Uniquely twisted, emotionally compelling self-described “vocalist, pianist and cello rapist” TyLean, quickly become known as eccentric, willing to sacrifice popularity for the sake of art and musicality for atmosphere. Whereas most musicians and performers are clamoring to give their audiences enjoyable entertainment and music they desire, TyLean challenges her audiences, daring them to face their personal demons as well as the cruelty of all humans. TyLean’s strong yet haunting voice is the emotional centerpiece of the full-on “despair art” recording The Unforgivable, the Unforgettable, the compelling follow-up to her 2007 sophomore album, Between 10 and 2.
Between 10 and 2 boasted a quagmire of despair in TyLean’s songs of torment or her recreations of nightmares and insanity. The album was largely autobiographical, written and recorded during a remarkably dark time in TyLean’s life, when she experienced hallucinations, paranoia, an inability to distinguish reality from non-reality and an utter loss of will to live.
Discussing Between 10 and 2 her trademark album that single-handedly captures the fullness of her artistic expression, TyLean says, “The response to the album has been rather bi-polar. Some have thanked me for shedding light into the workings of the mind of someone who is mentally unwell. Others have charged me with exploiting mental illness. I feel I have every right to do so, seeing as they are based on my own experiences, and would encourage others suffering in that hell to do the same, as it’s greatly therapeutic”.
Therapy is precisely what spawned TyLean’s third album, The Unforgivable, the Unforgettable, due to be released April 2010 on her own Bast Records. At the height of TyLean’s “insanity,” while living in Bristol, England, her progression toward mental health was in no small way connected to the writing of The Unforgivable, the Unforgettable. Having grown up in rural Pennsylvania, TyLean experienced a great deal of trauma that caused a bottomless well of emotional disturbances, “character flaws,” and resentment. Each track of The Unforgivable, the Unforgettable is based on an unforgivable or unforgettable person of event in TyLean’s life.
For her third album, TyLean was not satisfied with the ease of recording in a studio, as she had for her debut EP, When All Else Fails, and Between 10 and 2. The Unforgivable, the Unforgettable required an intensity that could only be captured live and “in the moment.” Despite having very few live performances under her belt and a great deal of stage fright to contend with, TyLean recorded the entire album live in a single performance in London on her 27th birthday.
2010 promises to be an exceptionally busy year for TyLean, as she has recently filled a vacancy as a vocalist in Attrition, a stanchion of darkwave and industrial music since 1980. Attrition is currently recording a new album in between a calendar jam-packed with tour dates spanning five continents.
TyLean is writing new material for her fourth album, all of the songs unified by a theme of war and militia. Her first three albums have been heavily centred on piano and keyboard instruments, but TyLean plans to have the fourth album primarily recorded with cello. True to her cello raping antics in songs such as “Rosalyn,” TyLean will be making her cello hostages “scream with the bloody sounds of war.” TyLean promises that her solo material will remain “deviacoustic” (acoustic music of a socially deviant nature) and authentic, as nothing can deliver despair like a raw acoustic instrument. She hopes the album, featuring songs like “Casualty” and “Blood Stained Walls,” will be set to be released in 2011.