We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tyler Browne a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tyler, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I remember partially by recall and partially as was told to me by my grandfather, that when the marching band paraded through Mainstreet at Disneyland, I climbed up on top of a dining table and began dancing. I was two years old. Apparently I felt dancing on the ground was not my preferred platform and needed something with elevation, like a stage perhaps? I briefly thought I was headed in the direction of being an artist, as I loved to draw. However, my preoccupation with performing, especially spending all of my childhood enrolled in dance and acting classes from the age of four, seemed to hold the largest focus of my time. I would spend hours alone singing and dancing listening to records or the radio imitating my favorite male singers. Additionally, with TV shows like the Monkees and Partridge Family to variety shows that featured live musical performances, I found additional sources of inspiration. By the time I was 11, I had also begun to learn how to play guitar. I never saw myself being anything but a performer, but I wasn’t completely convinced it would be as an actor or dancer. Once I found rock music and the bands and artists that represented them, I knew this was what I wanted for me as well. I never considered wanting to be anything else after that.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been in original bands since I was a teenager and began writing songs when I was 9 years old. I started playing live by sitting in with other bands at parties, then nightclubs and eventually joined bands with friends and later formed my own bands with other professional musicians

I consider myself someone who seeks joy and more often humor in all aspects of my life, even in the more challenging ones. However, when it comes to my career, I am driven by professionalism with integrity and gratitude for the opportunity to contribute. I feel blessed to have been given the gifts I have been given and therefore, feel it an honor and a duty to put on the best show for any audience in front of me. We all have days in which our technical performances may not measure up, but we can always provide passion in the form of entertainment. Your heart is stronger than those sleepless nights are on your mind and your body.

That being said, as a frontperson in a band, be it for your own original music or as a tribute, one must call upon the personification of what that music represents as well as be its messenger. You are not only the event, but the invitation to it.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

There were two times in my life since I was a teenager in which I was not in a band. The first time was in 1995 when I decided to move back to LA after living in and being in a band in Santa Barbara. I had expected to have my band join me, but one of the key players did not immediately follow suit and another in the interim had joined another band. I had tried auditioning for other bands myself, but ran into familiar issues as when I was a teen before creating my own bands. I was either the wrong gender or the right gender, but not quite the style or range expected for my gender. The second and longest absence from playing in a band came after the dissolvement of my band ROC in 2007. It was a difficult time to find players who weren’t just wanting to play classic rock or branch off into becoming solo artists/producers. Due to many life changes, good and bad, I had just ran out of steam to do it all again on my own. It wasn’t until January of 2023 that I was asked by my guitar player who’s band I was in as a teenager to host and sing for his live Karaoke band. Later that year I would audition for The LA Cult. By that December, I could say that I was blessed with what we believers refer to as a “double portion”

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

It may sound like an adage, but my growth as a musician and as an individual has been the most sustainable and satisfying benefit to having a creative and adventurous soul. I’ve been able to discover things about myself I don’t think I would have in any other way. I get to see more of who I can be, doing what I love, while learning what I learn on a daily basis. Everything I accomplish is a milestone. Milestones can show up in the most incredible places. All you need to do is keep your eyes open and just land on them when you see them, no matter how small. Once you’re there, get down on your knees, acknowledge it and give God a shout out.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @thelacult @livebandkaraoke.la
• Facebook: @thelacult @livebandkaraoke.la
• Other: Tiktok: @thelacult

Image Credits

Michael Pool Photography