Aussie Electronica DJ Producer tyDi
Aussie Electronica DJ Producer tyDi
Aussie electronica DJ Producer tyDi is one of the leading artists in electronic dance music since 2002. Born Tyson Illingworth in Mooloolaba, Australia, on May 31, 1987, he goes by the aliases ‘Wish I Was’ and ‘Tyson Diorr.’ Unlike many of his contemporaries, he studied music late in life, age 14 to be exact. He fell in love with trance music and was also interested in music theory. So much so, he wrote music during his school lunch breaks. The earliest inspiration for his music was a relationship he had in school.
He competed in every DJ competition he could find while keeping them from his parents. They influenced him to be a drummer and bought him a drum set. He was so appreciative of the drums he traded them for turntables. Teenagers. As if DJ’ing isn’t hard enough, he used his older sisters to gain access to clubs because he was too young to enter at the time. The risk was worth the reward as Tyson won his first career DJ competition at age 16 under his school nickname ‘tydi.’ The spelling of ‘tyDi’ resulted from a typographic error on a promotional flyer for the Brisbane DJ Wars competition that he won.
A little-known record label, Armin van Buuren’s ‘Armada’ signed young tyDi at age 17. After high school, he applied to study at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. The Conservatorium accepted him as one of 3000 applicants for the potential 30 seats in the program. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music Technology.
Touring and DJ Awards
Post graduation, tyDi toured Australia. In 2006, he entered the Technics InTheMix Australian Top 50 DJs, reaching number 12. After gaining more experience at music festivals in 2007, he reached number 4 in the Top 50 DJ charts. In 2008 and 2009, he became Australia’s youngest number 1 DJ and the first non-New South Wales winner of the award. In 2010 he won ‘Best Break-Through DJ’ at the International Dance Music Awards (IDMA) in Miami. Tiesto presented him the award. Between 2008 and 2012 tyDi was included in the annual DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll. He reached number 48 in 2011.
In 2015, the Conservatorium awarded him the Griffith University Young Outstanding Alumnus of the Year for his contributions to the music industry.
Early Discography
tyDi released tracks on Andy Moor’s label, AVA Recordings between 2008 and 2012. He joined Andy for two Miami Music Week events, Andy Moor & Friends in 2010 and AVA Takeover in 2012.
In 2009, his first album, ‘Look Closer,’ reached number 2 on the Australian Dance charts. His second album ‘Shooting Stars’ released in 2011, reached number 1 on the Australian, Canadian, Finnish and UK iTunes Dance charts and number 4 in the USA.
Through his extensive discography, which includes five full-length albums, countless singles and remixes, and numerous EPs across diverse genres, he’s topped global charts, he’s toured the world, and he’s made his indelible mark on the music world. Now, tyDi reinvents his sound once again via Collide, his forthcoming artist album set for self-release early 2018 via Global Soundsystem Records.
Collide
Four years in the making, Collide unveils tyDi’s latest artistic evolution. It’s a hefty undertaking reflective of tyDi’s developed skills as a songwriter and producer and traversing many styles and sounds.
On Collide, tyDi bridges the worlds of electronic and orchestral music as he presents an entirely new sound in uncharted territories. Collectively, the album threads a grand sonic narrative built on precise composition, progressive musicality, intelligent sound design, layered songwriting and grandiose orchestral scoring. Through its 12 original tracks, Collide creates an unprecedented musical journey that transports listeners off the dance floor and into the concert halls.
The first official album single ‘Closing In’ delivers dreamy synths that float over soft piano melodies and dance atop a beautiful brass section with a bed of majestic strings. The track also features the delicate yet powerful vocals of guest singer Dia Frampton. Dia was the runner-up in the inaugural season of The Voice. The Voice is NBC’s TV singing competition. In 2014, Dia and tyDi also collaborated on his 2014 single ‘Stay.’
The single ‘Gold Blooded’ charges open with an energetic introduction of violins and live brass instruments before diving into a melodic halftime trap chorus featuring empowering vocals from artist Dyson, while ‘Fallen Angel’ forges an intense and massive ride through dubstep-tinged force and modern bass music.
Longtime devotees find a special surprise in ‘Did You Know?’ where tyDi revisits his trance roots with an orchestral twist: Chunky synthesizers and futuristic sequencers build a digital playground as lush strings, and horns paint a cinematic backdrop while ‘London Rouge’ angelically coos of love and longing. Elsewhere, tyDi offers up an intimate, introspective look on ‘You Don’t Love Me,’ a personal reflection on love lost encapsulated by a vulnerable yet uplifting vocal performance from Tori Roper, who perfectly captured the powerful emotion driving the song atop a lulling electro house beat.
tyDi explained,
I wanted to make something larger than life, I needed to impress myself by making an album that’s so detailed, so thorough, so musically complex that you couldn’t copy it. This album is so uniquely me; it cannot be duplicated.
Collide is a continuation of sorts of tyDi’s 2014 album Redefined, a significant effort that saw the producer’s first foray into live elements and instrumentation via his use of string quartets, violas, violins, double bass, guitarists, live vocalists and much more.
Collide also sees tyDi implement his conservatory training as well as his academic classical music degree and musical upbringing.
An accomplished musician, tyDi enlisted two times GRAMMY award-winning composer and seasoned veteran Christopher Tin to help bring Collide to the masses. Best known for his composing and scoring work across the concert music, film and video game industries, Tin has won multiple awards and accolades: In 2011, his choral piece ‘Baba Yetu’ from the video game ‘Civilization IV’ became the first piece of video game music to win a Grammy Award, while his album ‘Calling All Dawns’ took home a second Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album that same year.
tyDi said of his collaboration with Tin,
To make my dream album, I needed someone experienced who was a king in the composing world, this is the type of composition you can only get from an entire orchestra, and I owe so much to Christopher.
For tyDi, it all now comes full circle on Collide, his most ambitious and most challenging project to date.
When you watch a film with an intense score, you’re swept away to a different planet. The atmosphere, emotions, melodies, and instruments captivate you. That feeling doesn’t always enter the dance realm. I wanted to capture that magic and bring it to the electronic world.
Still, all the minute details, all the long hours in the studio and all the sleepless nights that went into the album are evident throughout Collide. And, according to tyDi, this is only the beginning.
I’m at a point in my career where I’m not satisfied doing the same thing. All the ambition, all the drive behind this album comes from the need and internal desire to combine every single thing I’ve ever learned in my musical career and put it into this project, to show everyone what I’m capable of.
—John Ochoa, October 2017