Interview with blues guitarist & soul singer Joanne Shaw Taylor

Joanne Shaw Taylor explains how she continues to reinvent herself. ‘I want all my albums to sound like myself, but like different versions of myself,’ she says. From ‘White Sugar’ to ‘Nobody’s Fool’: every record reflects a different phase in her life. Consequently, she does not describe herself as a traditional blues musician, but as a blues guitarist who sings soul and writes pop songs. You can actually see it as a kind of musical diary. For instance, with Black & Gold, her tenth studio album, she consciously closed a chapter: ‘I turned 40 this year, so it felt like the closing of a decade.’ The record offered her the chance to let go of personal themes and explore musical boundaries.

Solid plan or improvisation?

Her writing and recording style is also evolving. In the studio, she leaves plenty of room for spontaneity. ‘Many of my solos are improvised, but it depends on the song,’ she explains. When writing pop songs, she writes more compactly on a conscious basis. Whereas on blues-inspired material, she seeks the freedom of interplay with her band. With a drummer like Anton Fig, she prefers to follow the energy of the moment rather than a rigid plan. ‘Then it’s more fun to leave a bit more to chance.’ Live, the songs are subsequently given new life; ‘Live, you naturally find new things that work well, but which you didn’t think of in the studio.’ And that makes her performances unpredictable and playful. Exactly what keeps her music so vibrant!

Read the full interview with Joanne Shaw Taylor on the Gitarist website.