Taylor McIntosh – Musician! Actor! Dancer!

Tony McIntosh – Video Interview

 

[00:00:00] Jeff: Hello listeners. We’ll split our country today on the show. We had the fantastic Mr. Taylor McIntosh. How’s it going, sir?

Taylor McIntosh: It’s going great. How are you

Jeff: doing Jeff? I’m doing very well. It’s a pleasure to talk with you.

Taylor McIntosh: Hey,

Jeff: I’m it’s a pleasure to meet you. So as I read up on you, I read that you’re a singer, a songwriter and a musician.

Is that correct? Yes, that’s correct. So do, are you able to remember when you first fell in love with music?

Taylor McIntosh: Yeah. The thing about well, my, my, my youth and my past is I didn’t really like music growing up. I mean, I love listening to music because everyone loves listening to music, but I really thought I was going to be an athlete.

All my brothers are athletes, so I just grew up with that kind of intent that I was going to go play college basketball. And then I hit the age of about. 16. And I don’t know why I had the urge one night to, to write a song. I had prior practice with writing, but not like actually writing a song I had, I’d enjoyed [00:01:00] literature, but I’d never tried writing a song.

So this is my first time. Yeah. I just immediately fell in love with it. I felt like it wasn’t, it was, it was kind of a natural, I mean, it wasn’t good, but it just felt so right to do. And maybe that comes from my dad. My, my dad’s also a musician and he’s a songwriter. So maybe seeing him write in and sing songs kind of.

Pushed me towards that direction.

Jeff: So I actually, I didn’t, I never, I didn’t know. Your father was also a musician. So what did your father say to you when you, when you first found out that you wanted to be music, was there any tips that he gave you? Any words of warning? Perhaps? I don’t know.

Taylor McIntosh: Yeah. He said don’t do it now.

He he was very supportive and he helped me a lot because in the beginning, It’s hard to write songs. You know, that’s why I think a lot of people don’t do it cause it’s really hard and it takes a lot of practice and he was always there, like really critiquing me. And sometimes in fact, a lot of the times I didn’t like the critiques, but ultimately he was right.

And I, I was able to learn from that and become my own writer. And now I feel [00:02:00] like we’re pretty, we’re like on par with our level of skill to where it’s not a. Student relationship like that. It’s more of a co-writing relationship if we ever write a song together.

Jeff: So, you know, I really liked that. During my day job, I’m a high school teacher.

I teach at a therapeutic high school. Thank you. And a lot of my job obviously is to handle students writing and tell them. Critique them and help them try and get better. Obviously a lot of students have and a lot of people, I think in general, have an issue with feedback that is you would say negative.

Yeah. How did you manage to kind of cross that threshold to the point where you’re okay. Handling negative feedback from your followers? What was it? Was it easy for you? Was, it was a decision that you may, how did you, how were you able to finally decide, you know, what this is worth hair and this is worth acting on,

Taylor McIntosh: you know, At first, it was not easy to handle because you want everything you do to be great.

To be honest, I want to be good at everything I’m doing. So when you get that negative [00:03:00] feedback, it can hurt a little bit, especially when you worked really hard on the song and you think you did really good and your dad has all these critiques that are actually accurate. I think that’s the part that hurt the worst is it’s just accurate.

It’s true. If I disagree with it. Critiques than I do that. I’m not gonna use it, but most of the time I would agree. And that’s the part that hurt, but ultimately it’s you just learn from it. It’s a it’s I knew that this was going to be a long process of getting better and better. So I had the mindset that I just got to keep practicing and it’s okay to not do so good on every song.

Jeff: So if you had to give like one sentence of advice to my Susan, how to deal with, with criticism, what would you tell them? And as advice,

Taylor McIntosh: I would say that even criticism that comes across as negative is actually positive because it’s helping you get better.

Jeff: All right. I like that. Thank you. Oh, that’s fantastic.

