Wen Tilley is a Nashville based singer-songwriter/producer. Originally from Louisiana, Tilley began playing guitar at age 11 and was playing professionally by age 13. He graduated from the Baton Rouge High Magnet School program winning All-State jazz Guitarist two years in a row his junior and senior year. Later, he formed the rock group, Func Haus, who were picked up by Chrysalis Records. He then began a career in music production opening a studio in Baton Rouge, La., Kingfish Recordings Inc., where he produced and mixed hundreds of artist recordings and composed and produced three film scores. Moving to Nashville in 2001, Tilley has been mostly a “gun for hire” as a producer/mixer/guitarist for various artists. “Autonomous Spheres” is the artist’s third solo record.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Wen about the latest project, motivations, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I’m from Louisiana originally, and now reside in Nashville. I’d like to think I’m creating at least a different amalgamation of the many different styles of music I love – rock, folk, jazz, and soul, hopefully with a good story or insight to share lyrically.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
I fell in love with music at an early age. Started playing guitar at the age of 10 and was playing professionally by 13. The motivation for me to keep going is purely artistic. It’s the art of combining musical with lyrical imagery that might or might not create something visual in the mind of the listener. To bring the listener somewhere perhaps they’ve never been before. When someone listening to one of my tunes “gets it” – that’s all the satisfaction I need really.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
My latest release was sort of a continuation of my first record, which was my initial effort as a solo artist. My second record is actually a guitar instrumental record featuring songs from the Old West. A very different record than the singer-songwriter thing.
So, really, my latest record is a continuation of my singer-songwriter aspirations featuring songs written in the last few years.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Sure, well, the challenge in any over-supplied market is to get noticed, or to get “heard”. And, there are just so many good indie artists to compete with that any edge is appreciated. The problem for me, and I think a lot of other indie artists, is that marketing and promoting our products ourselves is not the job we signed up for. Content creators aren’t content marketers. Those are two very different jobs. It’s why these divisions within major labels were created in the first place. It wasn’t the “job” of the artist to market his content, only to create it. Time spent doing this is time away from our art. And art, to be competitive, demands the time necessary to perfect it. So there’s a real “Catch-22” here that I believe a lot of indie artists are dealing with.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
My website www.wentilley.com. Fans can contact me directly there, and it’s a place where people can familiarize themselves with all my productions, not just the solo artist stuff.
Anything else before we sign off?
No, just mega thanks to Joshua and MTM!
