Tip the Artist

Artist Bio

NJ Taylor is intent on increasing her pop army. With the release of her self-titled debut EP, the Montreal singer-songwriter is doing everything possible to ensure that happens.

Her single, “So You” has racked up 130,000 collective views on YouTube views for its lyric and music videos, placed in numerous songwriting competitions, and received airplay all over the U.K., but the follow-up single “Pop Army” is the biggie. The driven young artist is leading her own charge in Canada and the U.K.

“This is a reflection of our generations / Hypnotic beats get us lost in the rhyme…It will never let you down / It will always be around…Come join the pop army,” she sings.

“It’s an homage to pop music and great pop figures. I was especially inspired by Madonna, Michael Jackson and ABBA for this song,” NJ says. Platinum award winning / top charting UK DJ Cutmore has done a remix for the track as well as the top Mexican DJ J Zuart.

Other songs on the EP range from the hopeful “Right Here”, which reflects on war, natural disasters and poverty but lets anyone in these situations know they are not alone; and the anti-bullying message “Little Girl”, inspired by NJ’s own difficult years in her youth, proving it will all be okay.

The EP was made with the help of her initial army recruits: Los Angeles-based co-writer Adien Lewis, co-producer Ghislain “Gee” Brind’Amour (Rihanna, Karl Wolf, Victoria Duffield) and arranger Shahe Sinanoglu (Karl Wolf). It was mastered by Gene Grimaldi (Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Carly Rae Jepsen, Nicki Minaj).

NJ co-writes the modern way, via Skype with collaborator Adien, who is based in California. She puts on the headphones and dials him up, where they stay connected online for hours, choosing the beat, coming up with lyrics and melodies.

“I’ve never met him,” NJ reveals. “He found me. I did an interview on a show and mentioned I was looking for collaborators and the host did a shout-out on Twitter. Adien saw that, emailed me and we started writing together.”

NJ then goes in the studio with Gee and Shahe.

Her first-ever singles, “I Don’t Care” and “So You”, received airplay in Quebec and placement in the TV show “Sex & Ethnicity”. “So You” also reached the semi-finals in multiple categories of the Unsigned Only Music Competition, the UK Songwriting Contest (2014, 2015) and Hollywood Music in Media Awards (2014, 2015). “Pop Army” made the semis of the 2015 UK Songwriting Contest.

The singer shows an uncommon determination that is necessary in this music industry age. Attending music conferences and workshops, hiring a promotions team, and entering song competitions all over the world. Her enthusiasm for the arts was always encouraged.

"My mother is a classically trained pianist. As a result, I was brought up surrounded by music,” NJ says. “Early on, I was involved in music, acting and dance amongst other things. I took jazz dance classes for few years and I studied drama throughout high school."

Her aptitude for languages, which she studied in university, is something that enables NJ to do interviews in Italian, Spanish; French and English, and could potentially lead to guest vocals in non-English-speaking markets and to translate entire songs into other languages for herself and other acts.

“Pop was always my first love,” says NJ. “It’s what inspired me to love music. It never was a question of what genre I would go into. It just happens to be commercial,” she says. “I love what pop songs talk about — not necessarily the pop electro club ones, but I like more substantial ones that have more of a story line and yet they are fun and upbeat.”

That said, an acoustic version of the EP will be out this summer.