Every musician who connects with ATL Collective impacts our organization in different ways. Whether that’s through a goosebump-inducing moment on stage, reaching out to grow our community, or mentoring others, our musicians make us who we are and shape us as a collective. Tyler Lyle does all of that, and when it comes to our shape today, we wouldn’t be who we are without him.
Tyler is a Georgia native whose music career has moved him to New York, Los Angeles, and, lucky for us, back to Atlanta, all while touring around the world. As a singer/songwriter, he has released multiple studio albums under his name, and has gained international acclaim with his band The Midnight. When it comes to not only the ATL Collective family, but the Atlanta music scene as a whole, we’re proud to call Tyler one of our own.
When ATL Collective first started 11 eleven years ago, Tyler’s career was just getting started as well. “I hadn’t really played with a band before I played those first ATL Collective show”, he remembers.
“It’s quite a different thing to write songs for yourself on an acoustic guitar in your room for an invisible audience. It’s such a leap because you’re putting your faith in the band and they’re putting their faith in you. That was huge for me as a young artist.”
Tyler’s involvement with ATL Collective has gone far beyond playing shows onstage with us. He has contributed his belief in shared community and has created “third spaces” where creative people can come together; a huge part of who we are at our core. “You need a place you can know others and be known yourself,” says Tyler. “That’s what community is. Different people with different strengths, different angles, coming together to flesh out a holistic vision. There’s a place for everybody whether that’s front and center or behind the scenes.”
This belief in a creative community has always been apparent in Tyler’s approach to music. During the early days of the Collective, his home was a gathering place for musicians to play together, stay a while, and share inspiration, modeling what it looks like to have an organic hub where creatives belong; an ethos we continue to practice today.
“Intrinsically as creatives, we need to be mentored through the growth journey we’re on. And at a certain point, we need to be a mentor to somebody else. That’s important at every stage of your career, and ATL Collective offers that in our city.”
For more than a decade, Tyler has been a major influence on who we are as an organization and helped us propel a community-centric model for musicians to connect and thrive. His experience as an international touring musician and working in other cities brings a unique and vital perspective to what we do here. “My wife and I moved back to Atlanta with the hope of contributing to the creative scene here and to be fed by it as well. We’re all thinking and brainstorming about how to make the scene better together.”
