California singer-songwriter Maria Taylor’s latest album Story’s End is out now in the EU via Grand Hotel Van Fleet.
A prolific artist known for her solo recordings and as a founding member of Azure Ray, Taylor has collaborated with Conor Oberst, Phoebe Bridgers, Adam Duritz and more. Cinematic and emotionally evocative, her music has soundtracked many listeners’ lives.
Story’s End brings together fragments of experience to form a larger portrait, where ghosts of the past are not simply haunting the narrative but moving it forward. Taylor shares:
“After spending years working on this record, an irrevocable fracture in both my marriage and a friendship gave me the urgency to finish it. I think I needed to make something beautiful as things fell apart around me.”
Though born out of conflict, the album became a lifeline, with music and friendship remaining constants through waves of change. As Taylor reflects:
“I was writing to have anything to do, making music with anyone who would make it with me. I think I needed this, to whatever degree, to save my life.”
The latest single from Story’s End, ‘Tricky’ adds another dimension to the album, bringing a moodier vibe and a change of pace. Taylor explains:
“‘Tricky’ holds a lot of weight on this record, in my opinion. It’s unlike all of the other songs and provides a break from the emotional journey. It’s like you open the door and enter a dark bar, with a dirty martini sitting on a table waiting for you. You drink it, then go back into the main room.”
The official video, directed and edited by French filmmaker Amélie Raoul. Taylor shares the following about the video:
“Amélie is married to Ben Brodin, who produced the record. I had admired her work and we began developing a friendship as Ben and I were working on the album. We decided it would be rad if she made a video for one of the songs. She had listened to these songs for months, during all the stages, and decided Tricky was the one. We shot the scenes in Los Angeles at night and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. A tale of loneliness, obsession, and surrender in the city that we have both come to love and call home.”
Story’s End finds hope among the fractures, a tale of transformation that takes time, where even an ending can be part of a story still unfolding.
UK Tour Dates:
22 Oct – Manchester – The Eagle Inn
23 Oct – Leeds – The Attic
24 Oct – Glasgow – Gu
Follow Maria Taylor on Instagram | Linktree