UPSAHL: ANGEL SLAYYYYYER

MERDE: Who is UPSAHL?

UPSAHL: UPSAHL is my last name; my first name is Taylor. When I was graduating high school and moving to LA to pursue music, I was like, “there can only be one Taylor, and that is miss Swift.” I was looking for an artist name, and nothing was sticking, so I decided to go by my last name - so UPSAHL is almost an ode to my family and their influence on my music.

MERDE: How did you grow up? How were you introduced to music?

UPSAHL: My dad was in punk bands throughout my whole childhood, and I remember watching him do his thing and thinking ‘he’s such a rock star, I want to do that.’ We had a band room in the house with a bunch of instruments that I could just pick up as a kid. I think having access to these instruments had a major influence on me feeling supported in a very creative environment, and I owe that all to my parents. 

MERDE: Did you gravitate towards a certain instrument or sound that influenced your music now?

UPSAHL: I loved piano, and grew up playing classical piano. That’s how I learned how to write songs, from the melodies in old classical piano songs. That’s influenced a lot of my melody writing, and especially now, being in sessions and writing with people who are super talented, I can understand their language with chords because of my early experience.  

MERDE: What type of music are you inspired by? Who do you listen to?

UPSAHL: Growing up I listened to a lot of what my parents would listen to obviously, like a lot of random punk music. I think my biggest influence was Weezer, and No Doubt. Gwen Stefani was my life goal, she’s the blueprint, I love her. I remember I had this Outkast mixtape that my mom made me of just the songs that didn’t have a million curse words. I’ve always kind of had an all over the place music taste, and it’s the same nowadays, but the one I always go back to is Weezer. All their songs are so timeless. When I’m feeling burned out, or I’m having writer's block, I listen to Weezer. Radiohead is my sad girl hour, I listen to The Bends so much. When I’m happy, I usually listen to newer shit - I love House music. 

MERDE: Who’s your dream track collaborator?

UPSAHL: Doja Cat. I say it in every interview, and I’m hoping that it manifests itself.

MERDE: What does your closet look like and how would you define your personal style?

UPSAHL: Woah. Tea. I don’t know what my personal style is because I think I’m still figuring out how to not dress like an idiot. I try to break my style up by year. This year has been the year of the tracksuit. I have my normal closet, with all my clothes, and then I have a rack of whatever it is that I’m wearing that year, as an artist, for press or interviews. So I have two closets, stuff that I wear everyday to the studio, and then I have my UPSAHL closet. Deep down, I love dark leather jackets and shit, but as an artist, I like to wear some more outgoing and crazy clothes. I have to push myself out of my comfort zone when I’m embodying who UPSAHL is. 

MERDE: Do you have a style reference for this UPSAHL persona?

UPSAHL: I think watching the style evolution of Gwen Stefani was really cool. She started more in the punk, alt-rock scene and would wear the low waisted jeans and white tank top, and then she met Pharell and she started making more pop music and wearing more pop star clothes - whatever that means *laughs*. It was her evolution from punk girl to pop star that I’m always referencing on any moodboard I make. I love to smoke a little joint and make a little pinterest board.

MERDE: Tell us more about your new album and specifically the song “SLAYYYYY (Feat. Lay Bankz)”

UPSAHL: SLAYYYYY started as a joke. This whole year, putting out this album ‘THE PHX TAPES’ has been centered around a goal of not focusing on genre, or making shit make sense, just having fun. Because I’ve been in that headspace all year writing, I was in the studio one day – you’ve spent 10 minutes with me so far, you know I say ‘slay’ so much all ready, it’s really embarrassing – and I spent the whole day with these writers and I just said slay every other word. It was so bad everyone was making fun of me in the session. When we finished writing the other song, the producer said ‘we have to write a song called slay’ so we made a joke song. It was my producer Pink Slip’s idea to bring in the sick rapper Lay Bankz. I love her, and she killed a second verse on it, and it made me fall in love with the song more. I was so scared to put out a song like that because it doesn’t take itself seriously at all. I thought people were going to judge me so hard for this, but then I realized that that’s the point of putting out music, it’s to do shit that scares you a little, and is unexpected but leads to self-discovery.

MERDE: Where do you want to take your music next? 

UPSAHL: I want to do another album next year, I’ve only put out one full length album. I learned so much about not taking myself too seriously this year making ‘THE PHX TAPES’, that’s where my favorite music has come from, not caring about fitting myself into a box of one genre. I think there’s a pressure as a woman in music to make your artist project this perfectly little packaged thing that makes immediate sense to everybody. But that just isn’t the case and I’m trying to break out of that mindset as much as I can. I want next year to be a result of learning that truth while making music this year. 

Photography: Paris Mumpower @parismumpower

Styling: Kaity Whipple @kaitywhip

Makeup: Kendell Cotta @kendellcotta

Set Design: Taylor Venegas @taylor.venegas

Clothing Credit: Lidow Archive @lidowarchive

Production/Interview: Molly Apple @mollyroseapple