I like cycling and I must admit, even as I’m full [00:04:00] grown adult and in my forties I get I am a writer and I get negative feedback over rejection and that’s, I mean, that’s tough to deal with. I mean, it, it, it, it, it can, I, and I do have a father as well, who helps me with my writing. Who’s, you know, a writer himself and I will say, yeah, it does knock you on your ass for at least a little bit, but I like the idea that you’ve learned to pick yourself up.

Do you find, has it, is it easier to handle the more it occurred? Did you, is it something that he just because he got better, you heard it less.

Taylor McIntosh: Yeah, I would say so. I think, I think as you get better and the more critiques you get, you just get used to it. You know, the more, the more critiques, the more notes you get, you’re just going to get used to it.

And you’re going to, and you’re going to learn to develop you know, you’re gonna learn to become a sponge. Like that’s my whole goal is I want to be a sponge. So anybody, even people who aren’t musicians, musicians give me critiques. I’m, I’m absorbing that information and I’m processing it because anything could happen.

Jeff: So before he became a musician, you, you were focusing [00:05:00] on being an athlete or is that incorrect? Did you ever go, you were going down the road? Athletics for a little while.

Taylor McIntosh: Yeah, I was through middle school and the start of high school, I was very into basketball. It was like my passion at the time.

I mean, I was, I was learning how to play the piano, but I was very much into basketball in sports. That’s what I wanted to do. I mean, music kind of came out as, as, as like a curve ball. I was just like, I love this way more. Like, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Jeff: Is there a similar mindset between being a musician and being an athlete on how you pursue it?

Taylor McIntosh: You know, I, you know what I think there is, because I think that this is a very tough industry. Acting is a very tough industry. Musician, you know, being a musician is a very tough industry and basketball and sports. It’s a very tough industry. And I like having the sports mindset, which is it’s all about hard work.

And it’s about like, you know, beating, beating adversity.

Jeff: I, [00:06:00] I would agree with you a hundred percent though, as I say, so I’ve never been an athlete myself. So as a musician, did you, what captured your interest first? Cause I know, like I said, you’re a singer, you play instruments and you’re, and you’re a songwriter which aspect of music captured your interest first?

Taylor McIntosh: Songwriting songwriting, because it’s the, for me, it’s the best form of self-expression. There is you’re able to take, because it’s storytelling, it’s storytelling with lyrics and words and it’s, it’s it just captivated me. I mean, one of my most recent songs, sorry, comes too easy. Let’s let’s just a pure story.

And that’s what it is. Like if you break it down, the lyrics are buried. It’s just a story I’m telling a very specific story about being led on. By a significant other. And, and that’s what I think it’s been about for me. It’s just, songwriting has just made me obsessed.

Jeff: So, because you’re writing song lyrics, do you write, or have you [00:07:00] been, were you a writer of other things beyond songs are that you’re able to become a good songwriter or how did you become a good writer?

Taylor McIntosh: Practice number one. It’s, I’m always going to say that it’s just practice, practice, but, and it’s, and it’s studying. And I mean, studying as in studying all forms of literature and listening to songs, listening to what other artists are doing lyrically. But I did enjoy writing when I was younger. It was something that I considered a small little passion.

I didn’t do it a lot, but I was very much. Enjoyed writing English was one of my favorite classes because I loved the storytelling aspect, but I think the biggest thing, if you want to get good at songwriting or w or just anything in general is just practicing and studying others who came before

Jeff: you, who would you say were the ones that you studied the most to, to become good at

Taylor McIntosh: it?

Oh, man. You know, I think for me, Paul McCartney and John Lennon have always been some of the best choices, you know, Elton [00:08:00] John and Bernie have been. Are also great ones and Holland notes. I love listening to Holland notes. So those are like some of the old school ones. I love even going back to some of the music from the fifties where, you know, the singers, they weren’t writing the songs, but you could listen to their lyrics and see what the writers had intended is a great way of looking at it.

And someone I really respect is Bob Martin. Oh, no, it’s just kind of funny. Cause he’s a reggae artist and I don’t really do reggae, but if you buddy, nonetheless, he’s an incredible songwriter. And when you break down everything from his melodies to his lyrics, you just see the pure talent he had.

Jeff: So yeah.

