- 22 hours ago
Country artist Taylor Austin Dye stops by 92.5 XTU in Philadelphia to chat with Nicole Michalik about her music, songwriting, and journey as an artist.
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00:01well hi taylor welcome hi thank y'all for having me you are such a delight i love your vibes
00:07love
00:07your outfit thank you and then when i was researching you i'm like oh my god you're a
00:12leo of course that makes a lot of sense i was like who cares about the music she did a
00:17whole
00:17tiktok about it's aries season i'm a leo and i've been surrounded by aries and i love an aries too
00:22my whole my husband's an aries my mom's an aries my best friend's an aries like
00:26they're everywhere wait my mom's an aries when's your mom's birthday april 17th mine was march 31st
00:32and then my sister-in-law like five of my closest closest friends are aries isn't that weird
00:36we attract each other i think yeah because aries aries out there aries any aries in the room
00:42no aries encourages us to be the shining stars that we are interesting yeah okay yeah yeah and we're
00:48both fire signs so there's that too true so wait is austin your middle name it is okay and so
00:54when
00:54you were on this journey of becoming a country star where you're like you wanted to do your
00:58three names like how did you decide to do taylor austin die well that's actually my birth certificate
01:04name oh okay but i was only going by taylor die for you know the first part of my career
01:09and then i
01:09moved to nashville and learned that maddie and tay her name is taylor die right and so i would show
01:15up
01:15to these rounds and they'd be like oh you're not taylor die i was like oh i am i'm sorry
01:22to disappoint
01:22you uh but i am taylor die so i just started going by taylor austin die to avoid any further
01:29confusion that is like what are the odds of that though it's very strange yeah by the way that's
01:34really not a common name i know i know it has to be short for something right like your ancestors
01:39they probably chopped it at some point i have no idea have you ever met her no okay well you
01:44guys
01:44need to do like a tiktok or an instagram reel together do you know what i mean taylor died
01:48times two yes like i think that maybe a song together how fun would that be i guess we would
01:53have to include maddie too that would only be true or maybe she's like i'll take the day off
01:57let the two tailors have it um obviously you're a little under the weather so i do appreciate you
02:01being here and um i think that it's important to talk about like what is that like as a singer
02:07as a songwriter as an artist where you're promoting yourself and then you get how do you muster the
02:12energy to just fight through she's got pony up and do it yeah i mean there's really you know um
02:19i
02:19wish i could sing for y'all i'm so sorry that i can't but we've been on the road counting
02:24crs five
02:25weeks now for radio tour and you know it was bound to happen at some point i'm really diligent about
02:30my vitamins and getting my sleep and everything but it just got me it finally got me listen mother
02:35nature sometimes just says you know what i'm biting you today ron white says they caught the
02:40tater exactly caught the tater so let's talk a little bit about your background and you're from
02:46kentucky and i heard a story that you ran moonshine like that literally seems like something out of
02:54a movie and that's like your real life because so could you talk a little bit about your background
02:58and just like if people don't know what us here in the northeast in philly i don't think a lot
03:03of
03:03people well we did have prohibition here so maybe people do know how to actually run moonshine now
03:07that i'm thinking about it so i grew up on a 300 acre tobacco farm and we grew tobacco and
03:14all kinds
03:14of vegetables and some other stuff and of course we made moonshine we had a bunch of steels up in
03:20the
03:20and in the garage and when i went off to college um i would come home and visit every weekend
03:27and all
03:28my friends would say taylor are you going home we'd like to put in an order and so they'd say
03:32you know
03:32i want a quart of apple pie a quart of strawberry a quart of peach or whatever so i would
03:37go home
03:38in my kia soul mind you and in the back there's a part where you lift up and there's a
03:43spare tar
03:43and i would line all around that tar with quarts of moonshine close it back and sell it for 20
03:51dollars a quart because who would suspect me you know to sell moonshine out of a kia so i had
03:57a good
03:57little side hustle going on for a while and then my papa would let me keep the money um to
04:01eat on
04:02for the week that is awesome and was i'm assuming it was delicious right do you know how to make
04:08it
04:08oh yeah i was very involved with the whole thing that's so cool i really do feel like this could
04:13be
04:13a new show on paramount plus i mean really like it almost yeah i think almost like breaking bad but
04:19like less drama we could do it with like singers so when did you know that you could sing when
04:25did
04:25you know that you were a songwriter when did that come about so when i was five years old i
04:30just
04:30started kindergarten and i had severe like attachment issues to my mom i had anxiety really
04:36bad so i would literally cry all day every day in kindergarten and one day this man came around
04:42with a guitar and he sat us around in a circle he was the artist in residence and he played
04:48puff the
04:48magic dragon for us excuse me and i remember going home that day and telling my mom i really like
04:55mr wilson i'd really like to play the guitar and she was like anything to get you to stop crying
04:59all day so she signed me up for lessons the next day um he didn't have a guitar that was
05:04small
05:05enough to fit me so i started out with a fiddle oh my god cute and then from there i
05:09played this
05:09variety show in eastern kentucky every weekend it was called the rent fro valley barn dance
05:14and it's kind of like a miniature opry they had like a house band and they had variety perfect for
