I met up with Tyler Shaw in Montreal during his promotional tour for his new single Cautious. Its been a while since he released an album and new music so we spoke about everything that's coming up! The inspiration for his new songs/album, how Riverdale influenced the concept for his most recent music video, going from rock to acoustic and much more!
You’ve been on a radio tour this month, how has that been?
I have yeah, we started out in Halifax and made our way west. We got into Montreal on Tuesday so yesterday I had the day off and it was nice!
I saw you met fans at Steve’s Music Store
Yeah, it was such a last minute thing, we decided to do it yesterday and it was a pretty good turn out given the weather and the time frame, it was awesome.
How’s it been getting back into promoting new music?
Its been good, its been 2 years since I released new music. The song I last released was Wicked and that was back in 2016, to have new music out now is so good! The two years feel like a lifetime for me.
Yeah, even your album was so long ago!
I know, that was 2015! Yeah, so a new album too, during these two years I’ve been working towards the new album which I’m very happy about. I’ve been writing it in the UK actually, in London, there's something about over there that’s really cool.
You did a video for Cautious and you said it was Riverdale inspired, tell me a bit about that concept
I mean, I’ve seen the first season of Riverdale, I haven’t seen the second one yet. When I first started watching the show the aesthetic of it was very pleasing to me especially because its filmed in Vancouver where I’m from, I was like ‘oh cool I really like that’. So when I got the opportunity to create the music video for it, I was like ‘let’s do this because I really enjoy the show’. Funny fact though, I was actually supposed to audition for Archie, but I was too busy and too focused on writing for album two.
That’s so funny, it could’ve worked too cause he’s also a musician
Yeah, who knows what would’ve happened. Everything happens for a reason so I’m fine with it.
And the song, how did it come to life?
That one as written in London as well. I had the title Cautious going into the session so it was pretty easy in that sense where we already had an idea going in. If you listen to the lyrics its talking about someone, like more of an extension of the character we talk about in Wicked, its a similar story line. As we were writing more and more and as the session was progressing, we found that the lyrics are more in depth in terms of an addiction or a temptation that you can’t seem to shake. You know, whether it's your cellphone or an ex or any sort of thing like that, that’s how it came about.
Are you done the album?
I’m doing one more trip back to London at the beginning of March so I can finish the album, after that trip I’ll be done.
And what do you have so far that you can tell us about?
I have a song on there called Anybody Out There and its one of my personal favourites, its about isolation and feeling alone. Another song called With You, which is about my fiancee and how we met and also, a song called The Wall. Relationships aren’t perfect and that's a portion of the album where it goes to the nitty gritties of a relationship where things build up.
Are there any collaborations? Yeah, Anybody Out There there’s a collaboration on that one with Amaal Nuux she’s fantastic, a silky smooth voice and she’s just a really good person.
You just talked a bit how relationships inspired the new songs but is there any artist that influenced you during this process?
Sonically, Justin Timberlake has always been an influence of mine but I feel like for this project, me and my producer really went in on the songs and created a Tyler Shaw sound which I’m super happy about, it took two years to create it but we’re very happy with it!
Are you excited to finally put it out and tour again?
Yeah absolutely, I think the last album was good but I was still trying to find myself, as cliché as it sounds, but this album is a side of me I don’t think anybody knows.
Is there a story behind a song on the album you can tell me about?
Yeah, I can talk about With You that's about my fiancé. I wrote it in LA with one of the guys who wrote Say You Won’t Let Go by James Arthur. He co-wrote that with me and its weird because the session, again, was very easy going but I didn’t realize it was about my fiancé until afterwards. It was like I was subconsciously writing the story without realizing it, so after we were done I listened to it front to back and I realized ‘oh my god this is the story of how we met!’
Did she hear it?
Yeah, she loves it. Can you imagine writing a song and she’s like ‘oh no I don’t like that all!’
So in 2015 after the album you starred in a movie, and you’ve done other projects, how was it getting your first acting gig and playing a singer?
Yeah, that was my first ever acting thing besides music videos but that was so fun, it was a lot of fun but it was hard. I’ll compare it to music, if you go in and write a song, your own lyrics your and your own melodies, you know it because you wrote it. Acting; its memorizing lines you didn’t write and there’s an emotion behind the line that you’re supposed to say. Working with the director, Cat Hostick, she was telling me one person says something and I have to say something else, there’s a reason why your character says a certain line in acting so you really have to think about that. It took me some time but I feel like it was good. I want to do more for sure.
Is there an album that you can listen to and never get tired of?
Yeah, John Mayor’s Continuum is pure bliss to me. Whenever I don’t know what to listen to I’ll put that one on.
And when you started making music, what made you want to create?
You know, I think when I started I was about 13 years old and I was in a rock band first and I went through a few band cycles before I did the acoustic guitar thing. I listened to Tool, Rage Against The Machine, some pretty heavy rock things. Once I fell in love I started listening to John Mayor, Michael Bubblem Jason Mraz and all that
That’s such a big switch!
Yeah! That’s why I’m saying I’m pretty sure I fell in love or something happened, so yeah that’s what guided me towards the acoustic stuff.
Listen to Cautious HERE