Sue Bonzell: She has had over a million streams on her new song. I’m excited to introduce you to Dani Taylor. Hey, Dani.
Dani Taylor: Nice to meet you.
Sue Bonzell: How are you today?
Dani Taylor: [crosstalk 00:00:23] I’m doing great. How are you?
Sue Bonzell: I’m good. So where are you? I know you’re in your car, but where are you?
Dani Taylor: I have to go to a tack shop. I’m watching my parents’ ranch right now, and I have to go get some horse supplies and horse feed. So yes, I am in the parking lot right now.
Sue Bonzell: So you’re a little bit of a cowgirl then?
Dani Taylor: A little bit, yes.
Sue Bonzell: A Little bit. What kind of riding do you do?
Dani Taylor: I’ve learned English and Western, but I don’t do anything fancy.
Sue Bonzell: Do you do it just for fun.
Dani Taylor: Yes. No, I really do enjoy it when it’s not 100 plus degrees out though.
Sue Bonzell: Yeah, I hear that. I hear that. And you’re in Nashville, correct?
Dani Taylor: I’m actually in Arizona right now. I’m here for…
Sue Bonzell: Oh you’re in Arizona.
Dani Taylor: Yeah. My parents are out of [crosstalk 00:01:13].
Sue Bonzell: You live in Nashville, right?
Dani Taylor: Yes.
Sue Bonzell: That’s what I thought. That’s what I thought. Here you are, doing the country music thing. I found you on TikTok. You’ve got this great new song called “Table For One”, and I absolutely fell in love with it. This is your own original song. You wrote it, performed it, and everything. Tell me about your songwriting process, and kind of how this song came about.
Dani Taylor: This song was after a little situationship breakup. It didn’t go very well. I try to be as positive as possible in my music. It’s funny enough, the hook actually came from an Instagram caption. I saw somebody’s Instagram caption and it was in my hook book for a really long time. And it wasn’t until I had this situationship and breakup did I write the song. That’s officially “Table For One Drinking For Two”, and it’s done pretty well.
Sue Bonzell: That is absolutely perfect. So tell me about the hook. I want to hear about the hook book.
Dani Taylor: Oh yeah. Every songwriter in Nashville has a hook book. It’s anything that comes up in conversation, or randomly thinking about things, or something you watch on TV that sounds good, and you write it down in your little songwriting idea book, and it’s called the hook book.
Sue Bonzell: I love that. I love that. I love that idea. It’s kind of like your journal, you kind of carry with you. That’s awesome.
Now, do you collaborate and write songs with others, or are you just doing it on your own for now?
Dani Taylor: No, I collaborate with others. I actually wrote “Table For One Drinking For Two” with Will Rambeaux and Sherrie Austin.
Sue Bonzell: Oh, awesome. Very good. Very good.
So now you’re into the country. How did you get into country music? Were you raised on country?
Dani Taylor: I was not raised on country music. I was actually raised on a variety of things. Celtic music, classical, Spanish guitar, a bunch of 90s alternative rock, reggae. My dad loves reggae. So if you pull up Bob Marley, I will know every single lyric without trying and all the melodies. I can’t stomach it anymore. It gets old after a hundredth like car ride out in the desert, listening to Bob Marley on repeat.
I never listened to country music. I listened to a little bit in high school. I went to a private school in Michigan for 4 years, and Michigan does have a really big country fan base. I mostly listened to pop, EDM and, rap music when I was in high school, and I did listen to a few country songs. Growing up I did listen to the Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood, but I wasn’t really like into country. It wasn’t my thing until after a breakup in college. I discovered Patsy Cline. I just went down the rabbit hole. That is how I got into country music.
Sue Bonzell: You have a bad breakup and country music to the rescue is really what it’s all about, right?
Dani Taylor: Exactly.
Sue Bonzell: Patsy Cline being one of the main influences, I’m guessing, early on, who are your other current country music influences?
Dani Taylor: Gosh, there’s so many artists right now, too. Early on, well, in the middle, I guess Bailey Bryan, before she officially moved over to pop music, she was a really big influence of mine. She still is. I love her music, pop and country. I love Kacey Musgraves “Golden Hour”. I really love that EP a lot. They kind of influenced me, definitely to try to find interesting hooks and something that makes you go, “Oh. Oh, okay,” you know? They definitely influenced me to try to find good melodies and interesting hooks.
Sue Bonzell: It’s like, “Oh, I get it. Yeah, I get it. Oh, that’s good. I like that. I like that.”
If you could open for any country star, who would you open for? Big dreams right now.
Dani Taylor: Oh my gosh. Probably Carrie Underwood. That’s a childhood dream of mine.
Sue Bonzell: I think there’s a lot of girls that would like to open for Carrie Underwood. I love that.
