Meet Iann Tyler of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Iann Tyler.

Hi Iann, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Queens, New York back in December ‘02. I didn’t stay there for long at all. I spent the formative years of my life in Royal Palm Beach, Florida where I lived primarily with my mom’s family. My grandfather was a gospel musician back out in Trinidad & Tobago and I was fascinated with instruments from a young age. He had Yamaha piano and a guitar that he would play his songs on nightly. I remember all of the songs he’d play. I expressed interest in learning music as I grew older, but at the time we could only afford piano lessons for my older maternal half sister. She’d come home and teach me what she learned. Fast forward a couple years and my older paternal half sister began writing raps and showing them to me. At the time, rap music didn’t interest me as I was fascinated by EDM and other genres like jazz. At age 12, my family moved my sister and I to Atlanta, joining our mother who had already moved. It was here that I discovered Funky DL’s Jazzmatic Nas Remix Album. I remember vividly listening to his The World Is Yours remix and resonating deeply with the imagery and the precision with which Nas rapped as well as the incredible production from Funky DL. This led me to take an interest in production. I started creating Boom Bap beats on an admittedly very poor setup, using free software like LMMS and a PS4 Headset. I submitted a compilation of my beats to my high school, North Atlanta, as my IB project. Following that, I discovered the SoundCloud producer community, with the first producers I listened to being Oddwin and Bsterthegawd. The way that they mixed their songs and created this authentic sound inspired me to take my production journey seriously. I adopted the name seabap, which was later shortened to sea., and began posting my works to SoundCloud. Eventually I grew my platform and my relationships, even getting to work with Bster a couple of times and forming a friendship with him, but I got to a point where I needed a new creative outlet. It was around that point that I met Eli the Guy, an artist from Evansville, Indiana who helped me begin my journey as a rapper. He is one of my biggest inspirations and closest friends. I was sitting in my garage/bedroom on the phone with my girlfriend Mara, trying to figure out what I should name myself. She suggested I use my middle names. Ian Tyler. I added an additional N to secure the username on social media. I produced my first project called PACEMAKER that featured an artist named FBD Amari, a Texas based artist who I met by reaching out to him after hearing his song This A Glimpse, which was produced by ROBEARL. I followed that project up with my second album CAPITAL which featured production from ROBEARL as well. I met him after reaching out to him through his Instagram page ibreathemusicallday. Since then, he and I have worked on several songs together and he’s been a monumental figure in my career. Our partnership has spawned several songs including our most popular song “ANOTHALOVE.” from his project MI AMOR POR VIDA. He’s inspired me a lot through his work ethic and has supported me from the jump. I genuinely wouldn’t exist without him. Following that, I recently released my last project ONE4ME to great audience reception and have plans to release 2 more projects over the course of the year.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of the biggest struggles with being a musician is learning how to balance your personal life, your social life, and your life as a musician. Personally I’ve lost a lot of friends and had a lot of issues while on the road to becoming a professional artist. I gave up on college in pursuit of this dream because it was too hard to manage both simultaneously. The lack of support can at times be disheartening as well. Sometimes you really feel like you’re just throwing your heart into a void and screaming at the top of your lungs while being completely ignored. Another thing is navigating around people who are putting up a front to use you as leverage to get a leg up while they’re trying to gain traction. Music as a career is a cutthroat industry and many people lack the integrity to be genuine in the face of opportunity. A lot of artists are self serving.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a rapper and producer. I don’t really like placing myself within a specific genre, but I have garnered a reputation as a boom bap and sampled hip hop artist due to my influence from artists like MF DOOM and Westside Gunn. I’m most proud of my overall growth and the amount of recognition I’ve been able to receive in only 2 years of rapping. I know a lot of people struggle with their formative years as a rapper, but I’m a testament to the results that hard work can deliver if you’re consistent enough. What sets me apart? Probably subject matter. Everything I write and record carries extra weight because it’s all my authentic life experience. Iann Tyler is the story of Cristian Baptiste being retold from a different perspective.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I can keep this short. If you want to network, reach out to people. It doesn’t matter if they have 300k or 1.5 million followers, no amount of recognition or following makes someone “better” than you. It just means that they put the work in to grow their platform. Respect their effort, do not deify the individual. Everyone I’ve ever worked with is someone I’ve reached out to through Instagram DMs or in Discord servers. Also join communities. Building an identity in the scene just by being social is a great way to create a network. Last tip, just be real. So many people are fake in the music scene, authentic people are few and far between. Those are the most welcomed individuals in any scene.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktree.com/ianntyler
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/seabap