05:19the tv show we're gonna create and i technically started professionally playing music when i was just
05:23five years old getting paid and everything and i would go there every weekend i would sing
05:28play the fiddle and clog all at the same time what you're a clogger too it's my party trick
05:34wow that's so cool and that's kind of how it all started and i always knew that i wanted to
05:40be
05:40you know i've always just known being on stage so as you know i've never really had a backup plan
05:45and so did you you just knew how to sing you just were blessed with the ability to play and
05:50sing
05:52yeah i learned by ear too the whole time so it was very interesting i never actually learned how to
05:56read sheet music until i got to college which was an interesting ride because i studied opera
06:01yeah in college and german right german so what made you decide to do that um i just liked it
06:08i
06:08thought it was super interesting um i had spanish in high school but my high school was
06:15we didn't really learn a lot if you catch my vibe so i couldn't really test into the first spanish
06:20that i would have been required to take so i was like i'll just take german and i ended up
06:23falling in love with it are you fluent um you know i used to be really really good but that
06:28was
06:28like 10 years ago so where did you go to college georgetown college awesome i bet you if you went
06:33to germany now though you'd probably still understand yeah i mean i think i could i could get around
06:37so then when did the nashville journey start so after i graduated college i always knew i wanted to
06:43move to nashville it wasn't like a if it was more like a win so when i graduated i got
06:49a job working
06:49in radio actually i had a drive time show every day from 3 to 6 p.m i worked in
06:55sales and i did
06:57their graphic design so um i loved that it was a small um just family-owned station in central
07:04kentucky we all do those jobs now too yeah it was good i loved it i always say if i
07:11wasn't doing this
07:11i would definitely be in radio because i love it so much and i saved up enough money and then
07:15i moved
07:16to nashville in 2018 wow and so what has the process of been doing the albums doing the song
07:23you obviously have had a lot of success on tiktok you have almost a million followers that is massive
07:27thank you and um you're really good at the social media part too and that's just a part of being
07:33an
07:34artist now in in 2026 so like what has that journey been like writing the album writing songs and then
07:39blowing up on social media and now here you are well the social media thing came as pretty much an
07:45accident because i was working on broadway from 2018 to 2020 and then of course covid happened
07:51and i lost all my gigs on broadway because all the bars shut down yeah so i had no other
07:56way to
07:56play music or you know everyone was just kind of doing their thing and so i started posting on tiktok
08:02original stuff and just going live two or three times a week and then i started getting all this
08:06really like organic grassroots following from that and a lot of those people are obviously still
08:12around today and they've been there you know six years now which has been incredible and it's just
08:16ever growing and um you know it it's a blessing in disguise you know i know social media a lot
08:23of
08:23people say oh that doesn't even count but uh i wouldn't be able to reach the people that i've
08:28reached at this point in my career without it a hundred percent and your fans are called the writer
08:32dies d-y-e like gene yeah did you come up with that well i gave him two options um
08:37it was either
08:38gonna be the diehards or the writer dies and i actually put up a poll and let them vote and
08:43they picked writer dies love a pun steven wilson jr was here last week and he was like i'm the
08:47king
08:47of puns i'm like well we have another pun queen right so we're gonna play some music and if you
08:54don't mind if you can just talk a little bit about each song before we play it really excited to
08:58hear
08:58your stuff obviously if people don't follow you in the socials thank you for coming here and hanging
09:03out and let's hear some of your music all right so i think the first one andy andy you're back
09:07there gonna play damn good day huh all right so this song uh we this was my first release with
09:12the red street records and i thank them for letting me put this out as my first song because it
09:17is not
09:17radio friendly but it is very fun and it's very me and it's one of the best songs that you
09:23know it
09:24goes over so well live and you'll see um why and when you hear it is the video coming up
09:29or no
09:29just a song okay we'll go watch the video it's it's also very fun but it's called damn good day
09:34to be a bitch that's like such a good song for people in philly when you're like flipping the bird
09:43i'm like i feel that i feel that as a philly girl driving on the schuylkill that was so fun
09:48yeah so wait what what inspired was there one thing that inspired you to write that
09:52no it's just an encapsulation of you know i just love like girl power songs and you'll you'll see
09:58that and you know just kind of reclaiming that word love it i love it i love they talk about
10:03moon in retrograde too retrograde's over by the way mercury is not in retrograde anymore although
10:07there's a pink moon tonight so i thought it was last night i think it was it last night oh
10:12was it
10:12well hopefully did you manifest okay she did something that's our that's our raver okay um next song
10:23okay um the next song is is it bad drunk no little green men okay um so i had this
10:33idea for a song i
10:34just had this title little green men and you know you think of the little green army men
10:40and i wanted to write a song for the women in the military and i thought you know how could
10:45i spend this
10:46to make it for the women because there are hardly any songs about our female military members and so
10:53this is kind of a way to honor them and through this song i've gotten so many opportunities to work
10:58with like canines for warriors and they played it at arlington this past no uh veterans day so it's
