Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyler Summers.
Hi Tyler, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As a person in the music industry, it’s funny to look back. I compare it to hockey a little being a Canadian. If you stop to admire your past you get bodychecked into oblivion. The hustle takes to make it in this industry is very much like that. As soon as you aren’t looking to your next move, how to improve, or what new skills you can acquire to up your value, the next artist, composer, or musician is there to take your spot.
My life feels a little like the life of Forrest Gump. I’ve climbed a lot of mountains in many facets of the industry and paid a lot of dues for which I am super grateful. Whether it was in the jazz world being honored as a Rising Star in Canada at the National Jazz Awards to playing as a sideman with Spoon on David Letterman during my years in NYC. Then there was the time I sang the Canadian National Anthem at the opening of the British Columbia Pavillion in Beijing, China right before the opening of the 2008 Olympics, and the same year I wrote a piece of music that years later appeared in a Netflix show called Degrassi. A particularly prideful moment as a Canadian. Alas, it was Degrassi: Next Generation, which means Drake wasn’t in the cast.
Instead of life being like a box of chocolates though, I definitely had to painstakingly learn not only how to make the chocolate, but how to market it, make packaging choices, put up the capital, and then put it out into the world. It definitely wasn’t without its dues. I remember being so broke in New York City as a Canadian who wasn’t allowed to work legally I would scour Craigslist for the odd $40-50 jobs. One time I even showed up at an NYU art exhibit where a student needed help with an art project for $30.
Little did I know when he passed the all-white outfit to me that I would be dressed as a sperm collecting tennis balls painted white with tails acting also as sperm being shot at a large outstretched piece of flesh-colored rubber. He felt so bad at the end of the two hours he gave me $50. I couldn’t have been happier. That meant I could grab some pizza slices on the way home from Ray’s.
It was the long drive through the nights after a Saturday eve 4-hour frat party to make it in time to play the church gig on Sunday that you look back on. The 13 years of writing music for advertising where the people you’re writing for flat out rejected everything and anything you submitted because it straight up wasn’t good. Those are the moments you look back on when you’re on stage in front of 150,000 people with Martina McBride on July 4th in downtown Nashville, or when you’re up late one night watching Jimmy Fallon and all of the sudden you hear a familiar song and realize you are the musical accompaniment to the next $3.50 footlong Subway commercial.
Leaving home to go to the University of North Texas as a 17-year-old kid still wearing socks with his sandals about to experience Texas heat in the dead of August, I had no idea where my career would take me. The trials and tribulations of the hustle of life to be where I am today as a full-time composer and musician with skills that I know will be valuable no matter what the climate. No amount of school could teach you, it just takes time, effort, and work ethic.
These days, I spend a lot of my time doing the things I love to do with the people I love to do them with. It took almost half of a lifetime, but the stories are endless. One of the most out-of-body experiences I had was one day in Muscle Shoals Alabama at the infamous Fame Studios. I was a last-minute addition to a session where we were going to redo the song “Brown Sugar” with none other than Steven Tyler. Steven showed up after we had a few slaw dogs (epic Shoals staple) and called us all into the main A room. He was singing a horn part to the section and needed more from us. He started dancing around the room and had the drums start playing along.
He was so elated and full of joy he FaceTimed Lenny Kravitz who was on a red carpet somewhere in LA at an award show. He was dancing around the room singing the part with Lenny Kravitz on FaceTime. By this time we had the horn part memorized as we’d played it countless times. I looked around the room and said to myself, how did a suburban Canadian kid get to be in this moment, at this time, in this place. Might have been one of the best pieces of chocolate from the box.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
One of the hardest times beyond paying dues in this industry is when you really look in the mirror and realize you’ve been performing not only in studios and on stage, but with the world. I hit a rock bottom 3 1/2 years ago when I was denied my Green Card during a difficult political climate and with immigration in shambles.
It was a freak incident two separate lawyers assured me, but it was a blow to the ego that I wasn’t expecting. I basically laid out my entire career with all the sacrifices of relationship, family, country, and finances in front of a person and he said it wasn’t good enough. It was the beginning of an inward journey that has changed me to my core.
Creatives struggle mightily with depression and addiction. I was and am no different. In this moment of losing myself, I asked for help. I began therapy, did EMDR, started meditating, and began the difficult journey of healing trauma. I can safely say it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. Undoing and unpacking the person you’ve been for so many years.
During Covid, I made the decision that if I wasn’t allowed to travel anywhere, specifically to Canada with the borders closed, I would travel inward. I began to take my meditation practice seriously and would meditate several hours a day with various types of meditation. My work was large with Dr. Joe Dispenza. I promised myself that the most important thing was to do this work over anything else. It felt like the most difficult therapy session daily.
Some days, I would sleep until 2 pm, wake up, and go right back at it. One night I woke up at 3 am and my body, which I was deeply connected to at this point, said I needed to get up and meditate. It was one of several life-altering moments along this journey experienced that night that forever changed me.
I’ve gone on to go deeper with this work and added in more therapy along with it. I’ve healed some major traumas that were driving me to be an addict in various areas of my life. Through EMDR and meditation, I was able to one day wake up and be free of these addictions. Sitting inside the pain has allowed me to look in the mirror and take ownership of my actions and choices. Not to play the victim.
Through this work, I’ve realized my next phase in life is to give this back to people. I’m launching a new brand called Creataholics where creatives can come and feel safe, seen, and heard. Through Mindfulness, Meditation, and Manifestation I’m going to share some of the ways I’ve accessed my subconscious to create without the suffering we all inevitably cause ourselves as creatives.
