Bass Fellows Spotlight: Taylor Contarino’s healing journey through music
by John Kwesi BroadwayTaylor Marie Contarino is a standout Bass Lab Fellow, an arts and culture acolyte, and an emerging musical talent.
Taylor Marie Contarino poses for a headshot
After graduating this May she’ll be a student in the Graduate Specialized Journalism (Arts & Culture) program. While advancing her education, Contarino has also managed to advance her dreams. She’s an up-and-coming singer/songwriter who’s just released her first single: “Bare Minimum.”
But before Taylor was any of this, she was just a girl from Pennsylvania who never thought this path was possible.
“Where I'm from it's kinda like, if you don't see it happening, you don't really believe it could happen. There was nobody in my area doing the things that I wanted to do, pursuing music and art. In a lot of ways, I'm still grappling with the whole concept of like, whoa, I'm pursuing something that was not tangible to me growing up.”
From a young age, Taylor always had a passion and talent for writing. She was only five when she wrote her first rhyme book in kindergarten. Although she showed these early signs of talent and ambition, she didn't receive much encouragement for music from home. Her dad wasn’t present due to his struggles with substance abuse and her mother laughed at her when she first mentioned her goals of being a singer.
Nevertheless, Taylor always had something driving her to success.
Taylor engages in conversation at a Bass Lab Lunch & Learn
One day when she was thirteen she was staying the night at her friend’s house and when she woke up she decided she needed to figure out what her plan for her life was. She was still just a Girl Scout. But she decided she was going to go her own route and go to college. She eventually set her sights on USC because she always envisioned herself coming to LA. Before coming here though Taylor went through a challenging period that made her more grateful for life now.
“I was so depressed. I didn't really feel like existing anymore. I didn't have anything to live for.”
Although she faced these challenges, Taylor was able to push through with her faith in God and sheer determination. Despite four rejections to her dream school, USC, she was finally accepted and on a path towards living the life she always wanted.
“Ever since I've gone to USC, I've found not only tangible people, but also things to believe in, people to live for, people to believe in, and I believe in myself, and I want to live for myself now. That entire experience of leaving the East Coast and moving here for a chance to change my life and totally start over, that's probably what saved my life.”
Taylor flashes a “Fight On!” for the camera
Taylor chose Journalism/PR as her major because it was an outlet for her passion for writing. Through education she was indulging her interest in writing, but it wasn’t until an unexpected occurrence that she finally began to pursue music.
Her musical journey began as she was going through a tough breakup. To get her mind off this breakup, she planned a spring break trip to Miami with friends. Taylor’s mother told her she couldn’t go. Although Taylor was upset, she found an outlet for her emotions through music. During this time she searched YouTube for “Drake-type beats” and, incidentally, recorded a song. After getting positive feedback on the song she felt more encouraged to pursue something she knew she always should have. Especially once she realized the healing tool that music could be.
“Writing that song for me was my way of healing through that breakup, and I'm the one who did the breaking up. So that was really hard, because I loved the person, but he was giving bare minimum. And so I wrote this song about how physicality is not everything. And you know, we all deserve better than bare minimum.”
Cover art for Contarino’s EP: The Bare Minimum