Up and coming country artist, Tyler Rich was raised in Yuba City, California. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and put a promising career on hold to pursue music. Tyler Rich’s family has always been supportive of his musical interests. During his teenage years his uncle taught him to play the guitar. Interestingly, at a young age, Rich never had dreams of being in a real band. All he ever wanted to do was to play guitar with his uncle and his friends. In a recent interview with New England Country Music he explained: “Every time we had family get-togethers they’d all show up with all their acoustics and we’d just sit around for hours playing songs.” Flash forward several years and now he is far into the journey of being a successful country star.
Tyler Rich sat down with NECM and gave us some insight about his new single ‘The Difference’, which was released in early February. It is a fun, catchy song that will have you singing along to it all day. Rich explained that he first heard ‘The Difference’ when he was three and a half hours into a five-hour long pitch meeting. “There’s a swagger to the song. I knew right away that I needed to have the song. So many things about the song reminded me of things that I write. It felt like me and so many things that my fiancé and I talk about all the time about the difference between certain aspects of love.”
Although this song was written by Rhett Atkins, Devin Dawson, Ben Burgess, and Jacob Durett, Rich feels that it is a song very similar to the over one hundred tunes he has penned. He said that he really connected with this particular song because of the lyrics. In fact, upon getting the song, he told his fiancé, “Babe, I’ve got good news, I think I’ve found a hit. And I’ve got bad news, that you’ve been feeding me these lyrics for two years and I hadn’t written it.” Rich talked about how his fiancé and he frequently discuss the difference between “love you” and “I love you.” His favorite lyrics come from the second verse: “Sittin’ it out and Girl, let’s dance.” Rich goes on to say, “I don’t dance, ever. My fiancé dances when music is not even playing. When you think about somebody that has really made a difference in your life and changes you and makes you different. I think about the fact that anybody can make me dance was massive.”
‘The Difference’ was recorded at the legendary Blackbird Studio in Nashville. Influential artists such as Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, George Strait, and Kenny Chesney have all recorded there. Rich was fortunate to work with Julian Raymond and Lindsay Rimes. “Lindsay and I did some of the pre-production stuff ahead of time. Julian hired this incredible studio band.” As far as the recording process, Rich said “It was such a fun experience. We just knew two hours into it that man, this is just special. Halfway through the first day in the studio doing “The Difference’, everybody knew this is it.”
While on the topic of recording, Rich is expecting his full-length album to be released later in 2018. He said the new album is coming along “slowly but surely. It’s all a very strategic thing. As an artist you want to be able to write ten songs, record them, and release it. But there’s much more to that. We get pitched new songs and just go out on the road and see which ones the crowd reacts to the most. Another song gets written and then that one knocks this one out. Everything’s got its own little flavor. Every song is going to bring a little bit of something new to the table. When you listen to my album I want every song that you hear to be like, yeah this is color-rich. But I don’t want every song that you hear to be like man that sounds like the last one.”
Although his roots are in California, Rich has made the move to Nashville. He had some great advice for a young artist getting ready to make that leap: “Number one, you’re not as good as you think you are! And I mean that in the nicest way possible. Just be kind to people. Be genuine. Nashville is a city that is 100% just about relationships. You can have this amazing talent but if you don’t have the personality or the loyalty – You need that to go with it. If you think you can do it from where you’re at and you’re not in Nashville, you’re dead wrong. Write with any and everybody that you possibly can every day of the week. Everybody, including myself, we have this syndrome where it’s called, you think that the last song you wrote is the best song you wrote! Just keep writing and writing. You’ll surprise yourself every day. You’ll just keep getting better. I cannot stress enough to be genuine. Be nice to people.”
The one person that Tyler Rich has learned the most from since his journey out on the road began is Dustin Lynch. He refers to Lynch as his “Obi-Wan Kenobi!” “Dustin Lynch’s management company reached out to me and said you know, we’ve been watching you online for a few months and think you need to get out to Nashville. You come out here and we’d love to meet with you. The first meeting that I ever took, Dustin was actually at the meeting. He said “You have to live in town. You have to write as much as you can. He never mentioned anything about co-writing at all and I was in town for about a year and once he felt like I had been writing songs that were good enough and that I was ready he took me out on the road. I’ve been touring with him off and on for about two years and I mean he’s taught me almost everything I know about the industry, and about what it takes, and what won’t cut it and what will cut it and I’m still learning every day as I know Dustin’s probably still learning every day. I’m lucky to have a mentor that teaches you what he learns as he goes. It’s funny cause we’re the same age but he’s kinda like my older brother. But we hang out as friends the same age but then when it comes to the industry, he’s my Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
‘The Difference’ goes out to radio in April. Tyler Rich will be visiting radio stations for the next few months promoting the single. His full-length album is expected to be released in 2018. This summer, he will start playing festivals and shows all across the country. We here at New England Country Music, want to thank Tyler Rich for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk with us. Here’s hoping we see him in New England soon!
You can purchase ‘The Difference’ on iTunes here.