Q&A: Nashville Duo Sawyer Finds Emotional Release With New Single “Support Group”
IF YOU’VE EVER WANTED TO PLAY “PIN THE TAIL ON YOUR EX” — with all the other girls he’s ever wronged, then you can add Sawyer’s most recent song to your playlist.
In “Support Group,” the duo, composed of Kel Taylor and Emma Harvey, muse about a hypothetical support group session in which all the girls who once dated the same man can gather to heal.
“Support Group” is the song you can cry to if you listen to the lyrics, or you can just dance to the melody if that’s what you need. This style of songwriting has been therapeutic in itself, according to the duo. There’s something healing, they say, about belting out the frustrations and hurts of past lovers — they’ve found that kind of release in the song.
Taylor and Harvey’s friendship began while attending Nashville’s Belmont University. There, they bonded over a shared passion for songwriting and found each other to be the perfect complement to their own writing process.
Read on below to meet Sawyer, learn about how they ground themselves to inspire creativity, and join them in healing from the wrongdoings of an insufferable man.
LUNA: Can you tell me about how you two got started together? Were you friends first and then creative partners?
HARVEY: Yeah, so we met our freshman year during orientation. It was actually, like, the first week of school. We were just, honestly, immediately friends, and then [we] hung out a ton. We both had music projects. But I kind of hitched my wagon to Kel. She completed songs, and I just had a million musical ideas. So I was like, “Okay, this is fun.” And we could actually finish things together.
TAYLOR: Emma also had way cooler ideas than I did.
HARVEY: So friends, then musical soulmates.
TAYLOR: That’s right.
LUNA: What have been some of the biggest factors in your growth as musicians together since then? Do you have any mindsets or practices that have led to you finding your sound as a duo?
TAYLOR: I like that question. Well, okay, I think we’ve always really tried to let the driving force of our sound be following what we like. At one point, that was us suddenly being into synths, and now we're into electric guitars. And then when we eventually decided that we we’re a pop band, there was some amount of trying to stay true to what we liked. And I think at the time, there was part of us that felt a little bit cringey about being pop or something — then it turns out we just like it.
I think, generally, mindset-wise we do just really try to stay true to what we think is cool. And it's hard because, of course, trends come and go in music as well. It's hard not to sway with everyone, but it's really nice to have the two of us. I feel for solo artists who only have themselves to talk to. It's really nice to have the two of us to kind of keep each other in check because sometimes if I get really caught up with, like, “Is this cool? Is this good? Is this gonna hit?” Then Emma can kind of bring it back down and vice versa when she's like that.
HARVEY: I think outside of the moment of creation, we do put a lot of effort into building or gathering inspiration. So that's listening to music we like, but it's also podcasts and poetry, being with friends, and walking. And I think that life experience is another way that we try to write the music that we care about, making sure that part is full of insight.
TAYLOR: That's so true. I think we work hard to really protect our non-music lives. Because it's the non-music life that informs what we make anyway.
HARVEY: The weekends are very protected for us.
TAYLOR: So protected, like, “Goodbye, I'll see you Monday.” Which is funny because we also are in the same friend circle, so we do always see each other. But I'm not gonna text you (laughs). Anyways, I will also say, we both are really into yoga and meditation and Zen philosophy. It's really helpful, and that kind of keeps us able to like what we like.
HARVEY: Sorry, you’re getting me going now on this question. There’s another aspect of being able to be present with yourself in the moment of creating music to know what you like. So you're not interpreting it from your brain because it can kind of go through all of these brain filters of, like, “Is this cool? Will my friends like it? Will other musicians like it?” And it's so unhelpful in the moment of creation. But I think those practices of meditation and just mindfulness can help you just stay with what you like.
Photo courtesy of Gabe Drechsler
LUNA: I love that because what you said kind of relates to another question I had in mind. I want to ask about how you ground yourself in your creativity when you're feeling uninspired. I feel like that mindfulness aspect definitely does contribute to you finding your sound, getting inspired, and creating new things.
HARVEY: Another grounding thing, I think, is keeping the feeling of play present. It should be fun and not grasped at. I think we used to put a lot of pressure on every time you would sit down to write, it being good or being the next single. I think there's so much cool stuff that comes out of writing just to see what is there. And maybe it fits with Sawyer and maybe it doesn't, but it's not less valuable, if only just to get through that idea and take it off the shelf.
TAYLOR: I know Emma has her own version of this that she's been doing for a long time, but we both went through a phase of doing yoga outside in the mornings for a while. Now I don’t do it outside anymore, but in the morning I do the star pose to the sun and it's really connecting. It reminds me that I am a part of nature, and it reminds me of my smallness and also my infinity. It's really nice. Little things like that are really helpful, practical practices for me to remain creative because it's kind of like remaining alive.
LUNA: I actually saw you guys open for someone else back in the beginning of 2019, and I was obsessed with your energy. I was like, “They’re so cute, they have such a good presence.” It seems like you’re touring now more than you ever have. How would you say you’ve grown the most in your live shows?
HARVEY: I love talking about live stuff. I think we’re entering a phase of planning the next live show and what that's going to be like because we're going on tour opening for Joseph. We're very excited about that. I think since then, we've gotten so much inspiration. Just in having a big, big rest, we were on the road so much, and honestly we were just tired and didn't have a lot of energy to get very creative with it. We loved doing it, but beyond just performing the songs, that's all we could manage at the time.
