AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 11

SOUNDS
he started while in high school.
In his new album, Music to Free Your
Spirit, a 5-track expansion of the single,
Free Spirit, John found himself, like all of us
in the 2020s, at the bottom of a seemingly
endless pile of worries, stresses, and
doubts. Like so many of us, he responded
by holding on tighter, putting as much
effort into making believe that everything
was fine as he was into trying to dig his way
out. And like it does for so many of us, it
worked — until it didn’t.
“One night I had a sudden panic attack
in the middle of my sleep because I had so
much overwhelming my brain,” the artist
remembers. “It was so bad that I thought I
was going to die.” The next day began with
a revolutionary act: he decided to rest. On
the first day of his imposed vacation, John
began to make music. By its end, he had
produced the nearly 12-minute long Free
Spirit, in its entirety. “All of the production
and my personal vocals were recorded in
one day,” he says. “It felt amazing because,
prior to the creation of the project, I hadn't
made music in months.” A few days later he
created Music To Free Your Spirit, which he
calls, “an instrumental project made for relaxation,
meditation, contemplation, and
reflection.”
Describing his music as a fusion of
jazz, R&B, rock, and indie influences,
elements of each can be heard in different
measure as the album moves from one
track to the next. The music is atmospheric,
meant to fill the background rather than
command attention, designed to facilitate
moments of peace rather than stir the
emotions. In his approach to the music of
the moment, John Tyler digs through his
stress and his pain to find the calm at the
eye of the storm while leaving a path for us
to follow.
The 21st century still needs its Billie
Holidays and Nina Simones, artists willing
to risk themselves to use their art to
confront society with the truth as we see it
while giving us the validation of having our
most pressing problems, questions, and
experiences reflected in song. But in these
days of upheaval, where self-care itself is
increasingly becoming an act of defiance
(and maybe it always was), a moment’s
peace can mean just as much.
Look out for John’s upcoming album,
Men Do Cry, coming out later in 2023. AC
110 aphrochic