So I mean, you’re, you’re, you’re going back a long ways for some, some, some great a great lyricist. I mean, I, I like that. I mean, is it important to go back to like the roots of music to like learn where you should be in music?

Taylor McIntosh: Yes, I think so, because, I mean, even today, everything stems from a, you know, a route and that route is you’d have to go down the line to find it.

I mean, there’s tons of great artists right now who do [00:09:00] really well with lyrics and music and such for me, that’s John Mayer. I love John Mayer and I think he’s someone who’s pushing that boundary, but yeah, I think it’s very important to, to look back and see all the older artists that came before us and really try to take what they did and make it our own.

Jeff: And so how about, how about who do you look towards as writers, non lyric writers, like novelist poets and anyone in those fields that you look at and they’re looking at their writing is helping you in the field of songwriting.

Taylor McIntosh: Yeah, I think I’m, I’m not, I wouldn’t call myself much of a reader. I try, but.

I try to read, but I don’t always read a lot, but I do love poetry. And I think when you’re looking at poetry you know, one, one poem I really enjoy is, well, one poet is you know, Robert Frost is a great one to look at because he has very good, you know, storytelling aspects in his poetry as well as nice metaphors.

And I think you need to take that and push it towards your own [00:10:00] music.

Jeff: I really liked that. I always tell my students who, I think there’s a lot of students who are interested in either music or some other form, right? Like to be good, to become good at one right. Type of writing. You better read every type of everything, you know, and poetry is, is, I mean, I, I imagine on some level there’s a very close link to poetry and song lyrics.

I mean, that’s something same, someone who can’t write a song, guessing

Taylor McIntosh: you could write a song. Jeff. He could write if you tried,

Jeff: thank you for the support. So I also read that you worked with a legendary producer named Tommy Meralda. Is that precedent my present it correctly? Yes, Tommy Meralda. So please, what was that experience

Taylor McIntosh: like?

I mean, Tommy. Great. That’s all I’m going to say right there. Tommy’s fantastic. I loved him so much. We’ve grown very close. I consider you know, sort of part of my family is a great man and being able to work with someone who’s been in the industry, as long as he has, has been incredible, because he’s just so talented and he’s helped me learn how to produce myself just by watching the way he works has [00:11:00] helped me learn, which I, you know, I take as a great, the gift.

Jeff: What did he teach you about music?

Taylor McIntosh: You know, it’s, he didn’t tell me anything directly because I think the best way of learning is experienced. So when I’m in the studio, I just watch and I study and you can see the, you know, I just watching the way he produces the way he moves while producing in the, in the instruments use, you know?

Cause you can see how a song’s broken down and there’s so many elements you can’t necessarily hear, but are there,

Jeff: wow. Okay. How do you like. Figuring out those elements, because I must admit, I know nothing about how to make music. I like music, but from, but I would, I be so far in the weeds with creating these, I would never know where to even start.

Taylor McIntosh: Yeah. I could break it down for you. So let’s say I’m listening to a song and I’m trying to break down the drum pattern. Let’s say it’s like, boom, boom, boom, Kat. You hear that drum pattern. But what you [00:12:00] might not notice is in your right ear at the same time, it’s a little stick going tee tee TA TA, TA, TA, TA, TA.

And you’re probably not going to register that. So the point was, I was really just trying to focus in and listen for those little details, because that really helps push the beat and make it more bouncy. You know what I mean?

Jeff: That I don’t know that I really liked that. I mean, it is such an art to making

Taylor McIntosh: music.

Yeah, it’s extremely, it’s an extreme art actually. It’s it’s a lot of work because I would say on average, when you’re making a song, there’s going to be at least 40 tracks

Jeff: 40. Wow. Okay. So when, when, when you were thinking about when you’re making your music, okay, what are you thinking in terms of an album where you are?

You’re taking it one song at a time.

Taylor McIntosh: Currently, I’ve been taking it one song at a time, whatever inspires me in the moment I go with, I think, I think until I have the desire or the level of being able to push forward an album, then I’ll be really focused on trying to make a cohesive [00:13:00] sound with multiple songs.

