We recently connected with Tyler Gilbert and have shared our conversation below.

Tyler, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The one album that always comes to mind when someone asks me which had the biggest impact and means the most to me was my 2013 release titled “OK Murphy”. This album features 13 original songs written by myself. What made this album so special started write from the writing process. I structured these songs in a sort of theatrical way, a lot of the songs had this build up about 3/4 of the way through the song. This gave the songs a very cinematic feel to them, which conveyed a lot of power and emotion to the song.

This album also was my first really polished and professional sounding album, which was very exciting for myself to hear my creations turn out like that. My previous album was a stripped down, acoustic based singer/songwriter approach. The next part that made this album special, was it was my second time recording with producer Justin Bender, but this time we had a full band sound to work and experiment with. This is where our friendship really bonded, we found out that we work so well together. Inside the studio it was a very relaxed setting, just trying to come up with the best versions of these songs as possible. I was also able to feature 2 guest musicians on this album Rhiannon Ward, Mathew Palmarin and Jason Cullinmore.

The song that I was blown away and most proud of how it all turned out was “On & On”. With this song I wanted to pay homage to the genre that has some of the best singers around, which is R&B. The song that was the most well received and best selling was “Lady of the Mountaintop”, it was picked up on SiriusXM and did quite well. I was so blown away the attention this song received and it was my first song that I ever played banjo on.

Tyler, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a 33 year old singer/songwriter and musician who plays a wide range of music styles, but primarily lies within the rock genre. I have been writing, recording, touring and releasing albums for over 20 plus years. My sound and lyrics usually revolve around the theme of underdogs, loners and the downtrodden. Heavily guitar driven songs with dark tones and soaring vocals would best describe my music. I have been coined “the man of many genres”, and I think this is what sets my music apart from others, is the range and diversity in genres and musical styling. My albums have gone from folk to hard rock and I continue to experiment with my sound. I have always wanted to make every style that has influenced my music along the way.

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

For me the most magical part of being of music is song writing. How you can start from a blank slate and a idea in your head, to picking up a guitar and pulling out of the blue, a melody of chords and a vocal melody. Then you take these ideas which are now a song and can be shared in real time, can now be recorded in the studio, which eventually becomes a recorded song that can end up on a physical CD or floating among the internet for all to hear. Then it has the capability to really affect someone else’s mind and thoughts, link to their memories, change their mood. This process still to this day amazes me as the most incredible thing in life.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

It’s funny how this goes, when you start out the youngen’ dreaming of being on the big stages with all the glitz and glamor, this seems to initially drive you. As you get into the industry and play the shows and make the records you see how these things that once drove you weren’t all that they appeared, then the drive changes for the better. Now my drive and goal is to just make as much music as I possibly can before its time to go; to hopefully have that song that can affect someone, link to their memory, inspire thought and help them be stronger, better. I want to not be bound by societal and personal limitation that we put on what music is, what you can and should do when writing or recording a song. I want my songs to be what they are, I want music to be that, music.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tylergilbert.ca/home
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/tylergilbertmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tgilbertmusic/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylergilbertmusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tgilbertmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/tylergilbertmusic

Image Credits
Wes Tollefson (Kamiki Piks Photograhy), Rick Duke