People can sign up for the launch at https://www.creataholics.us. I will be soon offering a free meditation as well as a package of meditations directed at creatives specifically. Couldn’t be more excited to enter into this space and on this journey to give back.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I began playing piano at a very young age. I used to sit in front of the fish tank and open and close my hands to the rhythm of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik before I could speak. From there I took up clarinet and saxophone through high school. I was very serious about the jazz idiom and went on to get my degree in jazz performance from the University of North Texas. I spent a couple of years with the famous One O’Clock Lab Band which gave me the skills to be a solid reader of music and as a woodwind doubler.
While at UNT I got the bug to write songs after a rough breakup. My jazz friends all thought I was crazy but it was the beginning of a whole new part of my musical story. I moved to Toronto and was a figure on the jazz scene all the while working on my debut singer-songwriter album “Along for the Ride.” It may or may not have been that great, but hey, you have to start somewhere.
I realized quickly many of my friends were in the US so I moved to New York City. Instead of chasing the jazz dream, you’d think with a move to NYC, I fell in love with songwriting. I made two EP’s and would play local clubs on piano and sing upstairs at the Living Room, Rockwood Music Hall, etc. NYC and I didn’t get along all so well, and the universe brought me to Nashville over 15 years ago. I thought it was the perfect spot to do all the things I wanted. A songwriter’s round one night, in the studio playing saxophone the next, and writing music for TV the next day.
I paid my dues on the wedding/party band scene making money all along building up my studio chops combining all my skills as a player, singer, and songwriter. I had a wonderful mentor in Paul Umbach who used to work for Jive Records in the Britney Spears and N’Sync days. Most importantly he went on to have some huge ad placements with Sears, Huggies, and McDonald’s. He so graciously mentored me in the studio world and the composition world while I was out hustling playing my saxophone to keep the lights on.
Then my life changed when I was asked to be a member of a four-piece horn section with Martina McBride. What was supposed to be a four-month tour turned into over 2 years? I was able to build my own studio space in our downtime off the road, and when the tour ended I dove into sessions and composing for Film/TV/Ads.
My life at that point was creating content for Film/TV/Ads and playing woodwinds on people’s records. It was a great growth period getting to know producers and artists who now really trust me with their projects and their creations. I’m so grateful that when they need a certain thing they know I and my team can deliver it to them.
These days I still work out of the same studio space, but thankfully no more tour buses. Never could sleep well on them. I was honored to recently join the Music City Connection led by Tré Corley to do a weekly television show called the Huckabee Show. I really get a chance to be myself and contribute to this wonderful band.
I’m still writing and composing my own music and planning a launch of my new brand Creataholics.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My most favorite childhood memory and musical memory, even after all the crazy experiences I’ve had was when I was 17 with my dad as my band director. When I was twelve I lost both of my grandmothers suddenly in a short span. It was a tragic time but it may have been one of the most life-altering moments for myself and my sister, who is also in the music industry and way more talented than me.
We were able to move to a better neighborhood and most importantly I was able to go to school with my dad every day. He was my teacher, my mentor, and my friend. I’d hang in the band room with all the kids and him all the time. We’d be there from 6 am till 5, sometimes 6 pm. It was a blast. He was a beloved teacher, and rightly so, so I’d like to think we made band cool again.
One of the last performances we did together was at the Envision Jazz Festival in Surrey BC. The way it worked was the bands would perform during the day and the best 4 would get to play that night. We ended up being one of the four and there was a major energy buzz in the room that night. It was a simple hotel conference room opened as wide as it could. A thousand or more people, and more out the door. Typically what you do is you play your ballad first and then the fast fun song to close. We didn’t, and boy was it special. We played a piece called Agnus Dei by the late Hugh Fraser which was in a mass he had written for Jazz Ensemble.
The piece was structured to where it built over the course of the piece from nothing to a crescendo to beat all crescendos. The room was confused after our first piece because it was fun and up, going against the norm which my dad always liked to do. Then Jane Dean on piano started her opening free-flowing rubato solo piano solo. It set the mood and the crowd fell silent and still. I was standing in front of the band about 5 feet from my dad who was conducting to my left. It felt as if people were right on top of me in the front row squeezed into this conference room that was dark beyond the lights shining on the band.
We built the piece slowly and as it got louder I exchanged a few glances with my dad. I could see my dad dramatically pulling everything he could from the band waving his arms dramatically and it put me into a state where I was completely lost in the music. We ended up building to the loud long-held note with our lead trumpet player Albert Ezaki giving everything he had left. This was it for a lot of us. This was our championship game. And in my hallucinogenic state high off the moment and music as my dad cut the band off I locked eyes with him. It felt like an eternity that silence.
He waited a little longer to finish out the piece as he directed Jane on piano and me to complete the movement with a short emotional few bars. The three of us as though we had done it a thousand times all cut off together. I looked at my dad again and knew this was one of the last times we would ever do this and be on stage together. My life was about to move into a new space. In another moment that felt like it would last forever, the crowd gave off silent energy like the top was still on a freshly shaken Coke bottle.
Right as my father and I both looked at each other and knew this was it, they erupted in a standing ovation that I’ve never heard since in my many years of performing. It was breathtaking. We weren’t chosen as the winners that night, but if you ask me, I felt like a Stanley Cup and Super Bowl champion all rolled into one. And instead of Disneyland, I went to college.
Contact Info:
- Email: tyler@tylersummers.com
- Website: https://www.tylersummers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tylersummersmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tylersummersmusic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/tylersummers
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/tylersummersmusic
Image Credits
Kris Rae – https://www.instagram.com/krisraeSaraGauchat – https://www.instagram.com/saragauchat