You know what I mean? But at the moment it’s all about, for me, it’s just one song at a time because I have, you know, I get very inspired quickly by different different things.

Jeff: And, and when you’re thinking about like, what, what hits you first for inspiration? Is it a sound that you think of, or is it. A lyric or is it a title?

Is it just a

Taylor McIntosh: concept? It’s everything, because I think that’s one thing that’s awesome about songwriting is it’s very, unformulated, it’s a lot of just anything at any moment, because I’ve written songs just off a concept, I’ve written songs, just having a title in mind and that can, you know, entitles are very powerful because you can build a whole song off of one title because it’s a story and I’ve just had it where a mask.

Chords. And then I just started humming a melody and I’m like, nah, nah, nah, nah. You know what I mean? And so it can be anything, you know, I’ve been inspired by movies before where I watch a movie and I’m like, I’m going to write a song about this movie.

Jeff: So, I mean, how do you know when you got one that [00:14:00] works?

Like, is there, is there a moment where you’re like, there’s like a light bulb, like, you know, like the cartoons are like a little light bulb pops up in your head and you’re like, boom, I got this. I mean, is there like, is there a moment when you think to yourself. This is going to be a good song or is there moments when you’re in the process of making music?

We were like, oh shit, you know what? This just doesn’t work and toss it. Is there, like, how does both

Taylor McIntosh: sides work? It’s it’s a lot like that. There’s definitely a light bulb effect because I sometimes it’s, you’ve write multiple songs to get to that one song where you’re like, this is it. This is the one because.

You have to find that special moment. I don’t remember who said this, but they say songwriting is like a wave and the point of practicing songwriting it’s just to be able to catch the wave when it comes, because waves come and spurs and you don’t know when it’s going to happen. So for me, It’s just, you know, I’ve definitely written a song and, and, and the moment I thought it was good.

And then the next day I’m like, nah, I don’t like it. It’s it’s, it’s not it. It’s just not it. So I have to scratch it. And I, and I just move on [00:15:00] and I have some songs I completely finished and I just never come back to it because I guess it didn’t have that special little something I was looking for.

Jeff: Is it hard to do that when you, when you put the effort into start writing it to put a sign and go, you know what, nah, it’s not this or not.

Taylor McIntosh: You know, it can be kind of hard. It can be sometimes frustrating, but I would say mostly it’s just part of the process and, and either way, whether you use a song or not, it can still be very you know, you can, it can be in a form, still a form of expression, whether I use it or not. So. I

Jeff: really liked that.

I mean, I guess it would be, it’s a learning process as well to have something. And I guess being good enough to know when you wrote something that isn’t up to par with the other stuff you want to write. I guess that that takes, I guess, a lot of talent and experience as well to

Taylor McIntosh: get there for

Jeff: sure.

Because I think a lot of my students sometimes think that if they make a mistake on something or something, they write. Great. They get immediately frustrated by it instead of realizing that that’s actually just [00:16:00] one more step into, I mean, if the moment you figure something you wrote, isn’t good. It means you’ve got better as a writer to recognize it.

Wasn’t what you wanted it to be.

Taylor McIntosh: Yeah. That’s a great way of looking at it when you don’t like something, you know, that you’re getting better at recognizing. What’s good and what isn’t good. So I think that’s great. And I think, and if you, if you’re ever struggling with, you know, writing something and you don’t like the way it’s the path it’s taking it’s it’s okay.

You can just stop sometimes. It’s nice just to take a break and wait for them. That spark of inspiration to hit you. And sometimes you can force it sometimes it’s just, you know, you just keep trying and trying different things until you eventually get to where it needs to be.

Jeff: So your newest single is called Claire in the Moonlight, is that correct?

Yes, that’s correct. So where did the idea for this song come from?

Taylor McIntosh: Wow. So this song is really cool. I think because. I was inspired by a very old piece of music by a famous composer [00:17:00] called Claude the Boosie. And it’s called Clair de Lune. It’s one of my family’s favorite piano songs and being a pianist myself, I grew up always listening to that.

