Disruptive, danceable and raw, today’s single brings back the good ol’ Ska days with a Punk approach and a Wu Tang influence. OHNO is Chicago artist’s main single from his upcoming new EP “What’s It All About”, and it’s so good it deserves to be danced away in a mosh pit. Who said Punk’s dead?
Tryingtogetby is a project created by Chicago Ska/Reggae/Punk artist, Tyler Miller, who after playing for several years with different bands and styles, decided to create his own musical endeavour, uniting his influences of thrash, ska, hip hop and reggae to create a new and unique approach to the mix. A DIY musician who is true to his principles and stays real to his mission of delivering protesting messages and eye-opening lyrics through his dynamic, spirited music.
What appears to be a full band recording, OHNO, was actually recorded only by Tyler himself as he was living in a rehearsal space in West Garfield Park in Chicago with no hot water, shower or kitchen, only wifi and a toilet. A true Punk warrior. “I had some time off on a break and a friend taught me some diy recording methods, I locked myself up for two days with a bag of good weed and made the first demo.[…]Luckily for me, Kyle Tilev (Counterpunch), is talented enough to help give each song the final push it needs to sound like it should.” – Tyler
The main motivation for this EP isn’t pretty, as Tyler went through what we might call a wake up call from his body’s health state. He had always been afflicted with an ulcer, no insurance and alcoholism. After a late night throw up and a gruesome series of events, Tyler woke up in a hospital bed with an ultimatum: to leave cigarettes and alcohol. And so, with courage and determination Tyler went to the slow process of cleansing and decided to learn more about music production and to get back to song writing.
OHNO is specifically directed towards the division social media has created, the good people being tired of the bad people, media distortion and political agendas. All that has been brewing up and cooking since 2020. It’s a ska/punk song filled with hip-hop-influenced lyrics from legendary MCs like Wu Tang Clan and MF Doom, and the raw raging expression of old school punk, trashing guitars, reggae keys and energetic drums. Powerful, honest and with a judging eye, Tryingtogetby aims to put a stop to the division and blindness of society’s bullshit.
“I wrote about as much of it as I could, this EP is only a small part of the lyrics that were written in this past year of chaos. Quarantining with my dog brought me a lot of stability in my head relieving years of anxiety that I havent been able to deal with and having music as an outlet was always there for me, I just had to focus and let things flow.” – Tryingtogetby
Living in a mayor city and seeing revolution happen first hand, Tyler is ready to keep rocking and to try and make a change, even if it means in his own life. Sober and filled with inspiration, there’s nothing stopping Tyler as he means to get back into playing live with his DIY musician friends and community. “I’m excited for the music I am going to be putting out as this project and am looking forward to touring with the collective of musicians that exists in the diy scene, we are all tryingtogetby...” – Tyler Miller
To Tyler we say, congratulations on being clean, sober and healthy, we hope your talent may reach much needed ears and we look forward for us to be able to dance and sing along in the front line of Punk/Ska’s new generation.
Don’t forget to support this project and to follow on Instagram, Facebook, and Spotify. You can also check out his official website.
It also helps to stream and share their music; you can obviously find it in the following Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Only Punk, and Fresh Singles.
P.S. If you enjoy discovering new artists and fresh new music you can subscribe to this blog Less Than 1,000 Followers and follow the Playlist with all the artists that we have presented here!!!
This coverage was created via Musosoup #Sustainablecurator https://www.musosoup.com/sustainable-curator