Julian Taylor is known for his deeply personal storytelling through music. Blending folk, Americana, soul, and rock he endeavours for the listener to learn something about human experiences different to their own.
“As I’ve gotten a little bit older, I’ve gotten a lot more direct with my storytelling,” says Taylor. “I think it just is due to experience. I think that once we’ve been around long enough, we don’t get so clouded by all the peripheral. We want to be more direct because, I guess time is of the essence, if you want to say, and I have lots of stories to tell.”
His 25-plus-year career began with a major label debut as lead vocalist and guitar player for the band Staggered Crossing, which Taylor formed with his high school friends and went on to develop a loyal following in Toronto.
“My ideas and the way that I look at the world has changed dramatically,” he says. “I think it happens with a lot of people – I would hope that that’s happened for a lot of people. Who wants to stay in the same place all the time, right?”
Taylor has won and been nominated for many awards, most recently taking home the award for Contemporary Singer of the Year at the 2026 Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Taylor’s new single Drive is about his frustration with what’s going on in the world right now.
“It’s a crazy world, and I wish that we lived in a world without borders, and I mean literally without borders, but I also mean without boxes,” he says. “I wish so much so that people were able to accept one another for
who they are, what they are, and love one another, and accept the fact that we’re the same but different, and we can all learn from our differences, not our similarities.”
The song is described as a personal plea for the sort of kindness, connection, and compassion found in Mother Nature’s unconditional love. It references the people who have inspired him – Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou, the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake, who established a “good message” moral code to help the Haudenosaunee people survive post-colonial disruption.
“All of these lessons that were set out way ahead of us, they were here. The lessons are always here, but we get too caught up in our own sort of bubble to recognize that these things are the way forward,” says Taylor.
When performing solo Taylor says he has certain way of telling stories, taking his time. When he performs with his band, which is the case in Avening this weekend, there’s always a different sort of way of approaching it, he said.
“Movement is part of our story. The band has a rhythm that has a much more infectious effect on your body. Words are one thing, and rhythm is another thing. I think they’re both part of the story,” says Taylor. “In the two Indigenous cultures that I come from, African and Mohawk, the drum is the heartbeat of Mother Earth. They tell the story, too, so it’s interesting to have a band there adding other sort of coloration to the narrative.”
Julian Taylor Band is performing at Avening Hall on Oct. 3, as part of Creemore Arts Fest. Tickets cost $55 at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m. show starts at 8 p.m.
