Erik Tyler

Eclectic and prolific songwriter/artist. Blends genres and crosses lines.

There are many words that, though simple in structure, are difficult to define in essence and depth. Love. Home. Trust. One of those words for me is “Music”. Of course I know what it is. But to define what it means personally is no easy task. Music is part of me, a part without which I have trouble defining who I am. It’s like a limb or an organ and it has as real a function in me as either.

From earliest childhood, I have been fascinated by music, by the way it moves people, almost without their being aware. I still remember sitting on the piano bench, my feet dangling high above the pedals, and being in awe that I could press the “buttons” and make different sounds, and that those different sounds could go together to make songs. (I have been as amazed for the last well, “dozens of” years!) I would lie by the record player (yes, record player) and be lost for hours in Bach, Brahms and Beethoven, Handel and Haydn.

Greater still was the ever-growing realization that music came in every shape and size imaginable peaceful, angry, mysterious, somber, silly. Rock, Pop, World, Swing, Dance. Music has always been tied closely to the core of my emotions. And I began early on to realize the sheer force of music. It is a direct link to the soul the heart of a person, and in some cases, the home of God.

Music moves both ways in me, flowing in and out. It goes in and moves me, challenges me, calms me. It flows out, allowing me to say what I cannot say with everyday words, to give the gifts I cannot buy. Much of that thought and passion has always been the mystery that is God, the immensity of His being and His love.

Although I began my “journey of faith” as a young child and grew up in church, the journey has been anything but easy. Anger and confusion were the norm. Key people lied, left, fell hard. What I saw at times within those walls of stone were often hearts of stone. Yet God always brought me back to the place where I knew that He was simply was and that what He had to offer was not what I was seeing. Through it all, music kept me rooted kept the child in me believing.

Somewhere during turbulent teen years, words began to accompany the music that was already pouring out of me to ask the questions no one was answering, to challenge the “system” around me, to express my unspeakable desire to know God more intimately. The trickle turned to a river and is now a flood, a great rush of soul that carries me along to a deeper place of love, understanding and peace.

I don’t really try to write songs; they usually just step out through my hands and voice in the most amazing ways. I am as surprised as any when the next song comes! Songs about “the way it really is.” Songs that press the limits. Songs that ask the questions many shy away from, that challenge the status quo and yet also challenge the skeptic, the bitter, the distant to step in and take another look at their God. Songs that simply smile toward heaven and say thank you.

If there is anything I can do because of this gift God’s entrusted to me, it’s smile toward heaven and say thank you.

I do play live, all over Massachusetts, various places across the country, and have sung in several foreign countries, as well.

I am the most eclectic listener/writer I know. I enjoy any style of music that is thought-provoking and/or done with excellence. Particularly favorite writers/singers are Nicole Nordeman, CeCe Winans, Sting, Chris Rice.

I am always looking to rub elbows with talented and commited artists looking for material, writers, and cutting-edge producers who want to make great music.