Juneau musician Taylor Dallas Vidic has joined a lot of acts over the years. She sings with big bands, Motown groups and other singer-songwriters.
Now, after working on it for years, she’s releasing her first album, “Cat and Mouse,” in April. Her first single, “Trash Birds,” is available now on music streaming platforms. She’s also hosting an album release party on April 3 and 4.
As Vidic tells KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey, one half of the album — the cat side — is jazzy, while the other half — the mouse side — is folky.
Listen:
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity.
Yvonne Krumrey: How would you say you’ve gotten to where you are today? On the verge of releasing your first album.
Taylor Dallas Vidic: I started to write out the timeline of my musical career, and I wanted to implant the names of the dozens of people and adults that have played a role in that career.
It has just been such a showing of what can happen when a community invests in a young artist and gives them opportunities that are above their grade a bit. I’ve been very lucky to have a set of parents that were so supportive with all of those opportunities.
Yvonne Krumrey: Can you tell me, like, the story of this album, how it came to be? I know some of the tracks on it you’ve been working on for years, and I’m curious how this took form in the way it is now?
Taylor Dallas Vidic: This album is a bit of a scrapbook for me, because it does include songs that were written as far back as my early 20s.
And not all of the songs are about real people, but enough of them are that they have been moments of time in my human experience as a young person in Alaska and in southeast Alaska. A lot of the songs do center around an amount of romance, but also encompass great friendships.
But these songs are about someone, usually me, falling in and out of love in their 20s, in small communities and in a bizarre state where you will continue to have relationships with these people, and it is up to you to navigate how to do that thoughtfully and lovingly, while also acknowledging that people and relationships have seasons in your life, and sometimes those seasons need to end, and that is so hard and heartbreaking and also so beautiful that I’ve gotten to care about people like that and be cared for like that.
Yvonne Krumrey: I think one question I have is, yes, as you were putting together this album with some songs that you’ve written years ago, are there any songs that kind of changed the course of the album for you?
Taylor Dallas Vidic: Songs are still changing the course of the album for me. This has been such a process. You record the songs. Spencer Edgers arranged most of the “cat” half — the jazz half of the record.
Thank goodness Spencer arranged half the thing, because recording that half was so easy in some ways, because he did so much of the heavy lifting of turning my lyrics and my melodies into these soundscapes that I could have never come up with on my own.
The song I’m referring to is called “High.” And there’s a really sweet trumpet solo and a sweet sax solo by Spencer, and there’s just this jazz instrument conversation that happens within the song.
I just get giddy every time I hear it.
Yvonne Krumrey: Can I ask, what is the first song you wrote on the album?
Taylor Dallas Vidic: Oh my gosh, I think it’s “Muse,” which I wrote when I was 20.
I took someone ziplining when I worked for Alaska Zipline Adventures, and we had one very innocent night hanging out afterwards at the Rendezvous. And then I got to write this one song about it and it’s going to be the next single that I come out with on the 20th.
Yvonne Krumrey: Okay, I know you’ve kind of said a little bit like, who the album is about. Who is it for?
Taylor Dallas Vidic: Ooh, that’s nice. If people buy my special release vinyl, they will get to see who the album is dedicated to when they open it, but I’m gonna leave that information there.