I found you on TikTok. How’s the TikTok experience going for you?
Dani Taylor: It has its ups and downs for sure. The algorithm is a little different and it doesn’t make a lot of sense and it seems to be constantly changing. I created a little plan for the summer to really try to go at it, and I’m hoping it works. Wish me luck. But it does seem to do well. It’s funny, it’s always the videos that you don’t spend time on that do the best. And I took 30 seconds to make a video for my song, “Midnight Cowgirl”, asking people with horses, because at the time I didn’t have access to a horse, and I asked people to ride their horse to my song. It has almost a thousand videos now.
Sue Bonzell: That’s awesome.
Dani Taylor: Power of TikTok.
Sue Bonzell: It is the power of TikTok. I mean, honestly. So your song, “Table For One Drinking For Two”, we’re going to take a look at the video right now, so you guys can hear what she’s talking about and you guys are going to love this song.
Dani Taylor: (Singing)
Sue Bonzell: Okay. I love that video. Was it real alcohol in all the drinks?
Dani Taylor: No, no. I wouldn’t have been able to last more than five minutes. I’m such a lightweight.
Sue Bonzell: That was a lot of drinks. It was a lot of drinks.
Dani Taylor: I suppose [crosstalk 00:10:42] the idea of it was supposed to me switching the outfits. It was to showcase this is every Friday or Saturday night, me going out on my own, not just one night. Obviously.
Sue Bonzell: That would be a very dangerous night. How long did it take you guys to film the video?
Dani Taylor: I think it was about 6 hours. It was really hard for the crew to go the perfect speed. It was tracks laid around a table that I was sitting at that just goes around in a circle. They had to push it, so it was a lot about timing, and then making sure the server was in and out, and all the people that were in and out of it came in at the right times. That was really hard to do. But we got the hang of it.
Sue Bonzell: That’s awesome. It’s a great video. I love it.
We were talking about drinking. As you may know, I’m here in wine country and we drink a lot of wine out here. Do you like wine? Do you drink wine?
Dani Taylor: Oh, I do. I do. I don’t like reds and which funny because that’s all my parents drink. [crosstalk 00:11:55] I used to really like sweet wines, but recently my taste buds have been changing. I don’t like dry. I like, I guess it’s called full-bodied, I think. I like full-bodied.
Sue Bonzell: Do you like a good chardonnay? [crosstalk 00:12:13]
Dani Taylor: Pinot Grigios are [crosstalk 00:12:16] what I’ve been going after. There’s one wine that I really like right now it’s called Orvieto, and I think that’s a mix. It’s a cheap wine, but it’s easy. It goes with everything.
Sue Bonzell: Okay, good. I found a fellow wine drinker. I’m glad to hear that. I support the wine industry in a big way out here. Like really, really big. We get a fair amount of drinking out here.
I got a couple more questions for you. What is the most useless talent that you have?
Dani Taylor: Oh my gosh. My useless talent? I don’t believe there’s such thing as useless talent. I don’t have anything random or weird that I can do. I guess what’s useless now, I can do darkroom photography. It’s kind of useless. [crosstalk 00:13:08] It’s an old trade, but I learned that in high school. I took darkroom photography for three years.
Sue Bonzell: Oh, that’s awesome. That’s like old school.
Dani Taylor: It’s old school and now useless. Yes.
Sue Bonzell: Right? Nobody has a darkroom anymore. It used to be the big dream, “Oh, I’ve got a dark room in my house.” Don’t need a darkroom anymore.
Dani Taylor: Room number 13. I used to spend all my time there in the winters. It was a lot of fun.
Sue Bonzell: That’s awesome. So what is next for you, my dear? What’s happening? What do you got planned?
Dani Taylor: I have another single coming out. It’s actually in the mix right now. I was hoping to get it back today, but I’m assuming I’ll get it back next week. And then hopefully if everything goes right, it will be out in July. Just hoping.
Sue Bonzell: Do we know the name?
Dani Taylor: Oh yes. It’s called “Strangers Again.” I actually have a little sneak peek of the demo up on my TikTok.
Sue Bonzell: Okay. There you go. You’re going to have to go follow Dani Taylor on TikTok. Dani, I want to thank you so much for taking the time. I’m going to let you get to the feed store there, and make sure the horses are happy. I’ll see you next probably on TikTok.
Dani Taylor: Yes. Yes. And thank you so much for having me today.
Sue Bonzell: Awesome. Thanks a lot.
Dani Taylor: Thank you. Bye.
Sue Bonzell: Thanks for watching Cow Chair Country. I’m Sue Bonzell. Make sure you follow me on TikTok, and like and subscribe. And of course, if you have an up-and-coming country artist that you would love for me to interview, please let me know in the comments.
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