Meet the cowboy-turned-popstar making music about love, but not as you know it
Welcome to CHEW THE FAT WITH…, our long-form profile series where we invite you to sit down with fashion’s next generation as they dig deep into their memories. To chew some fat - defined as an informal conversation brimming with small talk - we encourage you to pull up a chair and take a big old bite as we spill the tea on the life and work of the industry’s need-to-knows. Just remember to mop up after yourself.
Possibly the next best thing to come out of Nashville since TAYLOR SWIFT (has anyone else been listening to Taylor’s Version this week?), Zach Taylor - no pun intended - is the soulful artist-cum-cowboy popstar of our wildest dreams. Going by the moniker of DREAMER BOY, the 24-year-old rising star is an infectious bubble of energy and boy-next-door charm, a conscious Gen Z-er whose optimism is palpable even on our Zoom call from across the Atlantic.
Following his successful debut album, Love, Nostalgia, which was a series of songs filled with dreams of good intentions and hope underneath every lilting guitar line, All The Ways We Are Together, released on Thursday in time for Earth Day, is a natural progression for the singer. An intimate and personal exploration of his sprawling, interdependent vision of love, it’s a timely piece of work in what has been an unprecedented year of which we are only now seeing the end of (finger’s crossed).
Ahead of the album’s release, we jumped on a video call with Taylor from his home on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by trees and wildlife, to discuss everything from his inspirations, style and art, to the importance of authenticity and his definitions of love.
Jeffrey Thomson: Where did the name Dreamer Boy come from? Who is he?
Dreamer Boy: The moniker comes from a place of like, how I see my peers and myself, and maybe even just how I think I've always been as a person, you know, optimistic. When I was coming up with the name, I wanted it to be like a mirror back to the audience. Hopefully people are like, ‘Oh, I can be a dreamer, too.’ The name also allowed me, within the project, to be able to extract parts of myself in more exaggerated ways. I guess it’s like what I would consider my ideal self, but that doesn't necessarily always have to be a positive thing. Sometimes I want to extract the challenges I go through or the negative sides of life and put a microscope on that. The name just kind of comes from how I feel like I've always been as a person since I was a kid, you know? It’s like getting back to that pure self, who you were as a child.
JT: I heard you were inspired a lot by your grandma’s singing when you were younger, too?
DB: Absolutely. I think I come from a family of like, a bunch of diverse backgrounds and occupations. But they all encouraged me in different ways. My grandma was someone who just lit up a room, and she could sing and she could entertain and she could be like, you know, the person that you want at your party. My dad's been a professor pretty much my whole life, and him and my mum inspire me in ways to sort of like, connect with people.
JT: It’s interesting because a lot of kids aren’t taken seriously when they want to go into the creative fields. Did you ever face any challenges, or have any moments where you thought, ‘maybe this isn’t right for me?’
DB: For sure. In the eyes of our society, and especially in American culture but all over the world too, it’s venturing out and chasing something that doesn’t have a guaranteed future. But I think the idea of the future being uncertain has never really scared me; it’s always excited me. So I’m happy that I’m wired that way and that the people who raised me, like my parents, grandparents and friends have all been supportive. But I do have those thoughts [and doubts], I guess. But I have things that I can point to that sort of affirm this artistic journey for me. And those can be small things, or they can be big things. I mean, it could be like 100 people listened to my song or a million people listened to my song. And so for me, it's always been, whether small or large, just like the gratitude for the whole journey. This is just my day-to-day, what I want to do with my life. I feel like that's what we deserve on this Earth, and that we shouldn't run from what we love even if it seems risky or that there's not a concrete future.
JT: Love comes up quite a lot in your music, as well as in what you’ve just spoken about. What is love to you?
*long pause*
DB: I think in relationships, just to put a microscope on this one aspect of love, it’s about seeing other people, and about empathy. Love is just something that is always there for us to tap into, and it’s never as far away as we think it is. For me, love can be an action but it can also be like a surrounding sort of energy that I guess, at any time in life, you can tune into that frequency and have it propel you to love others rather than to just love yourself. And I think sometimes we all need that reminder that it’s literally right there in front of us, you know? Always. There are so many different forms that love exists in, and it’s exciting to just see it in all of our lives, how it pops up like a little flower here and there.
