Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyler Crawford.
Tyler, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in a small town called Toledo, Washington with about 700-ish people. I was always into the arts and trying to create something. Growing up nobody in my family were musicians at all and since I went to such a small school, there wasn’t a lot of funding for music programs – it was kind of all about sports which I never played even though I’m 6’7”. I kind of found music on my own by playing piano and learning songs by ear. My grandma had a piano in her living room and I would mess around on it and learn songs as a kid. When I was in high school, I discovered singing and songwriting and that’s when I fell in love.
I was very grateful to have grown up in a small town with such a close community, but I always felt kind of different from everyone else and as I grew up I always kind of felt like there was more for me and a place where I could be okay with being myself. I really loved music and would dream of performing on big stages and touring the world, but it always felt kind of unreachable so when I graduated high school I moved away and went to a university to study communications. After a little over a year in school I found myself unhappy and realized that I would rather do something I love than be have a job that I didn’t really like. That’s when I googled “music schools in LA” and decided to move to Hollywood in 2017 to pursue my dreams of being an artist.
When I got to LA it was scary, I had little to no confidence in myself, and was so inexperienced. I went to Musicians Institute, studied with some of the best instructors, and have grown SO much in the last two years. I have been able to figure out who I am an artist and most importantly who I am as a human being. I’ve been creating music that I never dreamed I would be making and performing around LA with some of the best musicians. I am very excited to release my debut single very soon and my debut EP to follow. I think big things are coming and I believe 100% that moving here and following my dreams was the best decision I could have made.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have definitely been lots of struggles. Living in LA as an artist can be very difficult. I’ve had to work three jobs and work really hard to be able to do what I love. I’ve had to live off of top ramen a couple of times. Even though there are a lot of struggles along the way – and I anticipate there to be more – there are also a lot of really great moments and memories made too which makes it so worth it.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m an up and coming artist/singer/songwriter. I call my music indie/soul. I blend a mixture of 60s and 70s R&B with today’s pop/r&b music. I have a band and we go by Crawford. I’m so proud of how far we’ve come that the music we’re making together. I am grateful for everyone who has been involved and invested themselves into me. I am also proud that we are doing this independently. I love that I’m getting to make my own art and have my say on it. And I’m so EXCITED for the world to hear it!
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Performing my original music on stage with a choir singing with me and getting a standing ovation at the end. I had an out of body experience for that performance, and there’s nothing better than having people respond to your music so positively and have people coming to you afterwards saying how much you’ve inspired them. It makes all of this worth it.
Contact Info:
- Address: 11049 McCormick St. APT 402 North Hollywood, CA 91601
- Website: www.tylercrawfordmusic.com
- Phone: 360-880-1254
- Email: tylercrawfordmusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/crawfordmusicoffical
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/tylercrawfordmusic
Image Credit:
Lauren Shelburne, Jolaina Phillipps, Jose Chipi Estrada
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