TYLER HOLMES “Nightmare In Paradise”
Album Release Performance at Coaxial @thetylerholmes
Sunday May 2, 2021 7pm PDT
streaming on twitch.tv/coaxialarts

Featuring Lu Coy @lu_isms & Matias @Mx.Matias & Vibraphonist Stephen Hall @arimbahall

With performance videos by
San Cha w/ Maria Maea @__san_cha__ @maeamaria
Davia Spain @daviaspain
ImogenTV @22immi

“Nightmare In Paradise” by Tyler Holmes was written in the wake of a violent trauma that Holmes and tourmates experienced on their last night in Puerto Rico at the end of an otherwise blissful tour. Holmes stayed behind with longtime collaborator and friend San Cha to care for their injured bandmate, taking shifts sleeping on a hospital floor and staying with friends in downtown San Juan. Upon returning stateside, Holmes experienced intense PTSD, bouts of agoraphobia, and extreme ongoing stomach pain. The symptoms drove them to composition as a survival tool and means to process extreme dark thoughts, anxieties and emotions. Initially the project began as acoustic guitar demos sounding like Hole’s MTV Unplugged performance remixed by Tricky, the songs eventually morphed into the electro-acoustic aquarium that the album contains now.

TYLER HOLMES (They/Them) is a singer-songwriter, visual and performance artist who uses music as therapeutic device. Coming from a turbulent and traumatic ‘cult-like’ early life, Holmes has spent a lifetime crafting their own Black, Queer narrative by pushing the limits of their imagination. In a constant state of reinvention they make a mixtape of every moment, from song to song the audience is getting a wholly different animal. Holmes has a chameleonic singing style that ranges from Folk inflected whispers, to morose Goth wails, to Gospel bellows. Envisioning themself as the imaginary child of Björk and Tricky, Tyler Holmes is on an isthmus between Trip Hop and Experimental Pop. They use a surrealist lens on a wide variety of genres, often blending diaristic narratives with dark, dream-like whimsy. Autobiographical and absurd, their writing is alluring and uncomfortable. Both brutal and beautiful, bringing the audience into a shared space of healing and catharsis. They perform with a constantly changing electro-acoustic arrangement, always finding new ways to showcase an intimate horror. Most recently Holmes' released their music video "Nothing" via Paper Magazine. In 2019/20 they released a series of EP’s and Spring 2021 marks the release of their highly anticipated new LP “Nightmare In Paradise” on Ratskin Records.

More Information:
ratskin.org/tylerholmes
ratskinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/nightmare-in-paradise

Photo credit: Chantel Beam
Faux palm tree credit: @richlovefetish