Even my grandma, I was like, you, ain’t got to learn Clair de Lune. You got to learn how to groom. And I love that. And it was a really hard song. So it took me forever until I could finally like. And right now I have actually forgotten how to play it. So at least I played it for her once,

Jeff: but

Taylor McIntosh: I just had the idea that it’d be really cool to incorporate classical music, like an old piece, like Claire Taloon into a song somehow.

And I didn’t know how I was going to do it until in kind of a spur of the moment. Just, you know, light bulb effect, like you were saying, I had the idea of use Clair de Lune in a song. And then as I was starting to write it, I realized, no, this has to be a love song about a girl named Claire. And then, well, the thing about Claire Luna also is it translates to Moonlight.

So that’s where the Moonlight comes from. So Claire in the Moonlight and I was like, it’s a perfect love song.

Jeff: That that’s really cool. And. I [00:18:00] really like how you took an old piece of piano music and you’re able to make a moderate song out of it.

Taylor McIntosh: Yeah, that was kind of, the whole goal was just take something that’s, that’s been, you know, that’s old and has been, you know, has lived through the ages and use it now and make it modern.

Jeff: And, and it B even though it’s a, it’s a new single song that you released, it’s still part of a larger album. Is that correct?

Taylor McIntosh: No, not at the moment. I mean, I have a lot of music coming right now. I have a lot of songs, you know, tucked away that I’m getting that I’m, I’m excited to release and I don’t even think Claire in the Moonlight’s my best song.

So, you know, I’m excited to see what comes out.

Jeff: W where can our listeners hear clear

Taylor McIntosh: in the Moonlight. You can listen to Claire in the Moonlight on any streaming app. Right now that’s available. Just look up my name, Taylor Macintosh, or the song title Claire in the Moonlight.

Jeff: That’s that’s very cool. So, and how would you describe the sound to it?

Like w what type of music, what would you say you cover?

[00:19:00] Taylor McIntosh: It’s definitely a vibe for any kids out there listening. You know what I mean? It’s a vibe. It’s got a nice summer bide. It’s perfect for right now. It’s it’s just a great song. It’s got a lot of cool electric guitar. So if you’re someone who’s a fan of electric guitar, you’re going to like the song, right.

Jeff: Okay. And for old people who not exactly sure what you mean by vibe. Can you explain to us in simple, old person way

Taylor McIntosh: it’s got a groove baby. It’s got a groove, baby.

Jeff: Thank you. Thank you for speaking to me. I appreciate it. So, so you’re not only so let’s see you write music, you play music you’re a singer and also read that you’re also a dancer.

Is that correct? Did the w when did dancing come into the picture?

Taylor McIntosh: Well, I’ve been dancing my whole life. And my mom was a professional dancer. She danced for the Denver nuggets and the Denver Broncos. She even has a Superbowl ring, which is awesome. That’s cool. So she always said, she always tells me this when I sh when she [00:20:00] was younger, when I was younger, she always said that she wanted me to just be able to move.

She wanted me to be able to dance at least a little bit so that I never felt uncomfortable in those situations. Like a lot of guys can be. So if I’m at an, even just a dance with a girl, you know, I’m not nervous to go up and dance with her. But, you know, as she was showing me how to dance a little bit, I started to fall in love with it.

I just loved dancing. You know, I, I, my fondest memories of when I was a child and I’m in the kitchen, I’m like, mom teach me how to moonwalk. And she’s, we’re in our socks trying to learn how to moonwalk. And I’m like sliding across the kitchen floor. And eventually she just put me in dance class because I liked it so much.

And I eventually got into break dancing. I thought I saw some breakers and I thought it was sick. That was the coolest thing I ever saw. So I started breakdancing and I mean, the rest is history.

Jeff: Now. Now have you perform your music live?

Taylor McIntosh: Yeah, have a couple of times mainly for parties of my own and like family and friends, because over quarantine there hasn’t been any [00:21:00] live music.

It’s been all closed down. So as it starts to open up, I’m hoping that I can get in there and start performing live.

Jeff: Now do you incorporate your dancing into your performance, you think, or you’re going to.

