"The responsibility of a musician is to communicate what words alone cannot." (An Interview with Kyle Tolbert)
The summer is winding down, and with that slow sinking comes an itch for music clear and true enough to pierce the haze. This singer, songwriter, and producer has just the thing—and the creative wisdom to back it up. It's a treat to be featuring his words and melodies, so inextricably linked and yet each distinctly its own, on the Half Mysticblog. Please give the warmest of welcomes to Kyle Tolbert.
HM: What about your background—personal, cultural, educational—most directly informs your music?
KT: Growing up, I always felt the need to fit in with others and do what was culturally appropriate just to be accepted. I put too much value on my reputation and not enough on myself. I’ve always been a creative person, but I’ve always second guessed myself. It’s just how I adapted to society. This isn’t something I’ve addressed, though, till more recently in my life—about a year ago, when I first started making music. It’s something that I love beyond words—something that has been with me since I was a child. I first began singing in my church choir. I would sit beside my mom in the second row of the choir stand, often being the only kid in the midst of all of the adults. In my young mind I saw them as giants, expressing an emotion that wasn’t exactly something you could fake: praise. It was raw and it was mesmerizing. It was an artistic expression that I latched onto and still actively pursue to this day. This raw emotion and expression is what most directly informs my music—the need to communicate something to the listener with every line and melody. To feel. My background of always looking at the physical side of things versus the emotional hindered me both as a performer and a musician, but now I have something to say. I have something that I want to share. I want those who listen to be emotionally impacted, whether it’s positive or negative. That’s what art does.
When you hear a new song, what do you listen for first?
I usually pay attention to how my body feels. It sounds weird, but different types of music causes different tingling sensations all around my body but especially in my head, especially those with live instruments. Some around my forehead, some behind my ears, and others around the back of my head. Hearing a new song is always a unique experience because you don’t know how it’ll affect you. I always listen for familiar instruments/sounds that I’ve might’ve heard before. I usually don’t delve into lyrical content until the second or third listen through, though.
Your project Homecooking is a series of tracks released in pairs every month. What was the initial spark for that project?
I actually stopped this project in May after being given some advice by some friends, one who does all of my cover art and another who manages the up & coming rapper Aminé. For me, releasing a project in full would be a stronger and smarter move since I’m still trying to make a name for myself, and having some sort of completed work in general shows a stronger work ethic which is a good impression to make on musical superiors. I will be releasing a complete project in the near future! I’ve had the opportunity to be able to collaborate with an amazing producer to work towards one. It won’t be Homecooking, but that idea isn’t lost either. Perhaps it’s something I could pursue later in my career. The idea behind Homecooking, though, was that the whole project was one big meal served in 12 courses. Each of the cover art for the songs had some type of food on it. Since this was my first collection of songs I’d written, I was finding my sound through each release, experimenting with different styles and techniques. I considered the music my food, me the chef. Home was either at my actual childhood home or my boarding school, which over time became a second home to me. It wasn’t in a fancy studio or with thousand dollar equipment. Figuratively speaking, Homecooking was my attempt at feeding the world. Cheesy, right?
Among the wide variety of subject matters your music delves into are topics that some may see as 'politically charged': police brutality, revolution, self-love while black. What is the musician's responsibility when it comes to the political? How do you aim to fulfil (or subvert) that responsibility?
I feel like the only responsibility that a musician has is to communicate what words alone cannot. If every musician were to create/perform in the political sense out of responsibility, I feel like the art that would be created wouldn’t be as genuine as it would be had the musician acted out of emotion and response. At the same time, these are issues that need to be talked about, because if we don’t talk about them then nothing will change. Just as art can evoke emotion, it can spark conversation.
Describe your musical watchword—that is, a song or musical element that most clearly encompasses your core beliefs, both as an artist and a human.
One of my all time favorite songs is "Pour Maman" by Gabriel Garzón Montano. To me, the song could represent either a song to his mother or a song to the mother of his new child. Either way, towards the end of the song, feelings of home and knowing who you are in your heart are associated with the mother because of her impact on his life.