Since then, we've both gone to shows and gotten really inspired. We both saw our friend Jake Wesley Rogers perform. He puts on the most amazing show, and it's so Jake. You're so invited into an experience. It's not like, “Watch me perform, watch me entertain.” It's like he creates this world and then invites everybody in the room to step in. And I think for this next show, we're trying to figure out what sort of environment we want to create and how we invite people into it. Hopefully that will incorporate every minute of the set and in between the songs included.
LUNA: I love the vibe of “Support Group” being an incredibly serious song, but it’s also… so fun? It seems like you have a handful of songs like that where they make me sad, but I want to dance. What is it about a sad song in a major key?
TAYLOR: That's such a good question. I want to say right off the bat, it kind of gives me my power back a little bit. I’ve noticed when, not necessarily that it's even a happy melody or something, but sometimes when there can be more of a physically strenuous experience of singing it feels more cathartic.
HARVEY: Like belting, you're saying?
TAYLOR: Yeah, like the physical feeling of singing that chorus is more helpful to me. There's a time and a place for a slowed down version of it, but I'm really glad that we went with this version because that expression of anger I never, ever, ever express in my real life. I have so much trouble with expressing anger at all, so just the physical experience of singing something more upbeat or more “yell-y” is really helpful to me.
HARVEY: Yeah, I resonate. I read some blog or review about that Robyn song “Dancing On My Own.” Sad, but [a] banger. Whatever I was reading, I'm sorry that I can't quote it. It was just saying how it’s the gay anthem that it is because it's both happy and sad. The fact that it holds both is so satisfying. You can tap into either one at any time. If you're feeling really sad, you can lean into the lyrics, and if you're just wanting to have a good time, just sing the melody and dance.
They're both accessible, and no matter where you're at, it's there for you. So I think that's also what we like to do with our own music is to have something for everybody. Like, it's going to be awesome for you just to passively listen and you want to feel a lot of things; you can actively listen to the lyrics and cry if you want.
LUNA: I love that. Okay, this is a bit of a sillier question: If you did start a support group for all the girls who have loved this person, is there a lesson that would be at the top of the agenda?
TAYLOR: Probably breathwork (laughs). Oh man, actually, hold on, I'm gonna take this seriously for a second. I would actually probably work really hard to say that this group is actually not about him, but it's instead about all of us who allowed this person to treat us the way that he did. I would probably be like, “We don't actually have to talk about this guy, but what we do need to talk about is what we all are still living with — and have hopefully healed [from] — which is whatever in us [that] was like, ‘Yes, this is totally fine.’” That's probably what I would do.
HARVEY: Nice, that’s actually a really good answer. I was thinking of, like, “Pin the tail on the ass” games.
TAYLOR: Maybe icebreakers! Oh my gosh, there’s actually a lot of shit we could do.
LUNA: I love asking about local music scenes in different cities. Did you grow up around a very creative community in your hometown? Did you go to many shows growing up?
HARVEY: I always loved music, and I was a pretty introverted kid, and I would actively listen to music and just disappear into it. There's just so many places in my mind that I can remember sitting and listening to music, and that was the activity. But yeah, I went to some shows, not a ton. I grew up Christian, and not that Christians don't go to shows but I was maybe a little sheltered. A lot of my musicality also came just from leading worship. I did that from fifth grade to 12th grade, so a lot of stage time. They're pretty different from what I do now, but also sort of not at the same time.
LUNA: I’m sure you learned a lot of the foundation for the skills and techniques of performing live in that way.
HARVEY: Totally, I am grateful for that experience, for sure.
TAYLOR: Mine was pretty much — well, are — very similar. I grew up in Indiana and also leading worship in middle school through high school. And Emma and I, we both kind of exited religion in that way, sort of at the same time, which was really helpful, but we kept all the good stuff. I feel the same way … When I look back, I'm really thankful for that experience and just the reps of being on stage was really nice. I have a very creative family. My dad plays drums and makes documentaries for fun. My brother is a musician, and he's a choir director for his job. And my sister was in theater. And my mom's a math tutor, so she was the outlier (laughs).
It was nice growing up in a home that was so encouraging of creative pursuits in so many ways. Like, I would fall asleep to my dad practicing all the time. Yeah, that was great. My friends were really creative. We went to shows a lot, but they were all each other's shows. I don't actually really remember going to real shows. I think I went to a Sufjan [Stevens] show in high school. Other than that, it was all just our friends' shows.
HARVEY: I’m actually remembering shows that I went to and would go again. Vampire Weekend, David Ramirez. Definitely a different genre than what I do.
TAYLOR: Oh, yeah, I saw Death Cab for Cutie.
HARVEY: Grizzly Bear.
TAYLOR: Oh, I saw Jonas Brothers. It was in middle school and it was awesome — I loved it.
LUNA: Do you have anything coming up? Are “Support Group” and your past few singles part of a bigger project?
HARVEY: We’ve got some other things cooking. We’re not announcing anything yet, but it’s safe to say Sawyer’s sticking around (laughs).
TAYLOR: Buckle up, guys, Sawyer’s in the kitchen, and it’s getting hot (laughs).
HARVEY: Yeah, one more song is coming after “Support Group,” and we’re excited about that too.
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