​Tyler Smith has followed his passion for music for as long as he can remember. He enjoyed the recorder, singing, and strings in school growing up, and began private drum lessons with local instructor Kendrick Freeman at age 10. He quickly gained interest in other instruments, such as guitar, bass, and piano, and began playing guitar and drums in garage bands as a teen. In high school, the band he was in needed a bassist, so Tyler learned bass and fell in love. He went on to study jazz bass at SRJC and SSU, and played it as his main instrument in multiple local bands for the last 20 years.

His love for drums never faded, and he spent some time playing them in ensembles at SRJC and SSU, as well as for theater productions in Healdsburg. Tyler took as many performance and ensemble classes as he could throughout his extended years at
music school, and enjoyed being in classical and jazz choirs, percussion ensembles, Latin bands, rock groups, free jazz and contemporary groups, and studied considerable piano as well. His love for piano, synthesizers, and electronic music has continued to expand throughout his life, and he spends much of his solo music time at home playing piano and electronic instruments.

He has a passion for all types of music, such as choral and classical music, soundtrack and video game music, hip-hop and RnB, funk and soul, jazz and fusion, disco and dance music, electronic and synthesizer music, pop and folk, rock and roll, local and world music, and more. He has spent some time playing all of it, and can’t wait to explore more musical realms. He leans toward groove-oriented stylings, as well as calm, meditative, ambient styles, and believes deeply in music’s ability to heal and ground us, process and release inner workings, and connect across communities like no other.

One of his favorite pastimes, other than playing music, is listening to it, and even more so seeing live music. There’s nothing quite like it, being on the stage or in the crowd during a magical moment in time. He hasn’t played or attended as much live music as he’d like in the past year, for he has been spending time with his one-year-old daughter and her mother, with whom he lives in Sebastopol. In their free time, they love to play all types of instruments, although every instrument is a drum for the baby right now. His daughter also loves listening to and dancing to music, throwing frisbees, and hanging with animals, just like her parents. As a family, they love to spend time in nature as well, in the trees and at the beach, smelling as many flowers as they can.