Singer-Songwriter • Activist • Writer
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A natural-born storyteller with the polish of an accomplished actress and the authentic edge of a seasoned blues musician.
Seattle Weekly
Music is the art form we turn to when we need to build bridges and make ourselves plainly understood.
In January 2020, the United States was in crisis. The president was holding vital defense support to Ukraine hostage as a means of coercing their government into investigating the son of a political rival.
My civil disobedience action inside the Senate’s Russell Rotunda – performing Sara Bareilles’ “Brave” in an area where protest is strictly forbidden – was a call on Republican Senators to join Democrats in voting to remove that corrupt president from office.
| City | Date | Time | Venue |
| Boston | 8/7/23 | TBA | Berklee Performance Center* |
| Boston | 8/8/23 | 3:30pm | Cafe 939 |
| New York | 8/14/23 | 6pm | Rockwood Music Hall |
| Washington, DC | 8/17/23 | 2-4pm | WOWD Radio |
| Reston, VA | 8/18/23 | 6pm | Lake Anne Plaza |
My name is Tae Phoenix and my favorite party game is “two truths and a lie.” See if you can guess which is which:
The answer is in the footer of the website.
My work is about themes that everyone can relate to on some level: rejecting conformity, embracing authenticity, and finding the connections between healing ourselves and building the world we want.
Sometimes, when I’m stuck on where a musical idea belongs, I’ll write lyrics from the perspective of a fictional character and see where that takes me. I love this approach because I tend to obsess over stories: telling them, absorbing them, analyzing them. It doesn’t really matter as long as I’m immersed. I’ve written songs that started out as screenplays and the beginnings of musicals that I originally thought were novels. It all makes me ridiculously happy.
My favorite thing about using music as a storytelling vehicle is that a well-timed and well-written song can convey a tremendous amount of information just with the placement of a quarter note rest. I learned this the first time I performed in a Sondheim show. (“Into the Woods.”) I looked at the score, thought, “wow! It’s turtles all the way down, “and never looked back.
The performing arts world is a wonderful place for many reasons, but it’s also not an easy space for me to enter. As an Autistic, I get easily overwhelmed by loud, chaotic environments like music clubs. In a people-oriented business, missing a social cue, facial expression, or change in tone of voice can have implications that aren’t always obvious in the moment. One of my goals as I work in this space is to build more inclusive and accessible spaces for “neuro-spicy” artists and our supporters.
Tae & Noah Iliinsky get married onstage at Ignite Seattle in 5 minutes (yes, really!)
A feminist “f&%k you” to Todd “legitimate rape” Akin:
An impromptu living room jam session with fellow singer-songwriter Roem Baur.
An Ignite talk about body image, targeted advertising, Facebook and the wedding-industrial complex.
An Ignite Talk about Songwriting
The flying young Tae on the flying trapeze.