North Carolina-based indie folk-pop artist Carly Taich believes “surrender is divine.” After months of writer’s block-induced mania, following 15 years of navigating the “Wild West” she understands the music industry to be, she was ready to hop off the hamster wheel.
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As an independent artist, the industry requires her skill set to cover much more than music. Taich lost part of herself along the way—navigating marketing, videography, photography, and accounting.
“I was putting my energy in the wrong places, too much pressure, and I sort of imploded,” she recalls. “I got to a point, for the first time in my life, that I was willing to never write another song or get on another stage.”
Enter Taich’s new EP: It Tends To Glow.
Released December 18, the six-track concept collection illustrates the magic of letting go. Each song is a piano-driven love letter in its own right. Track-by-track, Taich lends love to everyone around her. “Love Is” opens the EP, posing the overarching questions about something both “magical and frightening.”
The title resides within “Tomatoes.” The narrator has recently lost their closest friend. Speaking directly to this departed soul, the lyrics attempt to depict a life without them. The choruses inventory all the ways life has managed to continue.
“But you’re home here / In my head / Though the walls speak / In your stead / And the moon missed the memo / So every night it tends to glow,” she laments.
From budding romance (“The Nest”) to grief-stricken loss, the artist explores the many faces of love until she eventually learns how to self-nurture.
“Red Herring” is her reckoning. Lofty vocals etch a delicate portrait of a cognizant woman. This final track is Taich’s arrival at self-love—a destination she desperately sought for many years. Writing this song, the first for this EP, broke open the floodgates that had detained her creative freedoms for so long.
The bridge reveals an intimate confession: “I just want to be understood / And good at everything.” While still personal, the sentiment overlays with the general malaise of being a millennial.
Though penned pre-pandemic, songs like “If You Want Me To” and “New Year’s Eve” feel almost serendipitous.
“If You Want Me To” is a 2020 love-letter. Asking for forgiveness, she adds that even if it’s unrequited, her love is unconditional. The lyrics detail a COVID-friendly distance from which she continues her adoration.
“I just wanna love you/ …And I can do it from over here / If you want me to,” she sings.
Set on 2019’s close, “New Year’s Eve” is the last song Taich wrote for the EP. It’s an offering of grace to a heart in need.
“The holidays can feel painful to some people, especially this year,” she explains. “It’s from the perspective of someone who’s doing well, but recognizing others’ struggles. The song is about wanting to carry their burden but recognizing you cannot feel their pain for them.”
Taich acknowledges this in the lyric line: “If there’s one thing I can do, I can always sing your blues.”
Following 2017’s Reverie, It Tends To Glow is subdued. Her full-length debut was a theatrical introduction. Reverie was birthed from a jam session. Whereas here, all six songs evolved through thoughtful meditation. Forgoing previous cinematic production choices, each component evokes thoughtful precision. Intentionality threads throughout the collection, stamping this moment in time.
“Even stopping at six songs was a conscious choice,” Taich explains. “I feel like I’ve said everything I needed to say in this particular season of my life.”
It Tends To Glow marks a sure-forward path for Taich’s artistry. It’s the product of her awakening. After hopelessly conceding, these songscapes crept back in from places she least expected.
“When I let expectations go, I was able to get all the joy back—because I wasn’t looking for it.”
Listen to Carly Taich’s sophomore effort, It Tends To Glow, a new foot forward for her music.
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