Musician Ben Taylor's voice and name are probably quite familiar to many music lovers: He is the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon.

Taylor grew up between New York City and Martha's Vineyard. The island off Cape Cod still inspires much of his music. The song "Surround Me" was written while he was living in the desert Southwest and longed to return to the ocean.

The younger Taylor says he used to try hard not to sound like his famous father, with a rough-edge sound he called "neo-psychedelic-folk-funk."

But over time, Taylor realized that he was more comfortable following in his parents' musical footsteps.

Now, he says, to be compared to them is an "incredible compliment."

Taylor, who has had no formal musical training, talks about his initial nervousness about getting into music, the expectations people placed on him, and the songwriter's manual that his mother put together to help him assuage his fears.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.