Music and art have always been a channel for great emotions, capturing the hurt, pain, and tragedy that lies deep within an artist’s soul and allowing them to be released into the world. In the case of Taylor Conley, his art and music haven’t just been a release, they’ve been a constant and enduring lifeline. The founder of Designed Conviction, and a talented singer and songwriter in his own right, Taylor began writing poetry at the young age of fifteen after he was sent away to Tranquillity Bay in Jamaica, a hostile residential treatment facility affiliated with WWASPS. In 2001, Taylor made his way home to Longview, Washington, returning to small-town living with a far harsher outlook on life. As normality slipped away and relentless reality took hold, Taylor found himself entangled in a world of hard drugs, slipping into a downward spiral that would irrevocably shape his future. At the young age of twenty, Taylor was arrested and charged with aggregated murder in the first degree, the most severe criminal charge in the United States. Convicted of a crime that he didn’t commit, Taylor was forced to readjust to a life behind bars, turning to his art and adapting his poems into music releases as a way to find something more. An effective release and a way to transcend the walls and fences that held him, music became his life, and he quickly found a unique sound that represented his own journey and style.