SOUNDS he started while in high school. In his new album, Music to Free Your Spirit, a 5-track expansion of the single, Free Spirit, John found himself, like all of us in the 2020s, at the bottom of a seemingly endless pile of worries, stresses, and doubts. Like so many of us, he responded by holding on tighter, putting as much effort into making believe that everything was fine as he was into trying to dig his way out. And like it does for so many of us, it worked — until it didn’t. “One night I had a sudden panic attack in the middle of my sleep because I had so much overwhelming my brain,” the artist remembers. “It was so bad that I thought I was going to die.” The next day began with a revolutionary act: he decided to rest. On the first day of his imposed vacation, John began to make music. By its end, he had produced the nearly 12-minute long Free Spirit, in its entirety. “All of the production and my personal vocals were recorded in one day,” he says. “It felt amazing because, prior to the creation of the project, I hadn't made music in months.” A few days later he created Music To Free Your Spirit, which he calls, “an instrumental project made for relaxation, meditation, contemplation, and reflection.” Describing his music as a fusion of jazz, R&B, rock, and indie influences, elements of each can be heard in different measure as the album moves from one track to the next. The music is atmospheric, meant to fill the background rather than command attention, designed to facilitate moments of peace rather than stir the emotions. In his approach to the music of the moment, John Tyler digs through his stress and his pain to find the calm at the eye of the storm while leaving a path for us to follow. The 21st century still needs its Billie Holidays and Nina Simones, artists willing to risk themselves to use their art to confront society with the truth as we see it while giving us the validation of having our most pressing problems, questions, and experiences reflected in song. But in these days of upheaval, where self-care itself is increasingly becoming an act of defiance (and maybe it always was), a moment’s peace can mean just as much. Look out for John’s upcoming album, Men Do Cry, coming out later in 2023. AC <strong>11</strong>0 aphrochic
issue eleven <strong>11</strong>1