We were lucky to catch up with Tyler Mills recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tyler, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
I do have a regular job, like it or not, most of us do. I’ve had a lot of them. I simply utilise my abilities at job’s in a way that allows me to either transmute experience from there into what it is I like to do, or, that place of work provides me a comfortable pay rate which in turn allows me to live my life outside that place in a manner I see fit. Job’s are a mean’s to an end, I think we’d all rather be doing whatever it is we want to do anyway’s.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I was born in Southwest England back in ’94, and in 2001 my Dad moved us to Redondo Beach, California. I had a pretty rigid upbringing with my father where creativity was squandered in comparison to income and stability. Life was encouraged to be lived very black and white and to follow the safest path. College was not encouraged. I joined the army and although I excelled in there I could tell very soon after joining that this was not going to be the lifestyle for me. Previous to my joining the army, I had already began forming a certain lifestyle. I had gotten into raves in SoCal, some friends and I would sniff out the seediest warehouse parties Los Angeles had to offer 2010 to 2012 hoping to find DJs playing hard-core techno music. It wasn’t until a friend gave me the opportunity to DJ for a birthday party that playing and producing this music was even on my radar. I needed money at the time and had just enough to buy some DJ equipment so I figured why not I’ll give it a try. I picked up DJing relatively quickly however I was more interested right from the beginning of how to make the specific harder sounds that I liked. Very quickly I became hooked on this genre and sub-culture and it really became my identity. I was watching videos of raves in the Netherlands obsessively and I formed the idea in my head that if I could get stationed with the military somewhere in Europe, then on weekends I would be able to attend these parties. I picked the job of working on tanks as a gunner because a recruiter told me I would get stationed in Germany. Instead I got stationed in Colorado where I ended up meeting a friend in my platoon from Tennessee. He really showed me the ropes in the production of music, we were in to similar genres and just clicked. Upon returning to America after my first deployment my sergeant surprised me and bought me a flight to Amsterdam for my vacation period. They knew that’s where I wanted to go because essentially this music and these parties was all I ever talked about. So I went and I experienced one of these parties and then it was really game on. That was in 2013 and since then I have relentlessly continued to produce this music, DJ this music and create parties for this music in an attempt to hopefully provide current fans and newcomers with the same energy and feeling it provides me. It was around that same time that I discovered Welding. We had a lot of repairs to do on the tanks when we came back from deployment so naturally I would see the metal being worked on and had an interest in it. If we fast forward through my early 20s which was full of traveling and the aforementioned to 2019, I found myself here in Reno, NV, attending Welding School. I really wanted to go back to Australia at the time except with a higher paying skill as the music scene I was into is huge in Sydney. COVID happened and I never got back to Australia sadly. Instead I have connected with artists and a community that are deeply involved in the creative aspect of Burning Man, an annual art’s event nearby here, which has allowed me to take part in some amazing projects and combine my love for hardcore techno and metal art-work. I have thrown multiple parties revolving around Hardcore techno music and feel it is safe to say that I have gained a small reputation around here as a man that does that music. The services I provide to people are quality work in a timely fashion with an all over pleasant experience. I get this because I like my work. I like my work because although I haven’t found the direct correlation, (I am close) the possibilities between the two coexisting are endless. To express my creativity through metal is unique and special to me. Through my music I provide my audience with a show, something to look at and resonate with. A true connection to the energy that I feel. In turn I hope to make this music more popular in this city and hopefully beyond.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class by Steven Siebold
This is a must read for any visionary
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My entire journey is a story of resilience. Non-creatives will never understand the challenge of attempting to share your passion for something so niche and the feeling it brings you with the uninitiated. How can they? After all that IS the challenge? Thats for me to figure out how to do. There can be infinite let downs… but just occasionally, there is that one breakthrough that fuels the jet and keeps the vision flying. I’d have to say biting the bullet on multiple occasions and excepting that hardstyle music just wasn’t appropriate for the given moment has been a continuous thorn in my side.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @bingo_jerry
- Facebook: Bingo Jerry