Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Taylor B-W, Independent 2022.
Sydneysider Taylor B-W returns with a new single Last Child following on from her recently released debut EP BTW TBW which has already achieved 300,000 plus Spotify streams in its first month of release.
Last Child is a song about climate change and its impact on our natural environment and the animals, including humans, that rely on it for their existence.
She worked with ARIA award winning producer Peter Holtz (Gang Of Youths, Peking Duk, Vance Joy) to create a soundscape of epic proportions to match the scope of her song.
This lavish approach has carried over to the video that accompanies the song which was filmed by filmmaker Natasha Sebire in the magnificent Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
The video juxtaposes the vastness and grandeur of the natural environment against the starkness of the man-made world.
Taylor has a direct and personal reason for choosing this topic.
In 2016 she travelled to Africa to volunteer for wildlife conservation.
The experience gave her a new understanding and awareness of the issues facing wildlife, including our changing climate.
On her return to Australia, she studied to be a zookeeper and she’s now fully qualified.
Taylor is acutely aware of the effect our changing environment is having on endangered species.
She says that she was so angered by certain world leaders paying lip-service to climate that she… “wrote Last Child with tears in my eyes. Never had I written with such a stream of consciousness. The words just poured out of me… I was mad, and hurt…”
This storm of emotion has found its way into the song which while emotional, and at times angry, still manages to be optimistic.
Taylor comments “My generation… have been so enthusiastic and vocal about what needs to be done and one can only hope that this will inspire the rest to push for the same goal.”
While we now have a government that is more sympathetic to the cause it’s important that we keep the pressure on and Taylor B-W is doing her bit to keep the issue front and centre.
