooting and boost scootin’.

With their first releases garnering more attention than a screaming toddler in the lolly section at Coles, Sunshine Coast outfit Betty Taylor have been front and centre of our radar for a while now. Serving up shimmering dream-rock, the group have backed up the hype, and now with a national tour on the horizon and recently announced slot at Groovin The Moo, it seems only a matter of time before they’re at that level where we can safely claim we knew about the before everybody else.

In May they’ll be hitting Bris, Melbourne, Sydney and Wollongong (tickets here, dates below), and if their shows are anywhere near as fun as they look in the ‘Glitter’ video below, you won’t want to miss them. Anyway, get to know them a little better with our interview and photoshoot below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4asgK3LOMGc

First up, How did you two meet? When was the idea for Betty Taylor hatched?

Betty Taylor came together almost by accident. Met some new mates at a local open mic, played together the following week and a band asked us if we could open for them. We had 4 weeks to become a band a create a set list.

The name sounds like it should belong to a cool nanna. How did you come up with that one?

Betty Taylor is my (Sophie) grandmother’s name. I remember looking through old photo albums with her and saw her name on the back of a photo and thought “that would be a cool stage name” one year later Betty Taylor the band was born.

What’s the Sunny Coast music scene like now? Do you think it’s a good place for a young band to be launching from?

The Sunshine Coast has such an underrated creative scene! The community is so support and there is so much talent here.

Tell us about a local act that may not be on our radar?

We are big fans of Big Blue Eyes! Ryan the lead singer does all of the production himself which I find incredible.
His song ‘Pockets’ has been on repeat for months now.

You’ve already played alongside a bunch of Aus legends – Hayley Mary, Holy Holy etc – who’s your dream international support?

It’s a unanimous decision across the board… Harry Styles.

Tell us about yourself. Describe the energy of your 3 other band members in 3 words (each!)

Kayla – Angelic, Graceful, Shredlord
Katie – Energetic, Powerful, Adorable
Claire – Groovy, Sassy, Stylish

‘Stallin’’ is clocking plenty of streams already. How’s the response been? Any praise come from places you haven’t expected? Like other artists? That estranged cousin? etc?

We were very surprised but so so stoked to land at the top of Beddy Rays ‘Beddy Bops’ playlist on Spotify! We love those boys.

Tell us about ‘Glitter’. Where’d the track come from? There’s a nice juxtaposition from the name to the hints of darkness in the lyrics and melody.

Glitter was whipped up at about 2am on the morning at my campsite at Splendour in the Grass 2019 after receiving yet another flakey text.

‘Glitter’ marks a bit of a mood shift from ‘Stallin’’. If these two tracks were to meet in a bar, how do you think they’d react to each other – feel free to get abstract.

Stallin’ is bit of a hopeless romantic, where Glitter is quite jaded. I think if they were to meet in a bar they wouldn’t be going home together.

What’s coming up for the rest of 2023? Is there an EP on the way?

Not sure about an EP but definitely have some more banging singles coming your way.

If you could choose any band or artist, past or present, to support on tour, who would it be and why? What do you think you could learn from touring with them, and how do you think your own music would complement theirs?

This is a really really tough one because I could name 101 bands / artists that I would die to play with… but the first person that just popped into my head is Miley Cyrus. That woman is a powerhouse. She’s had such a longstanding career and I’m sure we’d learn so much about what it’s like to be a woman in the industry and having to / how to keep reinventing yourself.
I feel like she’d love a good empowering revenge song, which I personally love to write haha.

As a band, who are your top 5 favourite artists to watch perform live, and what makes their shows so memorable?

HAIM – we saw recently at Laneway and WOW those sister know how to put on a damn good live show. Their energy is so captivating as well as their story telling in between songs. Other amazing story tellers and live performers we adore include Julia Jacklin, Noah Dillon, Florence and the Machine.

And finally, the best live performer of all time has to go out to Genesis Owusu, that man had my jaw on the floor, from start to finish he is creating performance art.