Girl at the Rock Shows

I honestly can’t remember how I connected with The Amazing T-Bird (AKA Tyler)but that doesn’t matter. The fact is, I connected with him and instantly fell head over heels for his talent and his craftmanship when it comes to his music. I first reviewed his music in the form of his EP ‘Becoming the King of Ghosts’ back in September 2023. It hasn’t even been a year at this point but The Amazing T-Bird is back with some amazing new music and I figured this was the perfect time to get to know him a little bit better!

Everyone says that every crowd is their favorite but, what city has the best audience and why is it Minneapolis?

I have never been to a show in the Twin Cities so I cannot dispute the claim. However, I saw some amazing audiences in Denver when I lived there.

What’s your go-to coffee order?

Black, straight up. I worked at a Starbucks and there’s nothing more demeaning than a 10-year-old getting snippy about their Vanilla Ocho Sherbet Frapamochaccino.

What’s your go-to purchase at a gas station (outside of gas) when on a road trip?

I’d have to say cigarettes, but I’m trying to quit. I am constantly on the hunt for the best beef jerky, so we’ll say that. Side note: if you’re on a road trip with someone and you get Ranch Corn Nuts, they are legally allowed to make you ride in the trunk.

How would you describe your music to your grandparents?

Remember all those bands that my mom and dad loved in the 60s and 70s that you really didn’t care for? It’s like that. 

Favorite lyrics of all time?

It’s on one of the albums this year, called Stone Cold. I used to be myself, but that asshole wouldn’t shut up, so I’ll keep my words locked up and make them rare. But other than mine? Tremble like a flower! David Bowie, Let’s Dance. Honestly any Beastie Boys, too. They got catchy hooks for fucking MILES.

What’s your favorite menu item at Taco Bell?

MEXICAN PIZZA! thank the stars they brought it back. 

If you were to rob a bank, what would be the song playing in the getaway car as you escape?    

I was gonna say Getaway Car by Aesop Rock, but that’s a little obvious. I’d say Potemkin City Limits by Propaghandi. It’s a story about a cow that escaped an abattoir and somehow eluded capture for 3 months. The sense of urgency in the song is nerve-wracking.

What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to?

I’d have to say Queens of the Stone Age, with …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead. I was working at a Virgin Records in downtown Denver, and I am obsessed with anything Josh Homme does. And I somehow got free tickets. Not just a great show, but great friends, too. But all-time brag? Nirvana with Mudhoney and Jawbreaker at the Palmer auditorium in Davenport when I was in high school. Oh and Elvis Costello and The Police at Red Rocks in 2008. Tickets were free and it was a great show. Red Rocks is pretty amazing.

If you could compare yourself to an animal, what would it be and why?

I was born in North Dakota and there are still a lot of buffalo up there. All my life I have felt a weird connection with the buffalo, I don’t know if it’s the beard that they seem to have or what, but the buffalo is my spirit animal.

If you could have dinner with any musician, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Johnny Cash. He struggled with addiction just like I do, but he seemed to have an almost unswerving belief in God. I have never really had that, although I am very spiritual. Also, I wouldn’t mind getting loaded with the Man in Black.

What were you voted for in high school?

Most Obnoxious Personality lol

What’s the worst concert you’ve ever been to and why?

I’ve never been to a BAD concert. I can’t recall any shows where the music just SUCKED. But I did see Reverend Horton Heat at Lion’s Lair in Denver, which was incredible. Halfway through the show, I look over and my girlfriend at the time is making out with some random dude. But the show was great.

What’s your favorite method of listening to music?

I had a 4 disc changer in my apartment in Denver and I loved that shit. Put on 4 great CDs and shuffle? Oh man, where is my Playstation, an 18 pack of PBR and my copy of Madden 04? I have a lot of vinyl, and if I had a turntable I would listen to them more. But at this point I pretty much Spotify, and they are horrible to independent artists. But it’s really fucking convenient.

You are dropping both an album and EP on July 24th. Why not just make them both into one big album?

I have kind of done album, EP, album, EP, etc for a while now. Last summer I made a standalone single called Only Getting Better because I was extremely depressed. Around that time I was finishing Becoming The King of Ghosts and I decided to start planning the next album. Everything is going great and then I wrote and recorded a techno song called Oldman. Every album I have had an instrumental, and I figured Oldman can go on there as the instrumental, or out-of-the-box, song. But then I wrote some more electronic inspired stuff, including a rap song, and I thought let’s do an album AND an EP on the same day.

Which one do you like better? The album or EP? 

I would say the EP, although the album is fucking incredible. Mostly because I forced myself to GET OUT OF THE BOX on the EP, which is not easy to do for me.

You’ve clearly been busy and been thinking a lot about a lot of things– is there a common thread between these two releases?

The common thread among all my work is feeling a lack of support, love, attention, whatever you want to say. Which is kind of silly, because I have a pretty great support system. But the depression and anxiety will cause me to feel passed over, or ignored, or unloved. And it’s very seductive. ‘Sure, nobody likes you. And now we’ve proved it.’ I go to therapy because I do not want to feel these erroneous emotions. But it is hard work. The common thread between the two releases is that T-Bird rocks no matter what genre he’s attempting.

In typical T-Bird fashion, the vibes of the songs on both of these releases are all over the place. What was your biggest influence in these releases?

I am becoming more and more of a fan of older music like Howlin Wolf, The Guess Who and all of the Motown groups that Berry Gordy produced in the 60s. And Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. The thing about it is that I don’t really get influenced like others, or rather as I assume others are influenced. I fucking LOVE Iron Maiden, but I’ve never even come close to writing anything LIKE Iron Maiden. But another influence has been the Twitter community that I found because of @knowlijmusic. He is the real deal. I have been making friends and engaging with a lot of rappers, beat-makers, producers and hip hop artists. And it inspired me to try to do other things that I wouldn’t normally try. Another guy that has influenced me a lot is @_UGGGY. He is in that community and he doesn’t even have a box. Nothing is off-limits for the cat and I love it. @taoofpu is another artist that I did a collaboration with, and he has become a good friend. @StreetsideSound has been hosting a poetry jam for a little bit and I love being able to interact with these folks.

