HIDDEN GEMS

WRABEL

Written by Lien Joos // Photo by Yazz Alali

Putting a full-length debut album out there for the entire world to listen to and getting goosebumps when hearing those carefully chosen lyrics with perfectly matching melodies is something Wrabel has been dreaming of since he was a 15-year-old boy. After almost ten years of piecing together the perfect puzzle that represents him best – as an artist and as a person -, full of hope, love and life, ‘these words are all for u’ is finally here for the world to listen to.

“When I first started making this record, nine years ago, I thought it would be a break-up album because that’s what it was back then.” In the beginning, Wrabel was mainly singing about loss, discrimination and heartbreak. Now he has found himself in a completely different place. He’s very much in love, he’s sober and independent as an artist, which made him grow into the person he is today, creating an uplifting and optimistic record in times of need. “This record even surprised me, sitting back and piecing it together almost like an autobiography. It’s nine years of my life put into eleven songs.”

The one song that survived the bumpy road and got carried through everything the Los Angeles-based pop singer-songwriter has done over the years is the heavyhearted but transcendent closer: ‘love is not a simple thing to lose’. “It’s something we’ve never pitched to any other artist. We actually never really showed it to anyone because I just knew that that was going to be the closer for my first album, whenever that would happen. Having that still stand is such a special thing to me.”

For the American singer-songwriter, writing is a feeling. “I definitely know when a song is written, when the lyrics are perfect and the structure is solid. When it comes to production, that’s tricky for me because it’s a language I’m not fluent in. My comments often include: “I don’t know, it doesn’t feel purple to me. When I think of this song, I always imagined it purple, but now it’s feeling orange.” I’m very hands-on: I speak up when I hear something or feel something’s off. But it’s more based on feelings: closing my eyes and hearing if the song feels right and is finished in every way possible.”

Wrabel, who often speaks up through his music was especially emotional in ‘The Village’. Wrabel wrote that song on the day that federal protections for trans students were taken out of public schools in The States. He dedicated ‘The Village’ to two trans kids he met on his first tour. It broke his heart that they had been put in situations like that. “I can’t tell their story but I can try to shine a light on something important and make them hopefully feel less alone and make them feel that someone cares about them.” It went from a song that was written for these two incredible people to being a song for a lot of us. For the kid who played the song to his parents and now they understand him more, for the friend who came out to the world because of ‘The Village’, for everyone in that particular situation to feel less alone. “To see what it has done, it solidified my intention in how I want to create.”

SCARLETT TAYLOR

Written by Lauren Dehollogne // Photo by Scarlett Taylor

Scarlett Taylor, a 20-year-old, budding musician living in New York City has been immersed in the world of music ever since she was born. Growing up in Lancaster Pennsylvania, Scarlett was often met with stories of another local kid that grew up to become a superstar, Taylor Swift. Yet this is not where her musical background ends, as her dad, Chad Taylor, is the lead guitarist of LIVE, a rock band that had immense mainstream success in the 90s, was her first introduction to the lifestyle of an artist. Therefore, thinking that one day, she could become one of the greats, was never far away.

“So my dad was always a big musical influence in my life. Of course, he was on tour a lot when I was a little kid. But when he came home, there was always music around. And I was always like, Dad, I want to show you this song I was working on like, always wanting to like do little shows, and seeing my dad do shows and being like, wow, I want to do that,”, Taylor recalls as she is thinking fondly of those memories. Still, the young artist is adamant to say that it wasn’t her parents who pushed her into the path of becoming a musician, that they rather let her venture into her own path whatever that might have been. Her own artistry, she says, comes up to play when she sits down in her room and starts to unwind, as she just lets the music lead her. Taylor’s songs are personal and often start from looking at things she needs to heal from. “That doesn’t mean that every song sounds sad, some healing happens, like in a joyful form of energy,”, Taylor rapidly adds to where her music originates from.

The days leading up to the release of her first official single, ‘Clementine’, which was put out into the world in May of 2021, proved to be a tricky time for Scarlett, as she not only admits to have been going through a depressive period, she also emphasizes how scared she was for the reaction others would have, as this was the introduction to what she calls her own original “bedroom pop” music. Since its release, Scarlett has been going through a whirlwind of emotions but as of lately, she is happy to say that she has found some calm and joy in thinking back on that period of time and has learned to heal herself. Taylor, who is a positive and reflective person, mentions that she is thankful for that moment of doubt as it has taught her to only put out the work that she is proud of and only when it makes her feel good. Ultimately it taught her that, “You can’t be making your art for other people to like it. Because at the end of the day, there are always going to be people that hate it, there are always going to be people that love it, you just need to find the community that loves it and wants a share in that joy with you.”