Meet Bethany Taylor Daley | Musician, Writer, and Multimedia Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bethany Taylor Daley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bethany, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I love this question! I’m originally from a small town in the Central Valley near Sequoia National Park, and growing up in that environment has impacted every creative project I’ve pursued as an adult. It’s an area of California which is often forgotten, and is culturally very driven by relationship to the land. Creatively, I’m very drawn to work that focuses on those kinds of themes– forgotten or discarded areas, being in relationship with different types of terrain, and a kind of minimalism which I feel is evocative of the landscape imagery I grew up seeing on a daily basis.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My performance name is Little Thousand, and it has become a sort of catch-all brand for the bulk of my creative work. I’m a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, but have always had an interest in other creative arts. I grew up fully believing I’d support myself as a visual artist someday, but went on to pursue creative writing as an undergraduate degree. Meanwhile, the music was always there– sometimes in the background, sometimes at the fore.

Then a few years ago, I asked myself what would happen if I stopped compartmentalizing all these pursuits– I wondered if there was some way I could marry my love of collage, bookmaking, writing, videography, and analog tech. For each new musical release, I began creating complementary videos that featured these interests in one way or another. I may record a song completely on some junky old tape deck my wife picked up at an estate sale. Maybe an instrumental is accompanied by a short essay or vignette. Scraps from a discarded architecture textbook might appear in a collage set to my newest song. I used to have this deep need to know what exactly it is I’m trying to do here, but I gave that up. I don’t really know how to define the parameters of Little Thousand– it’s iterative; it’s world-building; it expands to make space for whatever may come next.

I think the biggest challenge for me has been the performance aspect– it’s incredibly difficult to build any sort of following if you have crippling stage fright! And I’m definitely more of an in-the-studio artist, but a huge part of my path has been learning how to let people in and allow myself to be seen. Sometimes this means collaborating with other artists, including those in adjacent disciplines. For instance, I’m currently very excited to be working on an original score for an upcoming independent short film, Immaculate Consumption, written by my longtime friend and talented filmmaker, Lauren Fitzgerald.

As cliche as it may sound, the most important lesson I’ve learned is that perfect is the enemy of good. I’ve hoarded creative projects in my tiny little home studio, toiling away like a mad scientist for too many years! In January, I dubbed 2025 “the year of single takes,” and it’s such a refreshing experiment to put that kind of restriction on a creative project. So far, so good!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
So many spots, so little time. One thing about me is I’ll go anywhere that’s outdoors or a historic landmark, and San Diego offers so many spots that do both. I’d love to take my visitor to the Encinitas Meditation Garden. The garden itself is so peaceful and gorgeous, and also has an incredible view of Swami’s Beach. Obviously, we’re stopping at Pannikin Coffee & Tea on the way out– giant yellow house, can’t miss it. Cabrillo National Monument is another great spot I like to go to clear my head. The trail is lined with a pollinator garden, and at the top, you get an almost 360 view of the water.

I’m definitely a University Heights girl at heart, and my last home studio was walking distance from this incredible little cafe called Twiggs. If it’s a Friday night in July, we’re popping over to the nearby historic Trolley Barn park for their summer concert series. Verbatim Books in North Park is also on my list. This is not your normal book shop, and we’ll have to catch a concert, poetry reading, or maybe even a square dance while we’re in the area. For me, no trip to San Diego would be complete without a visit to the incredible Downtown Library. A little known fact about me is that I’m a librarian and will brake for books. We’ll have to spend some time in the 9th floor rare book collection before heading out to the rooftop terrace overlooking downtown and San Diego Bay.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My first thought is of my parents who saw me obsessively banging on a piano before I could even speak, and subsequently enrolled me in lessons. I received my first ever tape deck with a microphone to begin recording my own music as a Christmas gift from Mom and Dad when I was 12. If I hadn’t been born to parents who supported the arts and fostered my creativity, my life would not look the way it does today.

I would also be totally remiss not to mention my wife, Sam, who has been my biggest fan and cheerleader for 15+ years, even before we were together! She is constantly talking sense into me when the self-doubt creeps in. She’s my cheerleader, my roadie, my photographer, my merch girl, but above all, my loving and supportive partner in all things.

Instagram: @lttlthsnd

Other: My Substack, “Notes from Little Thousand,” on music-making, process, and slow life: https://bethanyt.substack.com

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4GdyCySoPD3AxVXBGWOsU3?si=HKc4JO3HQpWXoOJThEMZ9Q

Image Credits
Photos 1-5: Sam Witter
Photos 6-7: Bethany Taylor Daley