Meet TY:DEL, a band of seemingly ordinary boys with killer talents of commingling key-guitar-tunes that ignite memories/emotions of a time when it once ‘was’.
Today, Sevenpie has had the honor of interviewing the band consist of members Carlson, Ritchie and Timothy. As they discuss about finding their sound as well as how they deal with their parent’s reaction to their joint-passion.
1. Hi TY:DEL! Having spent most of your time in university, was that how you guys met each other?
R: Hey Sevenpie, thank you for having us! Funny story actually, as Carlson and I met in high school and have been performing together since 2015. Around July 2015, we crossed paths with Tim, the three of us just happened to be playing at the same Youth Conference. Unexpected of the path that was ahead, the three of us met once againat a Talent Show in 2017.
Carlson and I planned to sing together while Tim was “pre-cheating” on us with another band; (meaning he had a band before we formed). It was when the three of us were jamming together in a discussion room that year, was when the question, “Should we form a band?” came about. A jam session turned into one show, and one show turned into two, and on April 19th 2019, a debut single on Spotify as TY:DEL. We are beyond blessed!
2. What made each of you fall in love with music?
R: For me, it was the cliché fact that music was its own language; and how the three of us communicated with that language. Not just with ourselves, but we were also able to effortlessly click and communicate with other people that could relate – especially on an emotional level.
T: I’m not the most extroverted person, compared to my fellow bandmates here. But music was an outlet of reassurance for me to express myself comfortably, and it has helped me vent my feelings, even if it’s something as simple as blasting music in the car and screaming out the lyrics. You know you do it too!
C: For myself, it was the way words could be implemented to a tune, how messages could be conveyed through unique melodies. The way in which music had been a place where people confide to often due to the feelings they can relate to, had been an inspiration for myself to create music that relates to people as well.
3. It’s no secret that a lot of families, especially in the more conservative background, tend to not support a dream involved in the arts. Were your families supportive of the idea on the band’s union?
R: My parents have always been supportive of the things that I love to do, and I do think that its apparent to them on my passion in music. I started performing during my late high school years together with Carlson, and I’ll admit they they weren’t so comfortable about it at that time, because we spent hours playing music and they were a little worried with my studies.
But ever since our first single came out, my parents saw things a little differently and slowly began to support me and the guys. I definitely had some tough times balancing the ‘band-and-study life’ but what can I say? I am blessed with an amazing support system.
T: Before the band became a serious commitment, my parents were pretty okay with the thought of our band being just a “hobby”. But when hours were put into writing music, doing shows and coming home at 5AM from the studio, they started having talks on whether I should actually take a break and focus on studies.
Here’s the thing though, after the release of our debut track and our song gained some traction, they were honestly shocked, and since then they’ve been really supportive now. It’s going to be hard for them to visualize our dream as a band now and how far we wish to go, but I’ll just have prove it to them and I’m sure they’ll around along the way!
C: For myself, my parents were always “okay” with the fact that I used my time to hone a skill that was entertaining, being able to incorporate my piano skills with performing in front of people often made them, in some way, proud of how I used my time. However, when music started to take quite a chunk of my time and also the fact that I had to commit to my band, they weren’t particularly the most supportive at it. Helping them to feel okay about my commitments will still take some time convincing them.
4. Your music has been a mixture of Indie and synth-pop, and it’s very similar to The 1975, whom are one of the many influences behind your music. What was it about the genres (Indie/Synth-pop) gel well with the sound of the band? Rather than the standard pop or jazz, etc?
R: One of the most complicated situations we had to go through was deciding our “sound”, and even now we’re still on a journey of discovering what the musical identity of the band will be. That whole discovery process lead us through a bunch of different genres, you name it; R&B, jazz, acoustic, pop, lo-fi and we’ve even tried doing rock! But as we went on, spent more time with each other, tried our best (without arguing so much) to find a middle ground for three artists with three whole different minds, we sort of found it I guess?
Basically music is a step-by-step process. It is something that takes time to grow, so as long as we’re growing, our music will too!
T: We’ve always envisioned our band to do something different. We messed around with so many genres, even mashing up multiple songs (including different languages) in our earlier performances. So when we decided it’s time we started doing our own music, we listed down our main inspirations and so happened most of them fall under Indie/Synth-pop and a little R&B so maybe we’ll experiment with that in the future who knows!
5. Can you share with us your creative progress on writing your music and lyrics?
R: Two words: Personal Experience. This is what allows us to better connect with each other and the people who will come across our music in the future.
