Tyler Ramsey
Tyler Ramsey is a singer-songwriter based in Western North Carolina. His mesmerizing style blends unique guitar tunings and distinct vocals, creating an atmospheric quality that offers a vulnerability and storylike experience.
While he is most known for his musical endeavors, Tyler has always been a curious creative. While filming, he showed us various examples of letterpress and print projects he has worked on in his free time. When asked why he creates the things he does, Tyler responded, “I just felt like I had to do that. Like it was just something I wanted to have be a part of my life”.
His collection of art over the years fills the creative spaces he occupies as a source of inspiration for a variety of artistic expression while creating a narrative of past experiences to draw from. Each piece is a reminder of moments in time that spark ideas and generate the seeds of future projects.
During our time with Tyler in his small home studio, our conversation returned to the importance of space. The places we spend our time, specifically that we choose to create in, play a very important role in the creative process. For Tyler, this means prioritizing time in environments that focus his attention on the task at hand.
At the time of filming, he had just completed recording his latest album, “New Lost Ages”. He chose to write this album in a friend's nearby cabin. Through many visits over the course of months, Tyler managed to write the entire album, stating “in a way that felt more focused than anything, probably, I had ever done before.” His emphasis on the importance of his environment was a great reminder of the role it can play in our own creative endeavors. Learn more about the process of writing the album here.
Spending time with Tyler offered a unique opportunity to see into the process musicians use to produce the end product we experience as the end user. As fans of music or any art form for that matter, we have the luxury of enjoying the fruits of their labor, often without the context surrounding the time and effort spent along the way. We see the result of days, weeks, or even months perfecting this beautiful expression of an individual's thoughts and experiences carefully crafted for our enjoyment.
This project was a great reminder that no matter the medium that we choose to express our creativity, there are always a few key ingredients. In its many forms, inspiration helps create an authentic story unique to the creator. For better or worse, our environment can help give us the space to feel creative when the moment strikes or hinders our progress with distractions. Repetition and time are the secrets to creating better work that often get overlooked when we fall prey to comparing our work to others.
We hope you enjoy this film with musician Tyler Ramsey. To learn more about his work, head over to tylerramsey.com. Help us on our mission of supporting our local and regional artists by ordering his new album, “New Lost Ages,” which was pressed right here in Asheville at Citizen Vinyl.