Interview with Taynee Lord
Today we’re delighted to feature Taynee Lord from Taynee Lord and the Crookes for the very first time. Taynee Lord is a name that kept popping up in my socials, so it was clear she and the band were making a great impact, while the fantastic success of her latest single certainly made the industry sit up. This week I was lucky enough to catch up with Taynee and talk about all things music:
Hi Taynee, You had amazing success with your latest single ‘No God of Mine’, shooting straight to the top of the UK iTunes country chart! Congratulations! When did you know you’d hit number one and how did it feel?
Thank you so much! It was such an amazing feeling to realise all these people had supported our music enough to make it hit number 1. When I woke up the day of the release I think we were around number 3 or 2 in the iTunes Country Charts and then as soon as I posted on socials to let people know our song was out we rocketed to number one! I can’t thank everyone enough.
‘No God of Mine’ has a fantastic edgy feel. Can you give us an insight into how the song came about?
This is kind of a funny story. I actually got the idea to the song when one day me and my best friend were talking about our past relationships and we were saying how all the guys personalities were really similar, then we realised that they ALL shared the same zodiac sign. Which totally blew my mind so I had to write a song about it. I used the Greek God ‘Zeus’ in the song as a representative for that powerful man as Zeus was seen as the God of all Gods and apparently he was quite the charmer with the ladies. It’s quite strange to have a song mention Zodiacs and Zeus but I am in love with the line No God Of Mine and knew it had to be the title.
You front Taynee Lord and the Crookes! Tell us about the band and the name of the band!
Just over a year ago I placed an advert online looking for musicians to start a band as I had written all these songs and I wanted a full band sound to go with them. I love being able to rock out on stage and for me there’s no better feeling than that. I luckily got quite a few replies and after auditioning people I finally ended up the guys and am so thankful we all get on so well like a little family and they are all incredibly talented musicians. There are 5 of us in the band Christian on guitar and slide, Rich plays the mandolin and guitar, Zach on the bass and Josh plays the drums.
The name of the band is based on a mountain by the Mendips near our hometown called ‘Crooks Peak’, Rich’s dad used to take him hiking there as a kid and we used the name Crookes as a symbol for us aiming to reach the peak/top. But we constantly get asked if the Crookes are country bandits (criminals) and if that’s where we got the idea from so I guess it works both ways haha.
Can you tell us a little about your musical journey? Did it start with singing into a hairbrush in the mirror? And which artists have inspired you?
Oh definitely, I could talk before I could walk and when I was around 3 I used to put on performances for my family, I would stand on the stairs singing Disney songs and apparently make them all cry. But I’ve always loved country music, Dolly Parton was actually the first concert I ever attended at around age 10 so she has always been a big inspiration for me. Everything about Dolly I admire from her songwriting, her charm and even her costumes. When I was younger I also listened to lots of Reba and Carrie Underwood but now I love artists like Maren Morris, Luke Combs and Brothers Osborne, I love a good meaty guitar solo on a track.
I’m always interested in songwriting. Have you got any kind of set process as to how you come up with a song?
Before I even start writing a song I like to come up with a story first about where the song is going to go and what it’s about. Is it a love song with a bad ending? If so, who is hurt, what are they feeling? And then I think about how to tell the story. My favourite thing about country music is the storytelling aspect. I almost always start off with writing 4 lines of lyrics then working out the melody on guitar to those 4 lines before moving onto the next 4 lines of lyrics and continue that way until I’ve finished the song. I’m not one to leave songs unfished, I have to finish a song before starting a new one. I can’t have lots of half written songs lying around, that would be my worst nightmare.
It’s certainly a strange time right now. How are you coping as a musician?
I’m trying to stay positive. My favourite thing is performing on stage with the band and the fact we can’t see each other or perform is so disheartening. We had lots of amazing festivals and music releases booked for the year and now everything is kind of at a stand-still. But everyone in the world is currently in the same boat so we are not alone, everyone is going through the same thing and understands. But luckily we had just finished recording before all this so at least we were able to release No God Of Mine to keep our musical spirits up.
To finish, let us know where we can find you on social media!
Thank you so much for speaking with me today. You can find our music on all platforms worldwide and you can keep up to date by following us at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tayneelord
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tayneelordmusic
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/tayneelcrookes
