Interview with New Electronic Artists Tyler Tester

North Carolina-based music producer Tyler Tester is building a catalog rooted in something most artists rarely expose — the unfiltered weight of lived experience. Raised in Boone and now based in Wilkesboro, Tester creates instrumental beats that transform personal hardship into sound designed to reach those going through the same.

Self-built and independently driven, Tyler Tester began producing on BandLab with the support of his wife, sharing his work through his own YouTube channel. His music carries no features, no industry backing — just intention. Every track is crafted to connect with listeners who don’t yet have the words for what they’re feeling.

How do you decide which personal experiences are right to translate into a beat or track?

I just took what I had the most feelings about from my life experiences — even if it was a bad one — and turned it into a positive one by turning it into music to help others going through the same thing.

Are there any producers, artists, or genres outside your usual style that influence your sound in unexpected ways?

I like a lot of Eminem, Akon, Shaggy — but I don’t really try to copy their sound. I try to keep it my own sound, but to make something that might have the same feel to it.

When experimenting with new sounds, how do you balance creativity with making something listeners can connect to?

I try to take a creative take on making the sound that would help me and some people I know that’s gone through the same experiences in life, and see how it works. Obviously it doesn’t always work, but there are a lot of times it does. It’s just a trial and error run — try something, if it doesn’t work, do the same thing but in a different way or with a different feel. But know in your heart you will never please everyone. Do your best to try to.

Has your environment in North Carolina shaped the atmosphere or mood of your music in ways you didn’t anticipate?

It’s shaped it a little bit — being what I’ve had to go through here, good and bad. One of the best things being I found my wife and we started our family. Bad being everything I went through growing up. But I live and learn and just try to turn it into positive vibes and beats to help those who otherwise wouldn’t ever tell anyone they’re going through it — because until now, I haven’t told anyone about it.

How do you approach collaboration, even if it’s just sharing ideas with other musicians online?

I have tried it in the past and brought my beats and ideas to people through BandLab, and they’ll say they want to — then they just disappear because they don’t want to do what I want to. But I never let that stop me, because my music has a purpose and that’s to help those in need. I’m not willing to change that, and that’s why I don’t get a lot of people who want to collaborate.

If you had unlimited resources for one project, what kind of music or concept would you create?

I would want to do a music video with lyrics written by someone I worked with, focused on helping others with struggles — and make the video clear that that’s my goal. And possibly a full project where someone helps me with my lyrics and singing, to make more of my career than just mixing beats, so people could get to know the real me and who I am.

Beyond music, are there other creative outlets that inspire or recharge you during the production process?

Apart from mixing beats, I love singing and spending time with my family — that always helps me. Other than that, that’s really the only creative outlets I have.