Anthony Tyler

Skaneateles, NY is more than a summer getaway for the rich and famous, including former President Bill and Senator Hillary Clinton. It’s also the hometown of Anthony Tyler, a gifted musician and a force to be reckoned with. Born Tyler Cole when Skaneateles was just a small town on one of the smallest Finger Lakes in upstate New York, Anthony picked up a guitar at age 4. It was true love at first sight, touch, and sound. He started taking acoustic guitar lessons when he was only 5 ½ years old, and was teaching others by the ripe old age of 16.

In 1989, his debut album, DON’T LOOK BACK, won him the attention of the Syracuse music scene. After hearing that album, Curb Records recording artist Benny Mardones met Anthony (then Tyler Cole) in late 1989, and invited him to tour with the band. Tyler played a blistering rhythm/lead guitar and provided soulful harmonies for Mardones through the spring of 1993. The new year, 1993, offered Tyler a much-needed break, and ended with the release of his second CD, titled BLACK CAT. This was a hard-rocking hit, and the fans were ready. He and his band, the Midnite Renegades, promoted the CD on television and radio spots, and played to enthusiastic crowds of panting women and their fist-pumping men throughout the northeast.

Some personal experiences after the tour caused Tyler to return to his acoustic roots, without the band. The result was a third CD in 1995, called HOME, which was a series of poignant love letters to his family. Tyler appeared on several television shows, accepted offers to drop by radio studios, provided his playing and producing skills to numerous other artists, and toured the eastern seaboard in support of HOME. His earliest fans embraced the new, all-acoustic style, and people who’d never heard his name before listening to HOME were now filling the audiences. Everyone wanted to check out the sensitive, long-haired guitarist with the pretty, yet powerful sound and the breathtaking lyrics. Tyler was surprised to learn that while he was touring, HOME was being played in more than 45 countries around the world.

While working in Nashville, TN, Tyler wrote, recorded and released his fourth CD in 2003, titled IGNITION, fans and critics agreed that it was worth the wait. He had changed his name to Anthony Tyler in the interim, and no one was sure what to expect. The album reflected the artists’ new approach to his music and his rededication to his first love, the acoustic guitar. His lyrics were more heartfelt than ever, his harmonies richer, and his melodies more mature. It was a much more complete sound, more polished without being pretentious. And while readying IGNITION, Tyler spent time playing in the Justin Ayers Band as a lead guitarist/background vocalist. As short-lived as that was, the experience was a great one nonetheless.

With a catalogue of over 200 original songs, several guitars, some clothes, and a U Haul full of dreams, Tyler has been spreading the news. He’s currently promoting March 2008's Senza Voce the first all-instrumental (Digital Download ONLY) rock album ever from Tyler. SENZA VOCE - also includes two very interesting interpretations of songs from Tyler's childhood. Tyler continues to promote 2006's retrospective CD, titled YESTERDAY’S NEWS along with 2003’s IGNITION, the re-release of his first three CDs as the REISSUED COLLECTION, and the four-disc box set titled SO FAR…. Tyler has also found time to write for several other artists and continues working as a Songwriter, Guitarist, Singer For Hire in hopes of being heard in other areas of music he never dreamed.

Tyler has been affiliated with Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) for over 20 years

SENZA VOCE

Artist: ANTHONY TYLER

Release Date: April 1, 2008

Label: What The-?! Records®

Item Number: 698-756-23-DPD (digital download only)

ISBN: 634479749834

What Senza Voce is all about...

Twenty years in and now Anthony Tyler decides to do a rock-instrumental album?
Senza Voce is the twelfth release from What The-?! Records® Recording Artist Anthony Tyler and marks a return to his hard-rocking roots – sans the characteristic baritone we’ve all come to know and love. Hence the title Senza Voce (Without Voice - for those non-Italian speaking individuals out there).

From the opening crack-to-the-ribs-heavy-hitter No More Lies to the cinematic (both in scope and running time) Senza Alito (what’s with the Italian titles anyway?) to the morbidly eerie Post Mortem (I Loved You), it’s obvious Tyler was not kidding around when he put this album together.

