Kel Taylor and Emma Harvey met during their freshman year orientation at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. At the time, Taylor was a budding singer-songwriter from Indianapolis and Harvey was a talented guitar player and vocalist from Dallas. The two quickly became best friends and began working together on Taylor’s solo project, Kel. The two realized their sound together produced something much more powerful. And in early 2015, Taylor and Harvey announced their new musical venture together as the indie pop-folk duo, Sawyer.

“A manager we were talking to at the time gave us $20 to go out to lunch and talk about becoming a duo. And we were like sure that sounds great!” Taylor explained.

The two headed to Barista Parlor in Nashville and enjoyed two egg biscuit sandwiches and made it official. The duo began making creative decisions together while still performing as Taylor’s solo project. They soon began working on new material and the songwriting process was completely collaborative. Taylor was more passionate about the lyricism and Harvey was more passionate about the instrumental arrangements. And while crafting a signature sound came about naturally, deciding on a name for the duo wasn’t so easy.

“Deciding on a name was the worst,” Harvey confessed.

Taylor initially suggested the name Sawyer. It resonated nostalgic feelings from her childhood when her family would read Tom Sawyer. The character embodied an adventurous and cool appeal that represented the duo well. The two played the name game for a while, until Harvey brought up the name Sawyer again and the duo became complete.

Sawyer released their first single, “Letting Go,” in late March, which you can purchase now on iTunes. The track was hard for the duo to write and they worked on it in Texas and Indiana before finishing it in Nashville. And initially, it wasn’t planned as the duo’s first single, but after a rough winter it seemed only right. Together they described the single as a “hopeful anthem.”

“There’s a next day. We don’t want to live in the darkness,” Taylor said.

The single is a bright guitar driven pop-folk track that makes for an easy listen. Taylor and Harvey’s vocals blend perfectly over a guitar infused chorus. It’s a stunning debut single.

Currently Sawyer is playing shows all over Nashville to perfect their live sound and gain a strong fan base. And plan to head to Texas and Alabama later this month. The duo hopes to make their way to Indiana very soon. They are also busy writing more music and plan to release another single in the upcoming months. A debut album isn’t that far off either, as the duo plans to begin sifting through all of their songwriting this fall.

Follow them on Twitter: @thebandsawyer

Visit their website: TheBandSawyer

Written By: Warren Cangany