Over my time at Bradley, I’ve seen artist Harland Reid become something of a cult figure in the music scene. Through his music, his art, and his remarkable personality, Harland has become one of the most recognizable figures in the Bradley music world. This local notoriety struck me as making him the perfect subject for my first installment of this series.

While possibly best known around Bradley for his bass playing  in campus favorite rock group Swimming With Sharks, it’s his solo work, under the name of Tyronic that I thought deserved featuring. Through a unique blend of metal, hip hop, and EDM music, Harland continues to carve out a sound that is entirely his own, and is constantly evolving.

Curious about the mind behind the sound, I brought Harland in for an interview and found out what makes him tick and what makes Tyronic so interesting.

R: Alright Harland, so let’s just start with the basics. What can you tell me about your music, what's your deal artistically?

H:I like to go all over the place artistically. I’m mainly inspired by EDM metal and hip hop. So it's usually bouncing around those. Lately I’ve been trying to sort of bridge the gap between metal and hip hop as best as I can, I also like to do a lot of cyber punk EDM and techno type stuff.

R: Your music is hard to put into words, trust me I’ve been trying, so how would you describe the sound of Tyronic?

H: (laughing) I pretty much describe it as everything angsty in a bottle. It all comes from pure emotion, no matter if its joy, pain, lust, you name it. It kind of just all comes together in this aggressive package of music.

R: Going off of that idea of emotion, your music can get very personal, do you ever struggle opening up like that and bearing your soul for the world to see?

H: Not at all, actually I’ve found that it’s the best way for me to open up. I have a lot of emotions and I struggle with expressing them sometimes. I think music is the best medium for me to get that stuff out of my head and out into the world.

R: So is that your intent with music then? Communication of your feelings?

H: Yeah it's like a mixture of personal communication and also encouraging expression. I grew up being that kid that was listening to weird music and wasn’t really into the popular stuff that everyone else was doing. So I like giving people this idea of like “hey, you can express yourself in a way that's different or unique or weird and that's ok”

R: What would you want a listener who is like that to feel when listening to your music?

H: Something cathartic almost! I want people to see there’s a way to release those feelings in a healthy way. Like my newest single, “University of Skin and Bones”, I made that song about how fed up and frustrated I feel about how COVID has affected the Bradley community. I know a lot of people feel that way and feel hopeless so I want them to be able to hear that song and think like “yeah ok this is how I feel this is something I can relate to”

R: Who makes you feel that way? Are there any particular artists that you would say influenced you and inspired you to do what you do?

H: When it comes to music, the first band I truly fell in love with was Slipknot and Corey Taylor’s writing, listening to Kanye West taught me how to make beats and produce my sound. Tech N9ne was someone who was amazing for me, seeing a black musician cross over into the metal world and still stay hip hop and true to himself was so cool. People like Body Count, Ice-T’s group, did a lot of that kind of thing too which was amazing to see. Groups like those that were really out there pushing borders and doing things differently have always spoken to me the most.

R: You mentioned Tech N9ne and the influence of seeing a black musician pull off a metal act. Have you ever felt  like there was a stigma as a black man doing the metal thing? 

H: There was for a while, especially as a kid because that’s when hip hop was really controlling the mainstream culture. Everyone was into hip hop and everyone expected me to be into it as well but I was listening to Slipknot and other weird things. In recent years though I think it’s come back around and people are more open minded now. It was just hard at first because people didn’t really know how to handle what I was making compared to the mainstream stuff.

R: Can you run me through your creative process? Your music is so out there I’m curious where those ideas come from and how you’re able to turn them into songs.

H: Basically I’m a big nerd (laughing) my interests are in video games and comic books so typically it starts with a concept or theme from there. So I draw themes and ideas from those things, and then I combine it with whatever emotion or feelings I want to put out at that time. So like with my latest project “Electric Ellysium” it started as a bunch of songs I had already recorded and were sitting in my backlog. A friend had told me that they all sounded like a video game soundtrack and I loved that so I ran with the idea. I did some remastering and added in themes of video game music and it came out as a cohesive narrative.

R: What have been your biggest challenges as an artist? How have the current circumstances affected your work and your artistic mindset?

H: I was on a really good roll with everything before COVID and so it was tough to have that momentum killed. My music has gotten a lot darker because of that and I'm going in directions that I wouldn’t have otherwise. As far as artistic challenges go, it’s tough to have reached a level of notoriety where the people around you know who you are but you’re still struggling to reach the greater population.

R: That’s great that you bring that up because that’s a lot of what I’m trying to do with this series. We have our little scene in the Bradley world and we’re all very close knit and everyone knows each other, but it doesn’t really expand beyond that and we don’t get a lot of press outside of our own world. 

H: Absolutely there are a ton of talented artists here and they all struggle to break out into the greater community. 

R: How has the Bradley music scene affected you?

H: So I’m from Chicago and it’s different there because it’s such a big musical community it feels impossible to play shows and find a band and make a name for yourself. For me coming into the Bradley music scene was a major shock because it is the most wholesome, healthy, diverse, unique scene I’ve ever been a part of. The big difference it made for me is that it’s so easy to break in. Everybody is supportive and welcoming and kind. If you want to play you will be able to find a band and make music and get gigs. It’s just a great community of creative people who want to make great art. And everybody is so good! Bands are genuinely good! There are shows I’ve  been to where it’s like “ok these bands are fine but they’re young and it’s not great” but it’s not like that here at all. Everyone who plays is passionate about what they do and there’s such an amazing variety of stuff.

R: Would you say that variety is important to the scene?

H: Oh yeah for sure. Everybody is so open minded and welcoming it’s perfect for someone like me who is constantly trying to find their sound. It’s been great to have a place where there are people who are always interested in hearing what new direction I’m moving in artistically.

To give everyone a taste of what Tyronic is, I asked Harland to give a little performance of his recent single, The Drowning. For more, I linked his Sound Cloud below. You can find Harland’s music on all streaming platforms as “Tyronic”. Check him out and let me know what you think, I’ll be back next week with another artist from the Bradley world.