Singer-songwriter Taylor Berrett is getting ready to take the world by storm. With anticipated tour dates and his first EP slated for a January or February release, 2012 is sure to be a big year for this young performer. J-14 recently chat with this rising star all about his music, favorite tracks, and hopes for the new year.

Q: How would you best describe your sound to new listeners?
Taylor Berrett: This is always the hardest question for me to answer, it's like describing to someone how you look. I guess at the core it's pop music, performed with mainly acoustic instruments, but heavily influenced by soul and blues artists of the past and R&B artists of the present. It's in the same universe of acts like John Mayer and Coldplay. 

Q: You're currently in the studio working on your first album. Where do you find inspiration from when you sit down to write a song?

Taylor:
Inspiration can come from all over. Sometimes it starts internally, from emotions I'm feeling as a result of events going on in my life, other times it's a phrase I hear that sets my mind off, and other times it just comes from the desire to tell a story, which is really what songwriting is I think. I try to mix up my approach often so that I don't get into ruts where I'm just saying the same thing in different ways, or different things in the same way. 

Q: Your first single is "Anchor Chasing." What's the story behind it?
Taylor: "Anchor Chasing" is me looking at love and wondering if maybe love is just being broken and lost in the same ways as somebody else. It's common to think that our soul mates are the people who make us feel at home, but i think mutual restlessness can define a lot of loving relationships as well.  The specific stories contained in the verses are all true, and they provided much of the inspiration behind the song. 

Q: What's the most personal track to you that you've written and what does it mean to you?
Taylor: A song I wrote recently called "Whole Heart" might be the most personal song I've ever written. I sometimes like to generalize and use lots of metaphors in songs to distance myself from them emotionally, but every line in "Whole Heart" is completely and painfully me. It's really an apology, about asking somebody to be patient with me and promising to be better at giving all of myself to her before it's too late. 

Q: What are some of your goals for 2012? What's next for you?
Taylor: I'm mostly driven by wanting to create something better than the last thing I created, so I guess I'd say that's my biggest goal for 2012 is to be better than I was in 2011. And I'd really love to reach and communicate with a much larger audience through my music, that would be really fantastic. 

Be sure to check out his YouTube channel here!

Photo Courtesy of SRP Music Group 

Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.