Tyson

“Music now is soulless” despairs London singer Tyson. “You know what to do to sell records? You just repeat yourself. How long is that going to last for?” A long time fan of soul legends like Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, Tyson would rather keep his ears tuned to the past rather than to the eardrum-bashing repetitiveness of modern types like David Guetta. “I have always liked diva music,” he breathes. “I still listen to “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” and Boney M and Diana Ross. What happened to the days when we carried tunes?” It’s a question he hopes to find an answer to for himself. With an incredible falsetto voice and throbbing electro beats, Tyson’s music harks back to his musical idols and is reminiscent of the works of artists like Sylvester and Prince. “Listen to “Do You Wanna Funk” and it does something to your body. Your heart starts beating and you think – what is that? That is soul. Our ears today have been trained to listen to those repetitive things again and again. It’s a hook; sure, my songs have got hooks in them, but they’ve also got the music and the vocals.”
Having experienced the more generic music-making process as part of funk-pop group Unklejam back in 2006, Tyson is adamant he will never return to creating music-by-numbers. Now signed to Back Yard Recordings – home to the likes of electro duo Chromeo and lauded London MC-cum-rapper Wiley, whose ranks he joined just last year – Tyson has enjoyed the freedom to create honest songs that speak from the heart about love, sex and relationships. The resulting reaction from his admirers has been far stronger than he anticipated. “I’ve never had such intensity,” he enthuses. “People don’t just like my music, they love it. I think when you’re real and true to yourself, people identify with it. In the past, I’ve made music and people were like, ‘I like it’ but now it’s a different thing altogether. They’re like ‘thank you man, you made me believe in music again’.”
Finding that his music attracts a mix of highly-sexed women (“No comment,” he smirks when asked if he ever goes there with his rather forward female admirers) and appreciative gay men, the singer is now perfecting a live show that he hopes will reflect the more flamboyant elements of his music that he is taking to the road this month. “I’m going to get some dancers and get some waackers,” he declares, referring to a dance method that combines snappy hand movements and body pops that needs to be googled to be fully appreciated. “It’s a bit like voguing, but quicker. I found it by accident and basically the music they waack to sounds exactly like mine so I thought to myself ‘they’re dancing to my music – I need them to come and dance at my show!’. I’m making it more of a party and I want it to be spectacular and ridiculous. It will be like theatre.”

[Originally published in Rollacoaster Magazine, Issue 4, February 2012. Photography by Ben McDade.]