Over the course of his career, Tyler has recorded instrumental music before. We were treated to Autumn Ghosts from 1993’s Black Cat. The solo-acoustic guitar gem Innocence was included as a bonus cut on the re-released Home Again in 2003, while 04’s Ignition had four instrumental pieces attached to it. So Senza Voce should come as no surprise to those who have followed this versatile musician since 1988.

Recorded in Tyler’s home studio from January ’07 through February ’08, Senza Voce started out as several different musical compositions created for other artists. Recalls Tyler, “By the time I’d decided to do another album of my material, I had forty songs already recorded and I had no plans to write lyrics for them. It wasn’t until October of 2007 that I actually started to think about putting out an instrumental album. It was all because of those existing songs…and Peter Frampton’s Fingerprints album.”

Along the way, Tyler did something he’d never done before: he chose to record a cover tune. Not just any cover either: he chose to do a song by his rock idols – KISS.

“I decided to record a version of KISS’ Hard Luck Woman for fun. As I began piecing it together, I realized I had something very, very different and very much me. It’s one of my favorite tracks on this album without a doubt. I realize that some KISS fans out there may not like it, but I am confident they’ll at least give it a listen.”

Which led to another cover tune…

“Hot Child in the City was another song done for the fun of it and it honestly kicks ass. I haven’t gotten sick of hearing this version of it. It’s the first time that I’ve ever listened to something I’ve done and not believed it was me. I keep hearing it in a commercial or a movie or something. It has this great build-up during the first verse, kicks you in the teeth at the first chorus, and from there, it won’t let you go.”

The rest of the album is pure, guitar-driven, melodic rock with a keen eye toward pop sensibilities with a darker edge. Tyler is nothing short of masterful when it comes to writing pop-flavored rock tunes. The stellar Cut To the Quick harkens back to the seventies in a big Atlanta Rhythm Section way while Darkness Fills Your Eyes is the perfect eerie bookend to the opening track No More Lies.

But what about that “darker edge?” Certain song titles – Premonition, Leaving the Living, Post Mortem (I Loved You) among others - conjure the most disturbing of images. The cover art alone subtly shows Tyler with his mouth sewn shut. Why the Marilyn Manson-esque spin on things?

“Musically, I don’t think the songs are that dark. There were much darker tunes left out. The only song that I actually worked at reaching the scared kid in all of us was Darkness Fills Your Eyes. The intro and ending of that one are scary. But at the heart of it all, each song is simple, good, melodic, hard-rock. The titles are creepy and that’s just something I liked as I put it all together. The cover is cool to me. There were a few other designs, but I knew as soon as I finished the stitched mouth design I would use it. It certainly fits the title,” Tyler says.

With over sixty songs recorded for Senza Voce, the process of whittling it down to eleven tracks was a bit of a struggle.

“For the first time ever, I literally had tons of material completed. There were much heavier and much darker songs with some very light ballads, and lots of in-between tracks. The final track listing just happened. And when I listened back, one through eleven, I knew I’d done it. Finally, I had an album that made sense, front to back.”

As a bonus (as many artists do today) there’s the demo version of track three, Blind Alley. This gives you the chance to hear how different the final version of this song is from its groove-laden, humble beginnings. However, with regard to Blind Alley, the demo version rocks a little more than the album cut.

Senza Voce is an album worth checking out. Even if you think you don’t like instrumental music, Senza Voce might change your mind in a big way.

ANTHONY TYLER Discography:

1989: Don't Look Back (The EP) (Midnite Music Records - out of print)

1993: Black Cat (Midnite Music Records - out of print)

1995: Home (Midnite Music Records - out of print)

2003: Ignition (BLP...Productions - out of print)

2003: The Reissued Series: Don't Look Back, Life Alone (originally Black Cat), Home Again (originally Home with three bonus tracks)

2003: So Far... (box set) (BLP...Productions)

2004: The Originals (three disc set)

2006: Yesterday's News (What The-?! Records®)

2007: Oasis Rock & Roots Radio Compilation

2008: Senza Voce (What The-?! Records® - digital release)

2009: Anthology (What The-?! Records® - digital release)