T: So we come into the makeshift studio (AKA my room) and decide on a story we want to tell, usually personal experiences or if we’re impacted emotionally by someone else’s story. Before actually writing, we imagine the vibe of the song that suits the storyline then mess with chord progressions and drum beats. We’ll use Ableton to loop whatever we have and then write lyrics over it!
But when we are not writing together, a guitar paired with voice-notes and notes on my iPhone are the best tools ever! Spam them back and forth over Telegram and we have new material to work with the next time we meet!
C: Usually we start off with the emotions or message we would like to convey, so from that point we can decide upon a suitable vibe for the message, if the message was indeed something that brought the sense of being warm and fuzzy, then naturally the tune of the song would incline to a rather chill and slow style of music.
In terms of lyric-writing, my personal touch would be in the rhythm of the words, upon whether certain phrases help amplify the message for the song while at the same time possessing a smooth message flow.
6. “No Turning Back” seemed like a song that sheds light to a more personal-matter on a boy and his personal battles on feelings towards a girl. Mind telling us the origins and the creative process in this song?
R: Basically the underlying theme behind “No Turning Back” is the reality behind true love – a love that isn’t based on feelings but on commitment and devotion. This song is pretty personal to all three of us but we also did our best to make it as relatable as possible.
We continuously asked ourselves about the common struggles all relationships have to go through; whether it be with God, family, friendships, family, boyfriend-girlfriend relationships. The main goal we had when we wrote this song is that we wanted the song to speak not just to us, but also the listeners, especially the ones who can relate to it. Whether our song just sounds like a song you drive to or if it helps you go through a tough time, we genuinely hope that whoever listens to it, loves and connects with it, just as much as we do.
7. What was the journey of breaking into the Malaysian-music scene for you guys? Was there anything that you guys learned throughout that process of breaking through the bubble of being a band that just performs covers?
T: We definitely started out as a cover-band. Played talent shows, wedding gigs, local open mic spots like Merdekarya and charity events. About 3-4 months in, we realized we weren’t gonna go anywhere by playing other artists’ music. So I insisted that we write together since we have chemistry, plus Ritchie and I have written songs before, individually. So we wrote a few songs, played it at some shows, got good feedback, met important people along the way that helped us release “No Turning Back”! We’ve learnt so much already, and there’s still so much for us to learn since we’ve only just started. But we’re really excited to make more music for our listeners who gave us such a warm welcome into the scene!
8. Being a band that’s up-and-coming, was there any fear/pressure of how your music, or you guys as a band, might be perceived by the public. How have you guys dealt with it?
R: For a short period of time, there was definitely that sense of FOMO; you know, Fear Of Missing Out? Because there are so uprising many talents in Malaysia, we didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity to ride this “train”. But what we learned through this whole music scene process is that it doesn’t matter if you miss out now. Maybe it will affect the band’s growth by a small margin but that’s it! I believe as long as your intentions are right, if you are genuine and honest with the music you write, and most importantly if you absolutely love and enjoy what you do, everything will come into play.
9. What are some of the ambitions or goals, you’d like to see come true for this band?
Short term, to play shows like Good Vibes Festival, We The Fest, and who says you can’t dream big?: Coachella. (If BlackPink can do it, Malaysia boleh too!)
Long term-wise, we would want to have our music impact people around the world and being able to connect with them on a personal and emotional level through our music. And touring the world of course!
10. If each of you could pick to perform alongside an artist onstage, who would it be?
T: It’s got to be LANY for sure!
C: Tori Kelly, for me.
R: Ed Sheeran would be a dream come true! He was one of the many reasons why I picked up a guitar!
11. Had the band not been formed, what would each of you have done?
T: Probably try to do the same thing HAHAHAH
C: Probably be doing covers everywhere
R: I’d probably be doing the same thing as these two, shocker.
12. With “No Turning Back” I’m sure we can definitely expect more amazing tunes coming from you guys, is there an album or an EP that you guys are planning to release any time soon that you would like your fans to look out for?
The game plan right now, and we’re super excited to announce this, is to release a few more singles throughout the year and if it all goes well, possibly an EP as well!
13. What would you describe your upcoming album/EP in one word? (if any)
Us.
You’re gonna be experiencing the minds of three unpredictable dudes and we hope you’re ready for it.
THANK YOU FOR THE FEATURE, SEVENPIE! WE ARE BEYONG GRATEFUL!
