After Toronto alt-rock band Staggered Crossing performed its last gig in early November 2007, founding member Julian Taylor must have pondered, even for a brief moment, what was next for him musically.
Music, after all, had been part of the Toronto native’s life since age five when he first sat at the piano, no doubt inspired by his classical pianist father (Taylor is of Caribbean and Mohawk ancestry, with the latter on his mother’s side), and later took up the acoustic guitar over summer campfires and sang in a choir with his cousins.
Following a lengthy hiatus after Staggered Crossing’s last hurrah at Toronto’s famed Horseshoe Tavern, Taylor secured a bartending gig at a Danforth Avenue pub where the owners suggested he start an open stage night. Taylor took them up on that. What followed was a 10-year run as host of the Riverboat open mic at Dora Keough Irish Pub.
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“Those open mic nights renewed my passion for, and faith, in music,” recalls Taylor in a 2021 interview with David McPherson of Amplify.
With Ben Spivak, a former roommate, and Staggered Crossing drummer Jeremy Elliott, Taylor formed the trio The Barbs.
“We would drive across southern Ontario playing rock ‘n’ roll and R&B soul covers at any bar that would hire us,” Taylor adds, with The Barbs eventually morphing into The Julian Taylor Band.
VIDEO: “Ballad Of A Young Troubadour” (2021)
Clearly Taylor’s musical journey was alive and well, destined to bring him a very successful solo career that has brought him critical acclaim and countless fans of his rock-folk-soul-roots-country sound.
On Saturday (July 18) at Del Crary Park, Taylor will bring his rock, folk, soul, roots, and country-inspired sound to Peterborough Musicfest. Admission, as always, is free to the 8 p.m. sponsor-supported concert.
Taylor was but a teenager when he co-founded Staggered Crossing in 1996. The band’s self-titled debut album wasn’t released until 2001 but it was worth the wait, with its single “Further Again,” written by Taylor, becoming one of the most played songs on Canadian rock radio in the early 2000s.
“It was a really cool experience touring and having the whole juggernaut working for us,” notes Taylor in his website bio, adding “We had management, we had a publisher, we had a record company, we had an agent. Off to the races we went — and we were pretty young.”
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Staggered Crossing, however, wasn’t immune to the turbulence which defined the music business of the early 2000s, resulting in the band parting ways with its label after their first album. What to do? Well, starting your own label is an option, which is exactly what Taylor did.
Bent Penny Records released Last Summer When We Were Famous, Staggered Crossing’s sophomore album in 2002, as well as the band’s third album, 2004’s Burgundy & Blue. Both projects exposed Taylor to a side of the music business that doesn’t involve the music, providing him with skills he has called upon time and time again since.
“I didn’t really know what to do, so I started to learn how to operate throughout the business and became not only a musician, but a business person and a label guy,” recalls Taylor of that education.
When Staggered Crossing broke up, Taylor notes its members, himself included, were done — “Everybody was pretty depressed and beat up by the music industry, so some just decided they would do other things, and we all really did.”
That breakup eventually brought Taylor to Dora Keough Irish Pub and his aforementioned hosting of the open stage night, which became a regular drop-in attracting the likes of Kim Mitchell, Big Sugar, and Ron Hynes, to mention a few. On reflection, Taylor says that time away from the music industry “gave me a newfound perspective and love for music later on.”
VIDEO: “Seeds” – Julian Taylor (2022)
Come 2014, The Julian Taylor Band was a thing, and two albums followed in quick succession — 2014’s Tech Noir and 2015’s Desert Star. When both albums were snubbed for Juno Award nominations, Taylor chalked that up to the band’s multi genre-influenced sound being hard to categorize.
With 2019’s Avalanche, he focused on making a more cohesive and consistent album.
“I like jumping around a lot,” says Taylor, noting “Avalanche was the first real time I said ‘I’m going to try to really focus and just stay in one lane as best I can.'”
Those sensing a breakout moment was coming Taylor’s way at this point were proven correct in 2020 when The Ridge, a largely acoustic, roots-inspired album reflecting on personal experiences and family history, was released. This time around, the Juno Awards’ brain trust took full notice, with the album securing nominations for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year and Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year.
In addition, The Ridge brought Taylor a Canadian Folk Music Award as Solo Artist of the Year, a Polaris Prize nomination, Best Male Artist honours at the International Acoustic Guitar Awards, and five Native American Music Award nominations.
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In 2022, Taylor released Beyond The Reservoir, an exploration of the themes of resilience, grief, and coming of age. It too was nominated for a Juno Award in the Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year category, and saw Taylor named Roots Artist of the Year by the Country Music Association of Ontario.
Two more albums, 2023’s Anthology Vol. 1 and 2024’s Pathways have followed, the latter co-produced with Grammy Award winner Colin Linden. The eight tracks on Pathways, notes Taylor, reflect an openly honest approach to addressing some of his own baggage.
“When you feel heavy, you’ve got to get things off your chest,” he says, adding “Pathways reflects the way I was feeling while I was writing it and making it … trying to work through a lot of the pain I’ve caused myself and others.”
While there are no announced plans for a new studio album, Taylor did reveal this past December that Anthology Vol. II, a double album of songs by Staggered Crossing and The Julian Taylor Band, is pending.
VIDEO: “Pathways” – Julian Taylor featuring Allison Russell (2024)
Away from the recording studio and the stage, Taylor has been no less busy.
In 2020, he launched Julian Taylor’s Jukebox, his own three-hour syndicated radio show that airs across Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean. Way back in 2002, and again in 2010, he performed at the Olympics, and a number of collaborations dot his resumé. Last November, Taylor was in the mix at NY80: A Celebration of Neil Young and His Music, which featured a who’s who of Canadian musicians.
And then there’s Taylor’s advocacy in the music, Indigenous, and Black rights arenas. He remains an active supporter of, advocate for, a number of organizations, including The Downie Wenjack Fund, Toronto’s Daily Food Bread Bank, and Crohn’s and Colitis Canada.
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Clearly, Taylor has followed to a ‘T’ his advice to young musicians that he shared during a January interview with Peter Sanfilippo of Kingston Live.
“Set your sights on what it is that you want to achieve and believe that you can achieve that,” he said.
“For example, Babe Ruth calling his shot, pointing into the sky where he was going to hit the ball. I think that’s what people need to do with things that they’re passionate about. It could have totally gone the other way. Maybe he wouldn’t have hit the ball there but because he manifested that, because he believed in that, he was able to do that. I think that any young person setting out to start on their musical journey, if they believe that they can do this. they will, and they can.”
Taylor is headlining Musicfest’s second annual “Woven Stories” evening to celebrate Indigenous artists through live music, storytelling, and cultural experiences. In place of the Future Sound Series, Indigenous cultural programming will begin at 6:40 p.m., leading up to Taylor’s main stage performance just after 8 p.m.
VIDEO: “Weighing Down” – Julian Taylor (2024)
Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 16 free-admission concerts during its 39th season, staged in Del Crary Park on Wednesday and Saturday nights until August 19.
Overseen by executive director Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission remains “to provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”
For more information on this concert or the 2026 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or call the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a headline sponsor of Peterborough Musicfest’s 2026 season.
