INTERVIEW: UPSAHL releases new EP 'Young Life Crisis': "This EP Is the most honest and vulnerable I've gotten with any of my songs...I'm hoping people relate to it in some way, shape or form."

Interview: Jett Tattersall
American rising star UPSAHL (full name Taylor Upsahl) is only 21, but with her buzzy, accomplished second EPYoung Life Crisis, released on October 30, she shows she has the swagger, self-awareness and yes, perhaps even the jadedness of a musician beyond her years.

UPSAHL first released music in 2018 and soon started creating a buzz, with her 2019 single ‘Drugs;’ scoring over 24 million streams and featuring in countless TikTok videos. Young Life Crisis was created during lockdown and as it title suggests is inspired by UPSAHL going through a young life crisis in what was a tumultuous year. “I've learned more about myself this year, I’ve grown more as a person than ever before,” she says. “2020 has sparked an existential crisis for all of us, so here's mine. 21-years-old, trying to figure out what the fuck I'm doing, and raging through it all."

Over five tracks of gritty, attitude drenched R&B-pop, UPSAHL gives a refreshingly honest take both on her life and society in general. ‘Everybody in this party’s fucking fake’ she declares on first single ‘People I Don’t Like’, which brilliantly dissects a situation we have all been in - attending a party we really don’t want to be at. On the moody, dirty beats of ‘MoneyOnMyMind’ she is upfront about exactly what she wants at this stage in her young life crisis: “I want the kind of love / Dollars can't buy / But till the day it comes / I'll use them to pass time.” There is more honest, raw introspection as well on the EP’s closing track ‘Fake Bitch’. Against a gentle acoustic guitar, UPSAHL explores the feeling of hiding your true self from those around you: I'm so fucking happy all time / Also, I'm really good at telling lies / My friends they always call me for advice / But they don't know I've been crying / For the past seven nights.” In perhaps a reflection of the never ending parade of anxiety in her head, the song climax in a chaotic, swirl of noise until it abruptly cuts out.

UPSAHL is one of a number of young American artists creating remarkable music right now, and what makes her really stand out is her talent to create tracks that expose her vulnerability in a truely human and utterly honest way, teamed with a hard, pulsing soundscape that makes no apologies. Expect big things from this artist as her career grows. To celebrate the release of Young Life Crisis we recently caught up with UPSAHL to find out more.

Hello UPSAHL! Thank you so much for everything you do, I've just become a bit obsessed with all the words you're putting out. I want to get straight into your latest single ‘MoneyOnMyMind’, which is a mixing of electro clash glitch and all kinds of distorted 80s buzzed-out guitar. I love it. Although money is in the title and the key feature in this very cool reminiscent video, it's not actually the catalyst for this filthy hot song, is it?
No. Money is more about a mindset and feeling ‘money as fuck’, rather than actually having money. I wrote the song about coming out of a weak point and I feel like when you're on the up and up and about to fuck some shit up, there's these little magical moments where you're really feeling yourself and you're feeling super empowered. And you're getting over whatever it is you're getting over. I feel like those moments are so magical and I wanted the song ‘MoneyOnMyMind’ to capture that whole energy. So yeah, it's not about money at all. It's about feeling bad ass as fuck. I hope when people listen to it they feel the same way

Of course we've got your EP Young Life Crisis out now with some incredible songs. ‘Sad Sorry After Party’ is one of the most melodically mixed tracks to date. And then you've got ‘Fake Bitch’ with its confronting late-night reflection. It's a very different kettle of fish entirely. You're so incredibly self-aware and it's evident in every aspect of your music. From the lyrics to the melody and the composition. How imperative is that creative autonomy for you?
With music for me, since I've been like 5 years old, it's been the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do or was ever even remotely good at. It's always just been the biggest part of my life and the biggest part of my identity. Especially this year, making music in the midst of the world being flipped upside down and everyone's life completely changing. Being able to still make music was really the thing that saved me this year, for sure. I feel like creatively and genre-wise, the pressure was off a little bit because we were making the whole EP over Zoom and everyone was going through shit together. It was really fun to just experiment with new sounds. Going into this year, I already had a full-blown identity crisis with my music so I had a much clearer idea going into this EP of what I wanted, but it was really fun experimenting. As far as the lyrical content, for me this EP just sort of happened on accident. I knew I was going through it this year - everyone has been - but just by me writing songs every day, doing new sessions over Zoom, I sort of accidentally narrated my own life crisis that I had this year. I didn't really realise it until the whole EP was done. I was like ‘oh yeah, this fully is my mental breakdown on an EP’. It all just happened very naturally. There's something so empowering about being vulnerable, especially in song writing. This EP Is the most honest and vulnerable I've gotten so far with any of my songs. So I'm hoping that when people hear it they'll relate to it in some way, shape or form.

