Taylor Rogers – Dayback

Multi-faceted musician, philosopher and activist Taylor Rogers returns today with new single/video “Dayback”, a patient and immersive experience that asks about the alien parts of self.

For Rogers, this is no small task. “I want to think about what it means to embrace those parts, so that we can embrace them in others, too.”

With rich textures of layered vocals, guitars, and electronic tones drawing influence from folk music and ambient electronica, “Dayback” showcases Rogers’ work as gentle yet refusing easy categorization. Collaboration is at the heart of this work, featuring five fellow Chicagoans. Tom Harts is on backing vocals and percussion, and on mixing and mastering. The video was shot and directed by Sean Comerford, and movement artists Madeline Klein and Jackie Pitts improv as Alien #1 and Alien #2 respectively.

In recent years, Rogers collaboration with Lillian Walker focused on a feature-length philosophical ‘music film,’ NOA, which was released over a four-year period—beginning with a short music video in 2017, followed by the full-length NOA album in 2019, and completed with the feature-length NOA: a music film release in 2021. NOA sprawled as a multi-year meditative project that, while melody-centric and accessible to casual music fans, pushed against boundaries of pop and folk music formats.

“Dayback” heralds the first glimpse of Rogers’ next music film. “In this second film, we’re going to world-travel through inner-landscapes of darkness and doubt, finding light and hope in strange places,” they explain.

She continues: “At a time when academic and artistic freedom is being threatened, I’m eager to continue creating works which transmit feelings of empathy and hope across the gulf of human differences we face.”

#emotionalphilospher