Name: Carl Hyler
Year: Senior
Age: 22
Major: Environmental Studies
Hometown: Gainesville, FL
Carl Hyler has always been a fan of listening and creating music ever since he started playing guitar when he was a child. In his final semester at FSU, he plans to release his first album Anarchy in the City of the Restless Mind, Friday, April 14th after eight years of planning, writing and producing. In this article, he discusses the origins of the album and the effort he’s put into it over the years.
Courtesy of Carl Hyler
Her Campus (HC): Could you tell me a bit about the album?
Carl Hyler (CH): I’ve wanted to write an album since I was eight and started playing guitar but I actually didn’t start writing this one until the ninth grade. So it’s basically a concept album so there’s a story behind it. The album centers around a family and I just take real life examples and emotions, anything that has happened to me through high school or college, and morph it into a story that is more dark and dramatic than it was in real life.
HC: So, I’m unfamiliar with the term, what exactly is a concept album? How does that differ from a regular album?
CH: A concept album has a central idea that all the songs contribute to. With most albums there is a common theme but a lot of bands will put together twelve songs that were relevant at that time in their lives. The songs themselves may not connect or have any meaning between them even if they individually have meaning. However, in a concept album all the songs are connected in some way and proceeds chronologically. Listening to the album from start to finish tells a story.
HC: So what is the plot line of your concept album?
CH: It centers around a family with a father, mother, son and daughter. The siblings are twins. The main character is the son, named Aiden. It chronicles the jouney of the family falling out in the sense that these four individuals really dig into each other’s skin. The father and mother met and married and had kids all too young when they were never supposed to be together. All of the characters are represented by colors in that the father is blue, the mother is red, and together they make a baby that is purple (the daughter) and Aiden’s color is yellow. He very much stands out from the rest of his family. The twins represent two different sides of myself. Aiden portrays any feelings of isolation, abandonment, angst or violence due to perceived lack of opportunities. On the contrary, the daughter, Violet, has life handed over to her but struggles with high expectations because of this.
HC: That’s also very interesting because two primary colors can’t make another primary color!
CH: Exactly! So there’s a lot of symbolism there and I’m using the album as a way to show how mental illness gives its beholders a different lens in which they see things. A lot of the samples that are used in the album represent something else than what you are just hearing. For example when you hear any white noise or sort of random sounds that can represent chaos or racing thoughts going on in the brain.
HC:To sum up, a concept album follows a certain plot. Typically when we think of plot we picture it more as written word seen in a book or short story. My next question is how do you transfer that type of medium into sound and music instead of written or spoken word?
CH: It’s hard and not an easy task by any means. Sometimes I think that the story is probably only clear to me since I’m the one that produced it. Perhaps it might be more more ambiguous to others but I think that as long as it makes sense to at least me and I’m able to find comfort and solace in it, then I’ve done what I need to do. I wrote the album mainly for me, when I share it with anyone else, it’s up to them to interpret what that story means to them. The songs on their own are about specific emotions, topics or events one can have in their life and so I think that even if one isn’t able to personally connect with the story, it’s still possible to relate to the songs individually.
HC: You’ve mentioned the story isn’t a replication of your life but more of an adaption, would you mind sharing any particular events that inspired this album?
CH: Of course! So one track, “Anarchy in the City” is about how my parents’ divorce was seemingly inevitable. I wrote it months before it actually happened, I had know basically ten years before and this was when stress was building up and arguments were increasing. Other songs detail what it was like to have suicidal thoughts-it’s more common to have these thoughts than people realize and another thing entirely to make a plan and attempt. Ultimately, I think a lot of the raw emotions and motivations for writing songs was mostly in high school and then I became more concept focused in college. I faced problems such as how to make a cohesive story that at least I was able to make sense of and how to write other songs to fill in the gaps and tell a sequential and understandable story.
HC: What is your favorite song on the album and what is it about?
CH: I would say “The Restless Mind”, which is the second to last song on the album. It’s one of the more positive songs and has recently became my favorite after hearing everything post-production. That one really came alive more than the others in my mind. It’s about realizing why love didn’t work and letting go, I find it a very relevant thing.
HC: What genre would you consider your music?
CH: Often times, a listener will define the genre when the artist can’t. The best I could say is indi acoustic electronica, just because it’s a DIY produced with my good friend Nick Berger with Benevolent Studios. I say acoustic because acoustic guitar is the main instrument I play and electronica because of the samples that form the recycled percussive beats or random tidbits. It’s a mixture between the natural organic sound of the acoustic guitar and 21st century elements.
HC: Where can you find the album?
CH: It will be on soundcloud and YouTube and Bandcamp, primarily. You can Search Anarchy in the City of the Restless Mind or look up True Joshua. Or find me on Facebook, the album will be posted there, as well.
HC: Final question, what do you hope to convey with this album and your music in general?
CH: I’m hoping that people in general will learn to embrace the darker side of life. Being an only child allowed me to be more introspective and explorative into different thoughts and emotions, especially those on the darker side. I’m hoping that people can find the beauty in darkness and life, see that it’s a normal experience and perhaps relate their own dark thoughts they have into this album. If not, it can also be just another story or piece of music to listen to. As I said before, I wrote this mainly for myself and if others can enjoy it, then that would be enough for me.