I'm glad you said that because what I love with your music is it's always very honest and you're very playful with it. With the self-awareness that I mentioned before, it's almost like you see yourself more clearly than so many other people. Maybe that humour sometimes comes in as a bit of a protection, but I'm hearing on this album that there are moments where you’re just like ‘oh this is very real’.
Yeah. I also wanted to walk the line with the EP because there'll be a line where it’s like ‘yeah, I'm crying on the bathroom floor’. But two seconds later in the song it’s ‘but then I walk out with my head up high like I'm Jesus Christ’. So i wanted to kind of walk that line of we're all going through it, but also life is not always so serious. You’ve got to channel your bad vision and dream when you need to. I'm hoping the EP walks that line well.

You've also got a killer library of stripped back tracks on YouTube ‘People I Don’t Like’ and ‘12345SEX’. Many artists do stripped back renditions of their tracks but not many do so with such a stack of guitars that swap and change throughout the performance. But you do that and then you also break down a song for people. How important is that connection with your audience?
Very important. For me, I live for seeing my favourite artists talk about how they made certain songs or break down the production. That is what excites me the most about music is hearing the behind the scenes of it. So I make those ‘behind the song’ videos, and the stripped-down video where I build the track as I go for the fans who hopefully feel the same way as I do about that. And for me, it's just really fun. I feel like every time I've made one of these stripped-down videos, I learn more about what the actual bones are of the track and it's just cool for me to work backwards from the full production to what are really the main components of the song. It's super fucking fun for me to do those videos. It's cool.

I think it’s very cool to see. You said you like to hear from the artist how they made that song, where it came from but not just with regards to lyrics but with regard to how they built it musically. With that in mind, do you feel like you're making the music you needed to hear when you were younger?
Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. Totally. Especially with this EP. Growing up, for me Gwen Stefani was my fucking icon. I just loved seeing such a bad ass empowering woman say whatever was on her mind, dressing how she wanted and being whoever she wanted to be. I hope that when people listen to my music, whether they relate more to a song that's more hype like ‘Sad Sorry After Party’ or they really need a sad song to cry to like ‘Fake Bitch’, I hope that this EP provides that escape for people. For me, depending on whatever mood I am in, music or specific song can either elevate it or help me get out of being sad or whatever it is I need. Music does that for everyone. So I hope that out of these 5 songs, people will find some shit that can help them. 

As I mentioned before I got glued to your stripped back acoustic videos, but then you released Five Fundamentals of Sex on YouTube and I loved it. There was a line in there when you were talking about sex and gender: ‘love one another / respect one another / mind your own business/ moving on. Can you talk me through your desire for this video because I'm obsessed and I shared it around everywhere?
Oh, amazing. I mean growing up, I've always been the friend who just loves talking about sex and I'm just very open. Sometimes a little too open with certain topics of conversation. When I had the song ‘12345SEX’ come out, I was like ‘this is my perfect excuse’. I'm going to make a parody sex ed class. I grew up in Arizona, so the sex ed we had was literally our teacher telling us that abstinence is the only way, it was just bullshit. So I was like maybe if I make this into a joke sex ed class, it could actually spill some real tea, some facts. It can help out some kids who maybe don't have as an open home environment to like talk about sex or didn't get the sex ed that they actually deserve. So it was half a joke, but it was also half let's try to like remove the stigma about talking about sex. It's just a normal part of life. I even got some comments from people and kids commenting ‘I know this is a joke, but I learned more from watching this stupid fucking video than I learned from my parents having the sex talk with me or from going to sex ed in school’. So I was like, ‘okay, this is kind of worth it’. It was very fun to make.

I think it is totally worth it. You're clearly the voice everyone needed to hear growing up. There's huge female empowerment that comes there, particularly when you talk about the importance of and removing the stigma of female masturbation. You know what I mean? We didn't hear that at all growing up. How important is it within your own career trajectory as a performer to support women, and shall we say, educate within the industry with the means that you have?
That to me is just like everything. Now that I have this platform as an artist, people care about my music. If I can get them to care about what I have to say, I can use that  to empower others, especially women. I feel in music there's a lack of female writers. There's a lack of female producers. There's also just a lack of women being able to just be unapologetically themselves and say whatever the fuck they want without backlash. There's this new wave of women artists - I mean the biggest song in the world is ‘Wet Ass Pussy’ (Cardi B feat Megan Thee Stallion) - there's this wave that's so bad ass and so empowering where women are just doing whatever they want and they're running shit. I am trying my best to be a part of that wave and use my platform for good. It's the best when all the DMs and comments are people saying your music makes me feel so bad ass and so empowered. I'm like werk. That's exactly why I make it, so I'm trying to do my part for sure. 

Oh, and tenfold. it's so wonderful to hear. And lastly, before I leave you, what is on the horizon for you?
I'm still writing. Even though the EP is down, I'm writing every day. There'll be a bunch of content surrounding the EP where I'll be doing the stripped back versions of each of the tracks and we have music videos coming out. And then hopefully, as soon as it is safe to do so, some touring will happen again. I cannot wait to get back on the road. I feel like the second people can be back at a live show together, everyone's just going to be so thankful to be there and it's going to be hype as fuck. Hopefully I can get back to that soon.

Young Life Crisis is out now via Sony Music Australia. You can download and stream here.

To keep up with all things UPSAHL you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.