Tyler Bryant is a two-time GRAMMY award winning producer, engineer, and songwriter. While many know Tyler as the rock and roll front man of Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, he has also forged a path for himself as a producer. He’s brought home Grammys for “Best Contemporary Blues Album” two years in a row with Larkin Poe’s Blood Harmony and Ruthie Foster’s Mileage album, released on Sun Records.
Tyler Bryant is now stepping into new territory with the release of his first solo single, “Falling Up.” The track is out now on all major platforms, and it marks not just a new song, but a new way of creating for Bryant, intuitive, unfiltered, and entirely on his own terms.
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“Man, I’ve been wanting to release some music about where I come from for so long,” says Bryant. “I swore that it would not be loud rock and roll and that there would be no over-the-top guitar solos… I lied.”
“Falling Up” was born in a moment of unplanned magic, a jam session with longtime Shakedown bandmate Graham Whitford and fellow Texans Diego and Emilio Navaira, sparked by a shared love of Freddie King’s legendary track “Going Down.”
“We fired up the amps and stumbled onto a vibe,” Bryant recalls. “I jokingly said we should call it ‘Falling Up.’ We wrote one verse and threw the whole thing down live, not even giving it a second thought.” The resulting track is under two minutes long. One verse. No polish. All fire.
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“It’s a reckless moment captured on tape,” Bryant says. “That’s the kinda thing I grew up on.”
Going solo has allowed him to embrace a more impulsive, instinctual creative process, one less concerned with structure and more focused on capturing raw emotion.
“If I’m honest, I’ve always been drawn to spur-of-the-moment recordings,” he says. “And I’m grateful to have a studio of my own where I can lean into what made me tick as an artist in the first place.”
Over the last five years, he’s produced records for other artists, some of which have gone on to win Grammy Awards. But “Falling Up” is about chasing something less polished, more personal.
“As I prepare to meet my first son, I can’t help but feel nostalgic toward the innocent, childlike enthusiasm I had and still have towards music,” says Bryant. “Why not start the song with a filthy guitar solo and try to make it sound like the speakers are gonna explode? It may not be the ‘grown-up’ thing to do, but dammit, it’s what I did.”
The song’s title, “Falling Up,” came out as a joke but quickly stuck and, like much of Bryant’s career, it took on deeper meaning with time.
“My whole career up to this point has kinda felt like falling up,” he says. “I’ve accidentally found myself on stages with my heroes. I’ve accidentally made friends around the world who are obsessed with the same records. I accidentally ended up with a signature Fender guitar. None of that was ever the goal. The goal has always been to make music.”
Now, with “Falling Up,” Bryant opens the door to a new chapter, one where spontaneity is king, imperfection is embraced, and intuition leads the way.
“I won’t lie and say that it’s not a little scary to be releasing music on my own,” Bryant admits. “But up to this point, keeping my intentions pure and my amp distorted has never let me down. For me, “Falling Up” feels like the beginning of an exploration. I don’t know what that means yet. Maybe that’s my lesson? Be less precious, capture what feels exciting, give it away and move on.”
“Falling Up” is available now on all streaming platforms.
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