Artist: Tyne-James Organ
Words, photos & styling: She is Aphrodite

3 words to describe your Covid isolation time.

Clean - Cooked - WHATTHEFUCKISTHIS?

Melody or lyrics first and why?

Tricky one. Mine varies song to song. Sometimes a song will come from a poem I have written which I then add a melody and chords, but there’s other times where I’m just jamming some chords and sing random melodies and words. I tend to record myself jamming and strangely enough I’ve found that some of my freestyle lyrics are the ones that stay on the actual song. An example of this is ‘Watch You Go’. I still have the video of me sitting in my mums’ spare room late one night in 2016 singing the song start to back for the first time. I think I changed about 10 words after that, but what you hear in the recording just fell out of me. I think with my stuff it hits the mark more when I think about it less. Hope this mumble jumble makes sense lol.

Are we getting another EP out of you this year or perhaps an LP?

I had the thought the other night to ask my audience whether they want my debut LP or would prefer I skip it and go straight to the Christmas LP haha. But nah, you getting lots more music from me this year. I’m just finishing up the album but it does have a name. That’s all I'll say for now.

You’ve had your fair share of traumatic experiences at such a young age and written songs about them. Do you need to prepare yourself to perform these songs live, or can you play them without being triggered?

That’s a great question. For me that’s my favourite part. Sounds weird, but it’s in those moments were I’m singing and the crowd is singing back where I just lose all sense of life and feel less alone. I have my own experiences every time I perform. It’s strange but in a song like ‘Watch You Go’ where I’m singing about the loss of my dad, it’s in that very moment I feel closer to him than ever.

The lyric is “Hold Me Back from a feeling I don’t want to know”- can you walk us through these feelings and how you processed them.

It makes my stomach turn thinking back to that moment but fuck I was angry. I still am. The last thing I could do in that moment was stoop to a low level and do something dumb like hit him, even though every part of me wanted to. So, in those lyrics I’m singing about my emotions running wild in that moment. But this isn’t about me. I’m just the messenger. We, MEN have to stand up and be the change. RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

‘Hold Me Back’ is born from the experience of seeing a female friend of yours assaulted at a club. Why did you feel so compelled to write a song about this event?

In all honesty the last thing I planned to do was write a song about it. When Chris and I sat down on the rock at Maroubra Beach (Sydney) there was no plan to write about anything. I guess I just felt angry that day for some reason and it just came up in conversation. I don’t know how to explain or word this properly, but I didn’t write this song so people would respect or think anything more of me. That is the last thing I want. I’m not doing anything more than any male can do. We men, ALL have to sort this shit out and fucking stop it. It doesn’t take a social media platform or being a musician to talk. The time is now. CHANGE.

“Hold Me Back” is out everywhere now.

Tyne wears all his own clothes, jewellery and shoes except Global Vintage Collective khaki coat.