Just a couple weeks ago, Attia Taylor played an in-person concert for the first time since 2019. The Philly-born, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter, artist, and community organizer was headlining an intimate show at Johnny Brenda’s on the eve of her album release; the songs from her Lame-O Records debut Space Ghost sparkled forth from the speakers, swirled around the room, mesmerizing the pindrop-quiet crowd. It was a sublime performance, but also it was Taylor doing what she does best. From her early self-released projects to her outings with the psychedelic rock band Strange Parts, Taylor’s music has always created worlds in exactly this way, and drawn you into them so gently that you’re immersed before you realize.
The day after the gig — and the day the album was released — Taylor stopped by WXPN studios to perform some of Space Ghost‘s highlights for a Key Studio Session. Her synth and looper setup is extremely portable and compact, allowing Taylor to set up and play in any manner of settings, and she does it expertly. As I’ve told a lot of friends in the wake of this session and JBs show: while innumerable artists employ looping, to varying degrees of success or not, Taylor does what most other loopers think they’re doing. The way she builds songs and soundscapes — swift beats bustling, meditative lyrical koans repeating and swelling, and wordless vocal melodies interweaving with complementary synth lines — is singular and special, and it’s a treat to have it back in the world.
See, Taylor’s a very busy person. In addition to her day job at Planned Parenthood, she’s a preventative healthcare advocate for women and non-binary folks in her journalistic passion project Womanly Magazine, which has been going strong since 2017. But music was always something she intended to find her way back to, and as she discussed in this interview with WXPN’s Sean Fennell, Taylor sees Space Ghost as the greatest culmination of the creative work she’s been doing since we first began covering the music she released as a Girls Rock Philly alum a decade ago.
Watch Taylor’s Key Studio Session below, and catch her on tour over the next few weeks; she’ll be supporting Slaughter Beach, Dog at tour dates in Buffalo, Toronto, and Detroit, before headlining Space in Portland, Maine; details at her Instagram page.