Your EDM Interview: TYNAN On Forging His Own Path

This week we’re getting into the nitty gritty of being a bass maker with TYNAN, who has recently released his new single ‘Undone,’ featuring Aaron Gillespie. He speaks to us about how his sound has been developed over the years and some dream collaborations for the future.

Appreciate you taking the time to chat! How would you best introduce yourself as an artist to someone who hadn’t heard your tunes?

Thank you for having me! I like to describe my music as aggressively all over the place. I don’t like pigeonholing myself to one genre or one style when I’m writing, so I tend to have songs that fit under a lot of categories. I guess you could say its experimental, yet accessible, bass-heavy music, with a lot of different sounds thrown in for good measure.

What makes the TYNAN sound unique?

I think my sound stems from my love of approaching dance music in unconventional ways. I love manipulating audio and stacking random effects to create sounds that can’t be replicated and stand out and make you go “…what!” On top of that, I really love playing with song structures and keeping the listener on their toes as to what comes next. As Forest Gump once definitely said “TYNAN songs are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gunna get.”

What do you love most about doing this as a job?

Man, there’s so much to love. I love the freedom to make my own hours, or work at my own pace. The freedom to tackle a song or challenge in whatever way I want. Working and interacting with people from all over the world and all walks of life. Building relationships and friendships with artists that I’ve looked up to for years. Just being able to do what I love for a living. There’s really nothing else that compares.

Where did your musical love story start for you? Do you remember any key early influences?

It started at a very young age. I remember the first song I fell in love with was ‘Take My Picture’ by Filter when I was around 6 or 7. I didn’t know how to find music at that age, so I just listened to whatever my older siblings were listening to. I didn’t find my own music until I was about 12 years old. I stumbled across MTV2 one day and it changed my life, haha. From there I started my own musical journey. I began playing drums, eventually moved onto guitar. Joined a few bands that went nowhere. Found out I loved very aggressive, noisy experimental music. I never even considered listening to dance music until I was 17 and heard ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites’ for the first time. Thats when this whole other world of music opened up for me and I fell in love with it instantly. It felt like it was the kind of music I had been searching for my whole life until that point. After that, I went to school for audio production and never looked back.

Who or what are you currently really into, music-wise?

I don’t even know where to begin hahaha. I’ve been in love with Thundercats latest album. Same goes for tiedye ky. Discovered Dorian Electra a few months ago and instantly fell in love. I got my girlfriend into Porter Robinson lately (she does NOT like dance music at all), so we’ve been listening to his latest singles on repeat. I cant stop listening to Space Lace’s Vaultage 003, its so beyond what everyone else is doing. Same goes for Must Die’s most recent tracks. I’ve had Leotrix’s ‘Emoboy303 (SIDE)’ stuck in my head since the first time I heard it. I’ve also gone down an REM rabbit hole recently and just discovered how incredible their early work is. Besides all of that, I love discovering new artists on SoundCloud and Spotify. It’s crazy how much untapped talent there is in the underground scenes; it’s been really cool to see so many artists breakout over the pandemic. Shoutout to Voltra, Moore Kismet, Phonon, Papa Khan, all of Halcyon, and so many more, I’m definitely forgetting a lot, haha.

You’ve just collaborated with Aaron Gillespie on ‘Undone.’ How did that hook-up happen, and what did
you enjoy most about making it?

As much as I would like to say we met at a show and hit off and became best friends and we see each other all the time and we spend summers at the lake and do kick-flips on our jetskis and he’s going to be my best man at my wedding and I’m actually getting married to his sister so we will, by law, be brothers forever; the reality is much more boring. Most of the interaction happened between my manager and his team. I have yet to meet him in real life. Regardless, I was still freaking out the entire time I was writing the song. I loved having these raw, intense vocals to work with; it’s so much different than vocals I’m used to working with in the dance music world. I felt like I had to really make something special to match what he gave me.

Are you happy with the end result?

Oh definitely! I spent over a month straight just mixing down this song. I learned a lot just through that, as well as going outside my comfort zone in terms of song-writing. I just hope other people love it as much as I do.

Who would you particularly love to remix or collaborate with?

Theres so many artists I would love to collaborate with, but if I’m being honest with myself, I think I would rather focus on building up my own solo discography. I’ve done so many collabs and remixes over the past few years that I’m worried I’ve lost my own sound. So really that’s my main focus at the moment, to reestablish the TYNAN sound.

Is there anything coming up next from you that you can share yet?

Depending on when this interview is coming out, my next release is ‘Blaze’ with Dirt Monkey and it comes out on March 26th. If the song is already out by the time this interview is published, then GO STREAM IT NOW YA DIMBO. Other than that, I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about shows returning soon. I’ve got a few EPs in the works. One in particular that I’m almost done with, is a sort of conceptual dubstep EP. I don’t want to give to much away, but I’m really excited about it. Also really nervous about how people will react to it, or if they react at all, or if anyone will listen to it, or if anyone still cares about my music… I guess we’ll see soon! Besides that, just looking to put out some more singles in the upcoming months before the first EP.

Is there anything else we should know about you?

I have an unhealthy obsession with Super Metroid rom hacks. If you know what those are, please hit me up so we can nerd out over them.