EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Tayler Holder Chats Backstage At CMA Fest

CMA Fest is always a whirlwind of incredible performances and small snatches of time with incredible artists and backstage in the media room here at Music and Tour News we were lucky to grab a few minutes with on-the-rise country artist Tayler Holder to discuss his new music, TikTok fame, and more:

So, there’s a lot going for you right now and you’ve become the most followed country artist on TikTok, how does that feel?

Yes ma’am it doesn’t feel real, to be honest. Every time they say that I’m like “That sounds fake” haha.

What’s your TikTok “secret”?

Honestly, everyone asks me about my secret or what I did and I couldn’t fu*king tell you to be honest with you. This sounds so cringy but I originally blew up from making like, well I was that quote-on-quote “hot guy” on the internet so I wasn’t doing my music or doing that stuff so it was just me being like this cringy motherfu*ker on there honestly. It ended up working.

And of course, with the music stuff you’ve had the single with Haley Mae Campell, what’s that release been like for you?

Yeah, we had ‘Over Being Over’ come out recently which was super awesome. 615 House brought it to me and I freaking fell in love with the song and I thought Haley would sound amazing on it. They sent me this demo of it and it actually only had this guy on it who was demoing it and they were like this song is super good and we’re gonna redo production and you guys will be on the vocal and all that stuff and I was like “I actually really fu*k with this song you know, it’s a really dope song and I would love to be a part of it”. They gave me options to pick from for who I would want to sing it with and I just thought that Haley would sound amazing on it and she did. So I was like “I’d love to do it with her”.

Have you guys played the song live together yet?

We actually have not. We’ve talked about it but we haven’t done it yet.

You’re obviously back at CMA Fest which is your second time here, how’s the experience compare?

It’s amazing! I didn’t have my own set [last year], I came out and played with one of my good friends Reyna Roberts, we have a song together as well so we came out and did that song so it was really cool.

And you have a new single that’s just come out?

I do! I have a new single called ‘Time In This Truck’ out on June 30th. This is like my new step into the new music that I have coming out. I have a new EP that’s following up shortly after that. We might put out one more single before the EP but we got six new songs coming out on that so this is kind of like the lead-up to it. We haven’t released music in about five months because we’ve been working on it. We were releasing music quite a bit and then I was like “You know I want to take a step back for a second and work on some like really great music”. I’m out in Nashville now so I want to get with some really awesome writers and find the right songs and not just put out music.

When you’re writing new music where do you look to for inspiration?

I write a lot! There are some days when we go in there and it’s just like “Okay, what does everyone want to write about? Let’s just write about something”. But a lot of the stuff I write about is from real moments that I’m going through in my life and stuff like that.

Who have you worked with on this new project?

This new project we have a bunch of new writers on it that I’ve worked with. Ben Williams, Andy Sheridan, Josh Miranda and just a lot of awesome people.

Amazing! Would you like to work with any UK acts/writers at some point?

I would love to work with UK acts. I did do that TikTok video with Conor Maynard where we did that singing-off thing together which was really awesome. Another artist out there that I used to be really good friends with was HRVY but I haven’t had a chance to really work with anybody out there. But we just had an interview [at CMA Fest] with some other guys from the UK and I was just telling them that I’d love to get out there. I’ve never been, I’ve been everywhere but the UK haha.

Do you have any tour plans lined up at the moment?

Yeah, the first tour I’m going on, I’m opening up for my good friend Dylan Scott, we’re going on tour this fall and I think we’re on the road from the beginning of October to the beginning of December so we’re out there for a while having some fun. We’ve got around 15 shows so I’m excited.

One last question for you, what would be your message to your UK fans?

It’s so funny cos I don’t even know how known I am over there right cos I’ve never been there but for anyone who supports me thank you so much and if you guys love country music pay attention to all my socials I have a lot of awesome stuff coming out really, really soon.

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