I am sure you are familiar with saying, “They don’t make music like they used to.” Well, I respectfully disagree. I have listened to some records over the past 10 years and yes, I am not impressed. However, there are some new artists that make timeless music and deserve their flowers. One of these artists is Ricky Tyler: The Classic Man.
You may know him from his breakout single Deja Vu, or his recent feature on the song Bad News. If you don’t know him, well, now you do – get streaming :-).
Bad News is the first official release by Glo TheBeatz & Kyle Keyz, producer duo known as PLXYGRND, since transitioning from solely producers to artists as well. This Dance Pop jam features Ricky and Gemma Griffiths.
“PLXYGRND is actually my production team. They are responsible for all the production, all the music that I have been creating. They produced my first album, Small World. This is actually their first project as just PLXYGRND production.
“They brought me and Gemma together to collaborate and do their first single,” said Ricky.
From working with the duo and Gemma Griffiths, Ricky shares some lessons he learned from the collaborations that he will apply to his future projects.
“To keep an open mind. The style was out of my comfort zone. So it’s fun what you can do in different styles. Don’t deprive yourself of trying something new so you can grow, you can adjust to different types of music and not box yourself. This is to make whatever you put out there to be interesting,” said Ricky.
As far as future projects go, Ricky has teased on his Twitter page that he is working on album 2. Although Ricky hasn’t shared the release date, I am lighting candles and manifesting he releases this year, better yet this semester.
“Album 2 is pretty much gonna be an update on everything that I have been through for the past 2 years. So, obviously, the last time I dropped Small World and everything that has happened between that.
“I am gonna speak about everything I have been going through up to this point. All the issues I have been dealing with mentally, with family, friends, success, what I want for my future right now, the kind of man that I am right now and how I see things, you know?”
Ricky says the second album will carry some differences that will set it apart from the first album. Travelling and being exposed to different cultures heavily influences the second album.
On things that we can expect to be different with this upcoming album, Ricky said, “Definitely the change in sound. The storyline – life is changing all the time and your perspective changes all the time. So, it’s gonna be different as my perspective has changed. The first album was how I saw things then and also the kind of music that I am into now and how I feel things now. The way I express myself now sonically and lyrically is gonna be different.
When making the instrumental for Bad News we kept the core sounds like the drums, bass and guitar, very organic to Afro sound and movement with a little bit of an R&B twist. Then to give it that commercial feeling we added some poppy atmospheric sounds that we thought would really complement Gemma & Ricky’s vocals.
PLXYGRND
“But at the moment there are songs that I have already dropped with Money Badoo – 47k and Vuyina on her single Leavin’ U – who is the newest member in our team. So, I have been doing collaborations throughout the year with artists I also believe in and wanna see do some cool things,” said Ricky.
Downtime with Ricky Tyler
During his downtime, Ricky watches one of Mzansi’s favourite shows – Date My Family. You probably saw Ricky on an episode of the show on 12 April 2020. With his first love, acting, we can expect more of Ricky on our screens in the future.
“I am just figuring out one thing at a time. Right now, music is the main priority. I wanna get this right before I venture into other things. I need to make sure that I can take this to the level that I need it to be then I can start getting into acting. That’s the plan.
That’s always been, my first love. That’s how I started out before I actually got into music. Then the transition to music happened.”
For now, we await album 2. Follow Ricky on Instagram and Twitter to keep updated about his releases and what he is getting up to.
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