ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Singer Taylor Acorn says she remembers being with her middle school friends in Wellsboro, Tioga County, singing to emo music popular at the time, especially Dashboard Confessional's song "Stolen."
Later, Acorn said, her musical journey had her singing acoustic shows at Kutztown University for Bear Bucks she could spend around campus, then to a Nashville publishing company where she wrote and performed country music.
These days, Acorn again is embracing the pop-punk music of her youth as she celebrates last week's release of her sophomore album, "Poster Child."
Taylor Acorn, with Wilt, will perform at Archer Music Hall 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8.Archer Music Hall
The disc is teeming with hooks and with anthemic choruses inspired by that earlier music era, and Acorn on Tuesday kicked off a tour to support it.
It stops at 7 p.m. Saturday at Allentown's Archer Music Hall.
Tickets, at $33 each, remain available at the Archer website and the box office at 939 Hamilton St.
Archer said she sees the disc as a culmination of her stylistic search.
"For me, to be able to have something that feels like you’ve heard it before but that also feels new is really special," Acorn said in a telephone call from Nashville before starting the tour.
“And so I really wanted to chase that feeling of what I felt when I listened to my favorite bands and my favorite music.
“I think that was the one thing that I really love about ‘Poster Child,’ is that it’s coming from a place that feels very authentic to myself and things that I’ve been going through the last few years."
'To seize adventure'
Acorn said her family moved to Wellsboro from Washington State to be close to relatives. She also has relatives who for years lived in Allentown and said she's familiar with the Lehigh Valley.
The move was "a pretty jarring experience at first," Acorn said. "I mean, obviously, being outside of Seattle, there’s more going on. And to come to Wellsboro, it felt like the simple life, right?
“Like there was more farm life, which I thought was really cool. And all my friends and family lived in that town, too, which I think at the time, it was just nice to be surrounded by family and to get a glimpse of how small towns feel and that kind of living.
“And so, for me, I really liked it. It was like everybody knew everybody."
She said she even became friends on school sports teams from the neighboring towns, "because they were all really small."
She enrolled at Kutztown University, where she ran track and field and also “started writing music just kind of on my own and doing little shows around campus."
But after two years, she said she “decided school probably isn’t for me," and after her mother had moved to Virginia, she followed her there "to seize adventure and see what happens."
'Needed to find my own voice'
Acorn said she worked odd jobs, such as at Texas Roadhouse restaurant, but simultaneously would "play three-hour sets at a bar or at a deli in town."
"Anything I could do to just be able to play music, I was doing it." she said. "Because I loved to do it."
She said she started a YouTube channel "where I would just prop my little iPhone on the windowsill of my mom’s kitchen and just play different covers and stuff."
Acorn said she eventually ended up getting signed by Nashville publishing company Play It Again, run by Dallas Davidson, who wrote for Luke Brian and Lee Brice.
“It just ignited this excitement in me and I just felt like I needed to be there," she said, and finally moved in 2017.
She said she wrote country songs for about a year with other artists, and also began recording, "and it felt so natural," she said.
But she said she left “because I really needed to find my own voice and what I wanted to say.”
'Write from my own perspective'
Acorn self-released her debut disc, "Survival In Motion," in 2024, and toured “for about two years straight pretty much," she said.
“I feel that that record was very, like, empowering — it felt very happy and joyful, which is exactly how I was feeling," she said.
"I sat down and had about seven months or so to just sit with myself, think about how I was feeling. Kind of process everything in my life the last few years and I realized there were a lot of things I was suppressing and emotions that I wanted to get out."Singer Taylor Acorn
"But there were just a couple things that I think I had really, you know, pushed to the wayside emotionally just to try to get through touring and make sure I’m showing up for my fans."
She said that when she finished touring, "I sat down and had about seven months or so to just sit with myself, think about how I was feeling.
"Kind of process everything in my life the last few years and I realized there were a lot of things I was suppressing and emotions that I wanted to get out," she said.
She signed with Fearless Records, and got the opportunity to co-write with other artists for "Poster Child."
“That whole side of songwriting is amazing because there’s always another element that’s added to it," she said. "Where it’s like, ‘Oh, why don’t we write from this angle’ or ‘Why don’t we write from this angle?’
“I think since I had first started songwriting, I had never really sat down just to write what I wanted to write — to write from my own perspective," she said.
“And I sat down and I started writing [the song] ‘Poster Child’ ... and wrote the first verse and chorus. And then I wrote the first verse and chorus to ‘People Pleaser.’
“And I think it was the first time I, like, really sat with myself and started these songs and had taken them to my collaborators who wrote this record with me.
"And it was, like, ‘Hey, this is kind of how I’ve been feeling. Is this a cool thing to even write about? Like, I don’t even that this is even good or if it’s cool.’
“And of course, they were all really supportive."
'Feeling nostalgic'
On her own albums, Acorn has adopted the pop-punk-emo style she fell in love with in Wellsboro.
“I think we’re inspired by ‘90s, early 2000s, music," she said. "I find myself — I don’t know if it’s the times we’re in, or if it’s because I’m getting older and I feel the older you are, the further away I feel from my childhood and things like that.
"There’s just something to be said about how you can listen to that music still to this day, and it stood the test of time and you can still relate it to all parts of your life."Singer Taylor Acorn
“But when I listen to that music, I feel so inspired. And I feel so happy and I feel a sense of joy.
"I don’t know if it’s because the times when I first heard those songs — like I first listened to matchbox 20, or I first listened to the Goo Goo Dolls or Counting Crows, I was in such an innocent, happy point in my life.
“But there’s just something to be said about how you can listen to that music still to this day, and it stood the test of time and you can still relate it to all parts of your life.
“And I feel like being able to bring something like that to life in this time and this climate — I don’t know, I think there are a lot of us that are feeling very nostalgic, and we might not necessarily realize it."
'Huge part of my life'
Her music also has given her the opportunity to play with some of those acts who so influenced her, Acorn said.
She recently played the We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas, with virtually every pop-punk-emo band from the 1990s and 2000s — blink 182, Panic at the Disco, All Time Low, Yellowcard and more.
"It's so crazy," she said.
“If only I could have told my younger self that, she would have been in awe of it all. … The music has been such a huge part of my life for so long, you know?”Singer Taylor Acorn
She noted that last year, she even got to do a tour with the band Boys Like Girls and Dashboard Confessional — that group to which she sang along in middle school.
"That was a very full-circle moment," she said. “To be able to think of that moment in my life and then fast forward to last year, sharing a stage with [singer Chris Carrabba] and getting to talk with him every night, getting his perspective.
"And he’s such a kind-hearted person. And, like, [singer] Martin [Johnson] from Boys Like Girls, just knowing the success they have had and being such a fan of theirs in high school and middle school.
"To know they’re all coming back and sharing the stage with them — that’s such a cool moment and I got to experience that.
“If only I could have told my younger self that, she would have been in awe of it all. … The music has been such a huge part of my life for so long, you know?”
