Taylor Kopp sits at the campfire, sipping whiskey from a canning jar. The Salmon River rolls in the background, and cool air seeps down from the mountain. It’s evening. There was guitar earlier, and singing, and a dinner cooked over coals. Now we’re talking about music, freedom, loss, and the upcoming release of Kopp’s debut album, Found.
“The songs on the record exist somewhere in the place between the death of my brother, and my need to carve out a bigger life.”
Kopp split his formative years between Portland, Oregon, and the high-desert town of Sisters, Oregon. Ponderosas, mountains, and rivers show up all over Found, and provide a physical constant for songs about love, death, and the fight to live free.
There’s hope in Kopp’s music, and warmth. He’s a guy with a smile under his beard, a storyteller who laughs at much of what he sees. He’s also a guy, pretty clearly, who has walked in the dark.
“When my brother died in 2015 I realized I couldn’t waste any more time. I saw with this intense clarity that I needed to focus on what’s real. For me that’s music, and being in the woods, and human connection.”
Found chronicles the duality Kopp experienced while working to make himself whole: A period of introspection, followed by a reemergence. “I had this collection of songs, some needed work, but I was excited about where they were headed. The breakthrough happened when I gave myself the space and got out of town.”
Over the course of 3 months Kopp traveled to write at a cabin in the foothills of Mt. Hood. With a full notebook, he returned to his home in Portland and began to record. The result is an album that wanders up rivers and catches sparks from the campfire. These are songs from a friend who has traveled far to sit with us.
For fans of: Townes Van Zandt, Iron & Wine, Josh Ritter, and Pacific Northwest folk music.