Nick Tayler and Henry Evans wrote songs together for years without ever being in the same room, until they finally stood face to face this week at a pavilion on the West Valley College campus in Saratoga. Tayler, a country artist, provided the vocals and melodies. Evans, a nonspeaking lyricist who communicates by tracking letters with his eyes, supplied the words. On Thursday, they watched each other work in person for the first time.
The meeting capped a collaboration that, according to KTVU, had gone on remotely for more than 10 years, though West Valley College described the partnership as spanning five years. Either way, the pair had built a working relationship entirely online before Tayler flew in from Florida for a pair of free campus performances scheduled for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Thursday, per the college. KTVU reports that Tayler is a country music artist from Lake City, Florida, while Evans is a lyricist living in Palo Alto.
A Partnership Built Letter by Letter
Evans became mute after a stroke in 2002; KTVU described him as paraplegic following that stroke, while West Valley College referred to him as a quadriplegic and nonspeaking songwriter. Both outlets agree on how he writes: he composes lyrics letter by letter using eye-tracking technology, a painstaking process the college's event announcement tied directly to his songwriting output. The nicktaylermusic.com account of the partnership describes Evans working blink by blink to build out full lyrics, while Tayler sets those words to melody and sings them.
The College of Adaptive Arts hosted Thursday's gathering on the West Valley College campus, bringing the two collaborators together in person for the event. Evans watched Tayler perform their songs live for the first time, after years of hearing the finished recordings only from a distance.
From “Daisy” to “Keep It Hometown”
Their partnership has produced more than one song. According to nicktaylermusic.com, the duo's debut collaboration was “Daisy,” a tribute to Evans's wife, Jane Evans. That same account states Tayler first contacted Evans online without knowing about his disability, and that the two connected in 2019 after Evans was looking for a co-writer.
Their best-known joint effort, “Keep It Hometown,” finished as runner-up in the country music category of the International Songwriting Competition, KTVU reports. The song also earned the pair a finalist spot in the Great American Song Contest, according to nicktaylermusic.com. Those songwriting honors have followed years of collaboration that, until Thursday, existed only through screens and recordings.
Evans has written with other collaborators as well. Per Los Altos Online, Evans and Nick Aborizk spent months trading ideas before producing a song called “Measure of a Man.” The same outlet reports that Evans and Tayler are already working on more music, with hopes of releasing another song within a few months.
Eye-Tracking Technology at the Center of the Craft
Evans's method of composing traces back to tools he has used for years. A 2013 interview on siliconvalley.com described him using a head-tracking device and a laser pointer to spell out words on a letter board, a precursor to the eye-tracking system that now lets him build lyrics letter by letter. That same deliberate process underpins every song credited to the Tayler-Evans partnership, including “Keep It Hometown” and “Daisy.”
Thursday's performances at West Valley College gave the public a chance to see that process pay off on stage, with Tayler singing words that Evans assembled one letter at a time from across the country for years before the two ever shared a room.