Taylor McIntosh: Depends. I think in the beginning, probably not because I’ll have to be able to play guitar and piano while singing, so it’s going to be hard to dance.

But I think if I w as I get bigger and I grow and I’m able to have like a band behind me, yeah. I might throw in a little spots. I’ll start with some groups on, you know, while I’m singing. Why not?

Jeff: Do do you guys, you figure out at the same time you’re singing, you’re playing a guitar. You’re trying to remember the lyrics at the same time.

How’s that? I get confused there. That seems to me like I would have problems remembering to do how to do one of them properly.

Taylor McIntosh: You know, sometimes I do struggle. I mean, I’m, most of the time I can remember lyrics, but even last time I performed live, which was very recent. I was singing a really new song that I haven’t even produced yet.

And I just wanted to gauge the room on it and I forgot the [00:22:00] second verse lyrics, but luckily I was quick on my feet and I just made up whole new lyrics on the spot. I didn’t skip a beat, no one, really, no one noticed, but you know, sometimes you forget and you just gotta keep.

Jeff: So tell our listeners, us the break ninjas are,

Taylor McIntosh: well, the break dance, the break ninjas on my break dance crew.

We’re based in Las Vegas. And we you might know us most recently, we performed on world of dance, which is on NBC and for the third season. And that was a great experience. You know, I got to see J lone, Neo and Derek hos. So yeah, that was great. Right there.

Jeff: Th th th they did, they didn’t have a chance to talk with, talk with them.

Taylor McIntosh: I mean, I didn’t have a chance to talk with them. One-on-one. I mean, they gave us feedback during the show, which you can see if you watch it. And so that’s where we kind of got to talk, but no, I didn’t get to talk with any of them. One-on-one which would have been nice, but,

Jeff: so, so what makes the break ninja stand out in comparison to your competition?

[00:23:00] Taylor McIntosh: I think we’re. We’re really, I think the thing is we bring breaking, but we also bring many other elements than just breaking. Cause we’re, breakdancers, we, we use so many different forms of hip hop and different in modern dances and we’re all young. I think the coolest thing is we’re all young. We’re all basically under, you know, we’re all almost under 18.

I just turned you know, I turned 18 a year ago and most of us are really young, so it’s pretty cool. I mean, we went to France. For battle of the year and we had nine-year-olds on our team at that time. So it’s really w it’s just a bunch of kids break and it’s really cool.

Jeff: I mean, it, it’s amazing. I mean, I also, once again, I’d read that year an act, you do acting as well, so you’re acting, dancing, singing, and playing music and writing.

Where is this? Where are you finding the time to do all this? I’m exhausted

Taylor McIntosh: doing well. I don’t, I don’t go to real school. I finished all my high school and got my diploma through online school. So I have a lot of free time in the day.

[00:24:00] Jeff: Oh, well you already graduated.

Taylor McIntosh: Huh? Congratulations. I just graduated actually.

So thank you. Well done. Thank you.

Jeff: Wow. Okay. So, so you managed to do all this and graduate at a relatively early age.

Taylor McIntosh: Yes, it was, it was, it was, you know, I would like to say it was really hard, but sadly it wasn’t that hard. I found online school a lot more enjoyable than real school.

Jeff: So when, when, and as someone who let’s say you are enacting dancing music, creating is there a similar, a similar.

In the creative pursuit of all of these, there’s something that you think is similar to how it made me not necessarily the, the doing of it itself, but the creative aspect of the mall, like what is

Taylor McIntosh: similar. You know, I think there is, there’s a lot of similarities and there’s a lot of differences. And I think one thing that’s very similar with all three dance, music and acting is just the form of you [00:25:00] know, expression and maybe what you would say the release of energy, I guess, you know, your, your, every, every form is an art as an art form and you’re releasing, you know, your emotions and you’re enacting that.

But the difference is, I think is. Acting for me is very formulaic where it’s a lot of, you know, I’m following a structure to get into character. I’m falling into structure when I’m reading scripts, I’m really trying to get in the mindset. And as an actor, you don’t always have to feel something to be a good actor.