I asked you to pick your favorite song on each release. You chose “Sire” from 10-71 and then “Oldman” from From The Machine. Why did you pick those two?

I have a very complicated relationship with my dad. I can never forgive him for a lot of things, but he taught me guitar so I still care about him. But we don’t have a relationship of much substance. Every time I think about writing a letter (his hearing is horrendous so I can’t call him) I forget or life comes up or whatever. But I WANT a relationship with my dad, and I don’t know if I will ever have one, and that makes me sad in the pit of my soul. Sire is the song I have been trying to write about him for decades. It perfectly encapsulates every emotion, every ‘WHY?!?’, every hurt, every devastation, every time I have felt love for that man and hate for that man. There’s a recurring melody throughout the album, and I learned how to play it on guitar, and that became the music for Sire. And I wrote the lyrics in like 10 minutes. They all came rushing out. And they are some of my favorite lyrics, previous question aside. Oldman was the reason why From The Machine exists. I was taking a bath and started singing ‘Old man you’re beautiful to me’ over and over to myself in an old time gospel singing style, and I got out, recorded it, chopped it up and laid it over a seriously sexy electronic music bed. I added a voice loop and it sounded a certain way to me among the rest of the music and I added ‘Everybody wants to see on my knees but I’m standing on my feet cause I’m totally original!’ And I laid that down at the end of the song. Later I listened to the loop on it’s own, and it sounds nothing like the impression I first had. But what are you gonna do? It’s still a great song that I feel like took a lot of guts to try.

If you had to have a top-40 band/ artist cover these two releases, who would you want it to be and why?

So I looked up top 40 currently and I have never heard of anyone except (HURRGGGHHHH!) Papa Roach. That was me bazooka barfing because I had to think of Butt Rock. Don’t get me started on the correlation of Puddle of Mudd’s early aughts success and the current alt-right seduction of a lot of white men. So instead I thought about it another way: which artist/band (top 40 or not) would I want to cover these songs and why? And I am contemporary, to a fault. For Testify, I would have to pick Jack White. I adore his vocals, his frenetic guitar work, his whole vibe. I think he could take what I already consider a monster in Testify and bring the fucking house down. I am thinking of Lazzaretto right now and that delicious violin solo in the middle. And his Elvis impersonation in Walk Hard is an all-time great movie moment. And for Beat Down, I would choose Dua Lipa. I think she could really take the song to that next level. She is an incredible songwriter and singer, and I would really like to hear her breathy take on those really dark vocals.

I feel like this is almost unfair to ask because you’ve clearly been grinding but what’s next? Any big touring plans or more releases?!

The next step for me is building my audience. I plan to start auditioning drummers (and maybe a guitar/bass player) to get some live shows. I think playing live is that next level for me. Online engagement is great and all, but I want to show people what I’m like in person, sweating and swearing on stage and that energy that I bring to everything. I am learning a lot about how to build my online audience through those aforementioned Twitter buddies, so that is going to continue to be a lot of work.  Next steps also include finally getting a website and a linktree (I’m very busy with work right now and I famously procrastinate) and there’s more rap in the future, too. And I have started a weekly update show on my YouTube channel called Once a Week with T-Bird.

What else would you like everyone to know about these two release and you in general?

I grew up with albums, songs that were grouped together to create a cohesive musical vision. That’s kind of gone by the wayside, but I love putting something out there and saying, Ok, I did it. It’s there. I can look at it, I can listen to it, it’s real. And I really hope more people get into King of Ghosts. That was such a labor of love and I tortured myself getting that made. 

As far as the new releases go, they are the natural progression for me as an artist. I feel like it should be obvious that it’s me, but that it should further the sound that I am known for. And knowing that these songs have my stamp on them is pretty great. Getting out of my comfort zone is how I’m gonna grow as an artist. And the names of each release mean something. 10-71 is government code for Improper Use of Radio. I was searching for a great title, and I remembered hearing cops on TV yelling 10-13! 10-13! So I looked up all those codes and 10-71 seemed to fit me best. And From The Machine was maybe going to be called Ex Machina, but the english translation is much more ominous to me.

And me? I am a recovering alcoholic with almost 9 years of sobriety under his belt. But I tried to drink myself to death for decades. And I am glad I am out of that. I am also a podcast host on Off Panel, Off Topic, which you can find pretty much anywhere, but our YouTube channel is the best. And I co-host a fantasy football show every fall on the local sports radio station. I am also very liberal, I believe every human being deserves basic dignity, food, shelter and clothing without question. I am gonna get a lot of mail about that, but I don’t give a shit. Being a decent human being means being in touch with oneself. There are a lot of people sleepwalking-and sleepvoting-out there, and it shows. Ok, let me get off my soapbox.

But more than anything, I am unerringly human, obnoxiously beautiful, and terrifyingly authentic. I cannot fake what you hear. It is my heart and soul, and I bleed all over every chord, cymbal, whisper and shout.

I have felt a connection to Tyler ever since I took a listen to ‘Becoming The King of Ghosts’. Reading through these answers and really soaking each one in made that connection even stronger. My favorite part of this interview was the way he so tactfully answered each questions. Even the short answers were filled with personality (and they were the right answers because who doesn’t love a Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell?) but, within just lines, you saw things switch and you saw him get in touch with his emotions. All of this makes it so easy to see how passionate The Amazing T-Bird is.

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