Tyler Bradley Walker

Assistant Professor of Composition
Director of Electronic Music Studios

Education

  • DMA, Music Composition, University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music
  • MM, Composition, Georgia State University

Bio

American sound artist Tyler Bradley Walker’s music explores the cross-pollination of popular, rock, and concert music. With an interest in rejecting formalism, Walker marshals a wide breadth of creative influences into intense and direct electronic soundscapes with a keen interest in embracing music’s experiential success. A commitment to recognizing and embracing a current cultural environment and challenging that environment is central to his work. Some of Walker’s vocal works could best be described as operatic in intention but not within the antiquated, limited conventions of tradition.

An engaged and imaginative collaborator, Walker has worked with artists and ensembles as diverse as Angus Andrew (Liars), Answer Code Request, the Atlanta Percussion Trio, Ade Blackburn (Clinic), the Cincinnati Art Museum (Sol LeWitt Exhibit), Chris Connelly (Ministry), Carson Cox (Merchandise), percussionist Patti Cudd, Brian Deck, Richard Devine, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, John McEntire (Tortoise), Daniel Myer, Luke Reynolds (Guster), Louis Resto (Eminem), Pat Sansone (Wilco), Jessie Stein (The Luyas), Tarwater, Martina Topley-Bird, Kurt Wagner (Lambchop) and many others. His most recent collaborations, partially sponsored by a generous grant from the University of Alabama Office of Research and Economic Development, paired him with a (soon to be announced) leading experimental rock musician and composer Alex Dowling.

Walker is best known as one half of the experimental electronic rock duo Gone to Color, who released their debut album on October 15, 2021. The duo has been described as “well connected in the outlier world of music” with a “beguiling credit list” of collaborators on their debut album, according to music critic Michael Swiz. “Lush,” “sophisticated,” “shapeshifting,” “subdued,” “dreamy,” and “surreal” are some of the descriptions other critics, not limited to NPR, Stereogum, or Under The Radar, have used to describe the duo’s music; its eclecticism, however, belies easy categorization. Brooklyn Vegan described the duo as “the perfect group to herald the new wave” of “erudite chillout grooves.” Musicology Magazine (Sydney) described the album as “one of the finest releases of the year”.

On January 27, 2023 Gone to Color released Gone to Color RMXS which featured remixes by electronic music pioneers The Field, Oval, and Plaid among others.

As a producer, audio engineer, and studio director over the last 14 years Walker has collaborated with and supported a long list of familiar bands including Blackberry Smoke, The Doobie Brothers, Elton John, Larkin Poe, Megadeth, String Cheese Incident, Zac Brown Band and has facilitated work with producers Brian Deck, Tom Drummond (Better Than Ezra), Mike Fraser,   Ryan Hewitt, Damien Lewis, Manny Marroquin, Neal Pogue, Matt Serletic, Keith Stegall and Matt Wallace. Between 2010 and 2015, he acted as studio director and engineer for a multi-GRAMMY-winning artist in Atlanta. Walker also enjoys working as a music supervisor, with his work in this arena helping to garner many awards, including the Special Jury Prize for Dramatic Film at the Sundance Film Festival (2017), Outstanding Feature Film at the Women’s Image Network Awards (2018), Best Romance Film at the Berlin International Film Festival (2020), Most Watched Film at the New Renaissance Film Festival (2020) and Best LGBTQ feature at the Queens World Film Festival (2021). His work as music supervisor on the film Novitiate, directed by Maggie Betts, featured Academy Award winner Melissa Leo, Julianne Nicholson, Margaret Qualley, and Denis O’Hare.

Walker completed his DMA at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and is currently Assistant Professor of Composition and Director of Alabama Electronic Music Studios at The University of Alabama Moody School of Music.