Tyler Neal has established himself as one of the rising new voices in Atlanta’s blues/rock, jam band scene.
A native of Carrollton, he was lead guitarist for Col. Bruce Hampton and The Madrid Express while still in his early 20s and currently holds two residencies — one with The Tyler Neal Band at the Northside Tavern every Wednesday and another at the legendary Bitter End in New York City’s Greenwich Village. He released his debut album, Nothing To Lose, in 2019.
Neal plays the guitar, drums, flute, bass guitar and keyboards in a variety of genres that include blues, roots, gospel, soul, funk and pop. “It’s not really one of them,” he says of his stylistic influences, “but not not any of them.”
Credit: Melissa Goehner
Credit: Melissa Goehner
He was mentored early in his career by two giants of Atlanta music. Hampton, who died in 2017, helped Neal find his musical voice. Yonrico Scott, who was known for his long tenure with The Derek Trucks Band and died in 2019, also took Neal under his wing.
Neal recently sat down with ArtsATL to discuss his approach to musicianship, his new single and the lessons he learned from Hampton and Scott.
Q: Let’s start by talking about your newest single, “Let the Spirit Take Over.” About three-quarters of the way through the song, something happens where it just seems to take on a life of its own.
A: I think, in general, art has to take on a life of its own and the best songs — it’s kind of like they write themselves. They really have to take on a life of their own in order for them to fully grow into who they are. I’ve heard someone say that they’re like your children, and you have to nourish them. But you also have to let them be themselves. It’s a fine line and a delicate balance on every single one. Sometimes that takes a lot of time. I recorded five different demos of that song. It took me a few years to get it from the conception of the idea until it was birthed and released into the music world. So many things helped that song grow into what it is.
Credit: Melissa Goehner
Credit: Melissa Goehner
Q: I can definitely hear Yonrico Scott’s influence throughout.
A: It all started with Yonrico and the album that he and I were writing. It never ended up happening because he passed away. I took home one of the drumbeats that he was working on, and I put it on a computer and looped it. As I was jamming along to it, that’s when I came up with the chords and the idea of the chorus. That’s the spirit: Let the spirit take over you. And I wrote the verse immediately, too. I put myself in his perspective and where he was and his life at the time, and I wrote it from his point of view as best I could.
Q: Tell me more about what you learned from him.
A: Yonrico basically provided me a diet of music: Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Ali Akbar Khan, James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Duke Ellington. You know how they say you are what you eat? You are what you listen to. Music is a diet, too, and it makes you who you are. I think that as artists and musicians, particularly, we should learn as much as we can about these different music worlds and let those little worlds work on us. By learning about them, by gaining access to them, they gain access to us, and it makes us a better person and a better artist.
Q: Is that what separates the musician who’s just playing notes versus the one who’s an artist?
A: I think that it’s the ability to translate authenticity from a deep place of who you are. You have to mimic before you can do anything. There’s a progression. I think the more mature you become as an artist, the more power you have to be yourself through whatever medium. It’s the ability to be oneself and to be aware of what’s going on with the ingredients. Musically, the ingredients are the notes, but also it’s what’s happening in the room at the time.
You take someone like Johnny Cash. He took that song “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails. Most people think that’s a Johnny Cash song. Because Johnny was such an artist, he took that song and made it what it is, because he’s so himself. He was telling you about his life. Even though he didn’t write those words or those chords, he was telling you his story through that song. He was authentic. He was telling you a story that was true about himself.
Q: Tell me more about Col. Bruce Hampton’s influence on your work.
A: Bruce would say, ‘Be no one going nowhere, doing nothing,’ and things like, ‘It’s not about what you play — it’s what you don’t play.” And that it’s the space between the notes. If you can just stop and have a spiritual, musical communion with the people on stage and see each other and be where you are in that moment. It’s like, how in the moment can you be?
Q: What did you learn from him?
A: I learned so much from that from that man — to play quieter, to turn it down, to be patient, to just hold on, to hold your horses. I think I learned a lot about femininity from Bruce, the idea that music is allowing everyone a place to shine — allowing there to be space. There’s usually all this pent-up masculinity trying to express itself on stage, but the energy on the stage should be balanced. I learned from Bruce to hold, to let it be what it is right now.
Bruce was the least skilled, most gifted musician I have ever been onstage with. He didn’t know how to play guitar. He didn’t know how to sing. But what he was a master of was timing and presence and energy and waiting and being quiet. He was really good with the feminine aspect of music, about being open and allowing for things to happen the way they should. And, you know, thank you for asking me that because I’ve never said it that way. I think I just learned more from him right now, which is what happens with Bruce. I’m still learning from Bruce — I probably have more ahead of me to learn from Bruce.
Q: So where do things go from here?
A: Even if I never get to reach a lot of people; even if I never get to have that big-stage, sold-out auditorium moment; even if that never happens; I don’t care. That’s not really why I’m doing it. That would be a great experience, and I intend for those things to happen. But I sort of see myself as already having succeeded so far because I get to do what I do. Music is just a vehicle to have this conversation with you right now about these things. I feel like this is part of what my purpose is — to get to talk about truth and to try to elevate our world through these ideas.
IF YOU GO
Tyler Neal
10 p.m. Wednesdays. No cover. Also, 10 p.m. July 28-29, $10. Northside Tavern, 1058 Howell Mill Road NW, Atlanta. 404-874-8745, northsidetavern.com.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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