JT: What is the greatest love story you’ve ever heard?
DB: Oh, wow. Well, that’s a good question…
*another pause*
DB: I think… I’m a real softy for parental love. And even though I’m not a parent yet, I feel like that type of love is just so insane to me. Whenever I think about the idea of like, the way that a parent can love a child, that just sort of blows my mind. It’s the sacrifice, I guess. And then on the romantic side of things… I think sometimes the love stories that we romanticise are the ones that always fail at the end. For some reason we like the movies where they're in love, but they can never be for whatever reason and then they end up going their separate ways. I think that's a reflection of how we move through the world, like how I'm interacting with you right now. It’s like, we're here right now and we can show each other love. But then [after the Zoom], we're on our way back to our separate worlds, you know? That was not even like, an answer to your question haha.
JT: I think love is very hard to define and tell at the same time… So the new album, All The Ways We Are Together, comes out on Earth Day. What made you choose this date to release it?
DB: It just felt, on a more surface level, like a symbol and an image that was tied to the album’s world. I never really thought about what day we were going to release it on until recently and then it kind of just worked out that way. Obviously, it just made so much sense. With all the craziness of the last year, it just feels like a match made in heaven, so I’m super excited for that. And I think as an artist you kind of get giddy over stuff like that, when it literally lines up perfectly.
JT: Do you have a favourite song off the new album?
DB: I think my favourite song, or songs if I could pair these two together are the intro and outro which are All The Ways We Are Together and All Or Nothing. The intro kind of retracts you into a prison that is like the whole album, and then the outro is you just being pulled out of it, with all these new artefacts, and then it’s back to reality.
JT: As a young creative, often the jobs all end up on you. From the sound to the artwork, designs, style...you can end up juggling like seven jobs in one. How do you navigate that? Who do you have around you that you work with?
DB: I have a team that is really close knit, we’re all really close friends. I’ve just been finding the balance because I am someone who likes to lead the vision for it. So I do like to have control but then there is a beauty in giving your team the freedom for them to shine and all the different ways that they know to do that. And like you said, it’s like juggling, you know? I’m putting on my songwriting hat today, and then tomorrow I’m putting on my director hat. I think I’ve found a lot more peace in just like, letting go, but knowing that my team and everything that we’ve worked on is just building up on itself. Like with Adam, my creative partner who would do the visual aspects: me and him have developed a relationship to the point where I can trust him and then the process can be more free.
JT: How would you describe your style in three words?
DB: This is gonna sound like I’m giving myself too much credit, but this is what I go for, okay? Not necessarily what I pull off. I want my style to be timeless, almost like character driven. Does that make sense? My biggest inspiration style wise is usually movie characters, and I guess in that way it's identifiable, like having consistent things that I like to wear all the time. My favourite shoe is the Nike Cortez and I wear these every day, I love the idea of it just being, ‘this is the shoe that I’ve claimed’. And then I guess the third word… hopefully like, utility. I hope that I could, ya know, play basketball and then go to a photoshoot in the same suit, ya know?
JT: Timeless, identifiable, utility. Any last words you’d like to add? Any advice to other musicians trying to break into the creative industry?
DB: I think to just have fun and take any of the pressure away from what you’re doing. At the end of the day, nothing outside of what you’re doing matters. Focus on what you love to make and the honesty of it. Only you can do what you do, so just dive into that and don’t get too caught up in the ‘I have to do it like this to be successful, I have to get to the next level in terms of numbers.’ Focus on the work and that will open everything up from there. And good luck!
Creative direction by JEFFREY THOMSON
Photography by MORGANN EVE RUSSELL over Zoom
Featuring DREAMER BOY
Special thanks to RACHAEL CHINERY at INSIDE/OUT
Dreamer Boy wears all clothes, model’s own.