Uplifting and chill are two words Tycho Jones uses to describe their own music. Listen to it, and you can hear exactly what they mean: it’s that dream combination, a feeling only music like Tycho’s has that can put a hopeful spin on even the dreariest days. But listen again — as so many have, over and over again, to Tycho’s 2021 debut mixtape ‘Tychonaut’ — and you’ll hear so much more than that. Synonyms and antonyms of these words: describing the anxiety, the dislocation, the haze, and the joy of being young in a time so beleaguered with worry and hopelessness. It takes a proper born lyricist and melodicist — which Tycho is — to capture all these crucial layers in a song.
Uplifting and chill on the surface, both Tycho and their music rumble with the emotions and the skill of a proper artist underneath. Last year they were awarded a grant to work with a choreographer on developing their live show; since they grew up studying trapeze to a high level, and after they released their first body of work, Tycho wanted to dig deeper into the live experience of it all: to make something to revel at. They’ve built a band, plus a live persona and style of movement, ready for even bigger stages. Indeed, Tycho might be part of the glistening fabric of the London Indie Music scene — but their songs and performances both narrate and dictate what it means to be young, conscious, and confused no matter where in the world you find yourself.
Signing to Hoxton-based independent record label Globe Town Records the week after they finished their A-Levels, Tycho has been an integral part, and dedicated contributor to, the community of artists that make up this East London indie label: bringing with them, and helping to nurture, other artists and producers along the way. But while Tycho’s work and practice is about collectivity, and about using themself as a vector to speak about the experience of others, Tycho has received glowing reviews from the likes of Elton John: referring to them both on the radio and in print as one of their favourite new artists from Britain; while Complex labelled Tycho an “alt-pop wonder”. The video for the lead single from Tycho’s mixtape was nominated for a UK VMA and selected by Virgil Abloh as part of his final exhibition ‘Coming of Age’ in partnership with the Louis Vuitton Foundation.
Already, Tycho has been on a ride that so many young musicians hope for. And they’re only just starting.
