Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Taylor Stearns was part of a montage during the Austin auditions on American Idol.

The 21-year-old from Round Rock, Texas, performed Jason Marz’s “I Won’t Give Up.”

Taylor Stearns earned a golden ticket to Hollywood at American Idol’s Austin auditions. (FOX Photo)

And, just like that, she was off to Hollywood.

Turns out Taylor has been writing and playing music for quite a while and is already on iTunes.

While in high school, she released a 10-track album called “Day Break” as Taylor Rae Stearns.

She now performs with The Response Band, a five-member worship group that released an EP called “Currents” in 2012 and another called “Valleys and the Night” on Jan. 7.

On her YouTube channel, Taylor says she has loved music as long as she can remember and started leading worship at her church when she was just 15.

“It would be a dream to have my music writing turn into a career,” she writes.

Taylor also plays cello, piano and guitar and said she auditioned with her guitar because she says she always feels more comfortable performing with an instrument.

In her Road to Hollywood video, Taylor says that helped calm her nerves, playing in front of a superstar panel of judges.

“These people have been in my ears ever since I could get music off the Internet,” Taylor says, “so it was cool for me to be the one singing for them and playing for them rather than being at their concert.”

Taylor says her musical inspirations include Norah Jones, John Mayer, Coldplay and Alicia Keys. If that sounds like a diverse group … well, that’s Taylor Stearns’ style of music.

“I try to blend the genres together,” she says, “so I don’t feel confined to one thing. If I want to do dubstep, I want to write in dubstep. If I want to do jazz, but add some alternative rock flair — I don’t see anything wrong with mixing genres.”

I’ve embedded a couple of videos of Taylor performing below. If you’d like to learn more about The Response Band, visit their website.

Here are links to Taylor’s Facebook page and her Twitter account (@TaylorStearns)

“Nah Nah New Song” (with Scientist)

“Wanjagala” (with The Response Band)

“Move On” (off her 2010 album)