Your sweet song
My road home
Now it's late and low
And I know its way by heart
I’ll never leave you
I’d rather leave you
The last two lines are the most exciting to listen to in the sense that Gabriel is saying that he’ll never forget his sense of home and upbringing, then turning around and saying that he’d rather leave it all. I feel like this is a unique, unorthodox form of vulnerability—to take away everything that you’ve been taught and be left with nothing except for yourself.
What do you find most difficult about making music, and how do you get around it?
The process of making music is never the same for me. I’ll never be in the same place when ideas come to me. It won't be the same time of day. The medium through which I record ideas isn’t always consistent. I won’t always just sit down with the purpose to make music and be able to form something. Sometimes it’ll happen just like that. The inconsistency can sometime nurture laziness and slack for me. That’s why it’s always important to act on ideas while they’re fresh and new. I also always have to be open to how I approach and take on creating new music, because it’s easy to think that there’s a certain pattern to follow after you get an idea for a song. Another thing that I felt has hindered me mostly in the past is the fact that mistakes will be made and should be made. It’s how you grow as an artist. I carried a lot of doubt in my mind, and would always be hesitant with exploring new ideas because I was afraid that I wouldn’t do things ‘right’. For some reason, I expected to get the perfect result every time. It’s taken me a while, and it’s something I’m still learning to do today, but I have to be in love with the process. That’s how I’ll break my boundaries and push myself to greater limits. Perfectionism is toxic. Mistakes are going to be a part of the process; it’s inevitable. I just have to be willing to grow on them.
Who or what depends on your music? Who or what does your music depend on?
My fan base as of right now is pretty small, so the people that listen to my music ranges from friends to their friends and families as well as people in and around my community. There’s been a few instances where I’ve been in public and have had people recognize me from my music which is a really cool way to make new friendships. To take the question literally, though, I feel the only person who depends on my music is myself. I depend on it for expression. I depend on it for a creative outlet, and I depend on it simply because of my love for it. The idea of dependency pairs with responsibility, and I’d never want to make music out of responsibility to others. I see it more as something that I do for myself with the intention of sharing it with others. On the other hand, I have many musical influences that my music draws from. Gabriel Garzón Montano and Frank Ocean have both made tremendous impressions on me as an artist. Other artists like Chance the Rapper, Solange, Willow Smith, Noname, Caleon Fox, SZA, Aminé, Tyler the Creator, Thelonious Monk, Steve Lacy, Sampha, Cosmo Pyke, Anderson Paak, J. Cole, Ravyn Lenae and many, many more artists have had a big impact on my musical mindset.
You frequently collaborate with other musicians for several aspects of your process. What is the significance of collaboration to your growth as a musician?
I got to experience real live collaboration for the first time recently. I was flown out to LA to work with a producer, Irvin Pasqué, and together we created music from scratch in a studio. I absolutely loved the fact that everything was from scratch, because the song could go literally anywhere. Bouncing ideas off of each other to make a refined product was revealing to me as a musician because it showed me how we could both combine our sounds and talents to take on a vibe that neither of us were familiar with.
How do you know when a song is finished?
A song is finished when I feel like I couldn’t add anything that could positively contribute to the song. I have to ask myself questions like am I just adding unnecessary elements just for the sake of having said elements? Am I just adding something because I feel like there’s not enough elements here even though I’m satisfied with the sound? The same can go with having too many elements to a song. I have to be honest with myself. Once I feel satisfied and that there’s nothing I can do, I show it to a various group of people: friends who aren't musicians, friends who are musicians, producers, family members, and kids to get their opinion on it. I’m usually offered constructive criticism and I can choose whether or not to take it.
What is your mission as a musician?
My mission as a musician is to not just make music, but to also make art. For years, I’ve refrained from expressing myself as an individual artist out of fear that expression wasn’t ‘the norm.’ I feel like our society lacks emotion and is more influenced by opinion. I want to make music that evokes emotion, because emotion incites action. Whether that action be to cry, dance, protest, or to love, I want to inspire people.
Bio: Kyle Tolbert is 17 years old and lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He attends school at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities in Greenville, SC, where he studies music in a concentrated curriculum. He loves the beach, his friends, and taking long walks on the beach with his friends. A singer / songwriter / producer, he’s currently working on his first major release, which has not been titled yet.
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