Call Me Kuchu by Taylor Locke (Single)

“Replete with a rock veneer that sees no shame in its pop undertones”

The former Rooney guitarist and vocalist Taylor Locke goes it alone on his west coast rock-fuelled single ‘Call Me Kuchu’

os Angeles musician Taylor Locke claims that the term singer-songwriter conjures images of a lone folk miserablist, leaving the bombast solely to rock bands. Though it’s hard to contest that initial contention – what do you think of when the term is bandied around? – it is an unfair label. Call Me Kuchu is Locke’s affront to the pigeonhole dictated by his modus operandi.

Opening with a rift that’s rollicking enough to have full band backing, Call Me Kuchu has the crunch of Abbey Road-era Beatles, replete with a rock veneer that sees no shame in its pop undertone. A more contemporary kinship is found with early 90s alt-rockers Buffalo Tom, with the affection for punching lead guitar squeals hammering home this point.

It’s not often that a songwriter lays bare a philosophy for their work, with this being something normally implanted upon them by hacks. Call Me Kuchu, though, is a cutting validation of Locke’s desire to take the singer-songwriter out of the stereotyped café bar strummer, and into the domain of the bar-dwelling rockist. Crisp, cool and proudly assured, Call Me Kuchu shows that the songwriter is more than just a lone melody.

Verdict: Bringing bombast into the singer-songwriter domain

Damien Girling

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