11:05just had a lot of impact and then in the music video a bunch of my writer dies sent in
11:11pictures from
11:12their time in the service and all those pictures are included on the music video oh that's awesome
11:16so we have a really incredible women's veteran center here in philly that i've been involved with
11:20perfect yeah so hopefully we if you arrange something we'd love for you to come back um it's
11:25incredible organization it's separate from i mean it's in conjunction with but they have their own
11:30building because there's so much and people don't talk enough about what women experience there's so
11:35many single moms in the military and um i love this this is so cool okay let's hear it andy
11:43oh my god that's so good thank you thank you i'm gonna send it to the women's veteran center
11:50please do my contact there i think that well andy we'll talk after this i feel like that'd be
11:55something really cool to do um awesome that was so beautiful i love that and i do like when i
12:01met
12:01them you know i started working with them like 10 years ago and they said you know most people when
12:07they think of a veteran they think of somebody in the military they think of like mark walberg you
12:10know what i mean like they never think of these women who put themselves and and then when you add
12:14like the mother aspect to it and a lot of single moms and just what women especially in the military
12:20deal with and it just was so eye-opening to me and it's just been an incredible organization to be
12:24a
12:24part of and so the fact that like you recognize that i wrote a song about it like it's making
12:28me
12:28emotional so it's awesome i'd love to be a part of that that sounds awesome so cool um i'm such
12:32a girl power
12:33girl too so love it um all right what's the next one the next one is unreleased not even teased
12:40on
12:40socials yet so y'all are getting a special sneak thank you um it's called bad drunk and it's just
12:47about uh well you'll hear every song is so damn catchy i love it that's the goal yes so good
12:58every beat i'm
12:59okay it's like that gif where it's like the head the head tail um okay so this is your single
13:04we're
13:05gonna hear now yes um so talk a little bit about that take your time i'm so sorry oh my
13:11goodness
13:11please do not the fact that you're here do not apologize okay so this song is when i went to
13:18the
13:18studio that day i had just bought a car off facebook marketplace it was a 328 i bmw hardtop convertible
13:27and i was stoked and it only took cds this is after the kia soul yes okay okay important to
13:34note
13:34okay no more no more kia souls okay um but i had um dug out my old cd case and
13:40i put in shania twain
13:42come on over and i was listening to that album on the way to my right and i got there
13:47and they're like
13:47what do you feel and i was like man i forget how much shania twain how high energy how fun
13:52it is
13:53just to listen to how good it makes you feel you just want to make you roll your windows down
13:56like
13:56that's the ultimate top down album yeah and so i was like i want to do something kind of like
14:02that
14:02but also make it kind of like heavy guitar and heavy drums like nickelback and he looked at me he
14:09was
14:09like i think i know what you're saying but i'm not really sure so um that is how this song
14:15was born
14:16and it's um called i don't need a man for that and i'll tell you a quick story um i've
14:21been married
14:21twice i don't make great decisions and my first marriage ended and i can tell you the moment that
14:27i knew that i wanted to get a divorce was when i had our push lawnmower turned over on its
14:33side in
14:33the backyard working on it and he's just standing there with his hands on his hips looking at me
14:38and i was like what do i even need a man for at this point you know what i mean
14:41like what was his sign
14:44he was a scorpio oh yeah sorry scorpio sorry um yes yeah so anyway i don't need a man for
14:52that this
14:52is the new single impacted uh on monday and so we're really excited about this one really before
14:58we play it really quick i have a question so because you have been an artist for so long
15:02do you have that idea of like how you want the song to sound before the lyrics or do you
15:09do the
15:09lyrics and then you think this is how i want because i always find that's one of my favorite
15:12questions to ask artists of like do you come up with the rhythm first and how what is that process
15:17like for you well when i had told dan is his name the track guy that we were writing with
15:22and if you
15:22don't know what track guy is it's basically he sits on the computer and does all the instruments while
15:28me and the other guy kind of write the song so the track guy i told him i wanted shana
15:32twain
15:32nickelback heavy weird key modulations and he was like okay so he just started working on that
15:37and he you know 10 minutes goes by and he's got a something to kind of go by yeah and
15:42then from
15:42there we build the whole song out and you just knew in your head of how you wanted it to
15:46sound
15:46so cool i love it hit it andy hit it i don't need a man for that so good if
15:57that doesn't scream i'm a
15:58leo song i love it really though it's so weird that because i talked about this on the air yesterday
16:03so i had to get my car inspected and get oil changed like i love being a modern woman except
16:07for my car like if i could just have a man that could take care of that but i was
16:11like i did it
16:12myself yesterday did it myself that's so good thank you i love all the high energy stuff so thank you
16:18again for being here tell everybody how to find you on the socials if they're not already super easy
16:23taylor austin died just like it is there all one word instagram tiktok facebook christian mingle
16:29farmers only plenty of fish hit me up on there i love it um hopefully we'll be back see you
16:35back
16:36in philly soon and hopefully i can sing next time i'm here uh feel better and thank you for being
16:41here everybody thank y'all for having me taylor
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