You know, you just have to portray that emotion, but with music, it’s the complete opposite. It’s, it’s very free. An unformulated can, dance can be very free and formulaic, but that can also be formulaic with like preteens and you’re trying to be super clean. So you all look the same. So

Jeff: are, are you inherently extroverted or introverted?

Taylor McIntosh: I’m a mix of both. I would like to say, I’m, I’m good at being extroverted and I can hold a conversation with others and I’m, you know, I have, I like being [00:26:00] social, but I also very much enjoy my alone time and, and just being at home and relaxing and, and not having to worry about others. So I’m kind of a mix of both.

Jeff: I mean, w w when I’ve interviewed other actors the one thing they tell me a lot. Yeah. The importance of being very present in the moment. And I wonder if that same thing about being in the moment does that we’re able to do that because of the, kind of the being in the moment as a same as when you’re performing a song or performing dance, is that a similar sense of being in that moment and did that help you become a better actor or does acting help you do the others better?

Taylor McIntosh: You know, I think the difference is sometimes it’s hard to be in the moment because you have adrenaline and you can have nerves and that can make it hard. And the reason you should be in the moment is simply just to enjoy what you’re doing, because we only have one life, you know, not every day is guaranteed.

So you just want to enjoy it and really live in that moment because [00:27:00] every moment counts. So for me, I think music when I’m performing is when I really feel I’m in the moment. But sometimes you get really nervous and you can kind of, you know, skate by without really realizing what you just did.

Jeff: Well, as my, as soon as our at a therapeutic high school, so they had to do a lot of things.

It, so when you’re dealing with, as you says, those nerves, how do you deal with it and push them?

Taylor McIntosh: You know, I would like to say I’ve been, I’m not, I don’t have anxiety, but I am somewhat of an anxious personality. So for me, nerd and, and almost everything I do, I get nervous and I think it’s been. A mix of one, understanding for me, nerves and excitement are the exact same feeling.

Just I put different thoughts into them. So I try to tell myself I’m excited and I’m not nervous as well as I just, I really just try to push through it. And that’s kind of helped me because you push through it enough times. You realize you can do anything.

Jeff: So I really liked that. I think a lot of my students need to get to that [00:28:00] point where they can push through their anxiety.

Cause they’re, they’re all very anxious kids. And I think that most important thing I think to success is pushing through your nerves. Right? I mean, I would imagine that separates those who can, from those who can it’s those who can cope with those feelings, which suck,

Taylor McIntosh: but yeah. When you get nervous, it’s very easy just to shut down and give up.

And for me, the reason I, I stopped really getting too nervous. I mean, I still get nervous when I perform, but like being able to get through it was the realization that if this is what I want to do, then I have to be able to perform. So I have to push through this, you know, there is no other choice. And I like, I like not having another choice.

I like being able to fight and push and that maybe that’s a sports mentality, but.

Jeff: Oh, I like that. So where can our listeners find your, find you as an actor, find you next in dance, find you next. Apparently next to music. Where can they find you go apparently everywhere.

Taylor McIntosh: You can look me up on, on Instagram.

My [00:29:00] handle is tailored D Macintosh on Facebook. My handle is Taylor Macintosh and on Tik talk on at Taylor D McIntosh.

Jeff: So what can and what are you working on next? What was next in line?

Taylor McIntosh: Let’s get a music video out. I think we need to get a music video out for Claire and the Moonlight. I think we have more songs coming out.

I have a lot of songs I’m releasing. I think I have a song called tattooed on my brain, which I think is coming out next. It’s going to be a completely different sound than anyone’s ever heard from me. So it’s going to be an awesome, awesome couple of months

Jeff: coming up. Well, that’s awesome. Mr.

Mackintosh was a great pleasure to talk with you. You’re apparently amazing at multiple different things. Good.

Taylor McIntosh: Thank you so much, Jeff. I had a blast. Thank you for having me on.

Jeff: It’s great. It’s a great pleasure. And I will let you know at the moment we go live. Thank

Taylor McIntosh: you so much, sir. Hey, thank you so much.

Jeff: All right.