Splendour Act Tai Verdes: ‘I'm Gonna Be The First Motherf*cker That Can Do Everything’

The charismatic Californian Tai Verdes (aka Tyler Colon) has given almost everything a go. He's been a basketballer, reality television contestant, and Hollywood hopeful. But, mastering TikTok, Colon has found success as an alt-popster with the breezy hits Stuck In The Middle and A-O-K. Now he wants longevity – and credibility. "I'm just making shit and I'm trying to get as good as I can at it, you know?"

Plugging his inaugural Australian tour with the much-anticipated Splendour In The Grass over Zoom, Colon reveals a big personality. He's unusually unscripted, spontaneous and tangential. If anything, the 26-year-old is a paradox. He brims with confidence and ambition yet discloses his failures. Transparent, Colon acknowledges how he's strategically promoted himself, and courted fame, but heralds his music as "art". When referred to as a "star", Colon playfully demurs. 

In mid-2020, as COVID-19 raged, Colon was a struggling creative, selling phones in a Verizon Wireless retail store. The American dream aspirant filmed himself singing Stuck In The Middle in his car for TikTok, promising that, if the song received 1000 'likes', he'd release it the next day. Stuck... went viral, Colon landing a deal with Arista Records. He's unsure why it resonated. 

"I don't really know how people consume anything," Colon ponders. "I'm really out here just making shit that I like – that's all I can do. I can only do stuff that I like. I like multiple genres of music. I like experimenting a lot – and that's just one of the things that came out of it. And then another thing that I like to do is promote it. 

"I don't really try to worry about what other people get attached to in the songs, because I'm not in it for the 'song' game. I'm in it for the 20-year plan. I'm trying to be, like, 10 years in this, 20 years in this… So I don't really think about the 'micro' like that."

Colon was raised on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. He learnt piano from his tweens, later adding guitar and ukulele. Colon's approach was instinctive rather than virtuoso. "I was trying when I was 13-years-old to mimic perfectly the feel of songs like [Train's 2001] Drops Of Jupiter [Tell Me] on piano," he remembers. "I really loved the feel."

Colon attended Babson College, a private business school in Massachusetts, his preoccupation then basketball – and playing for the NBA. "At the time, I didn't realise I wasn't good enough – but I think everyone around me, they did," he laughs. Colon wasn't sufficiently "dedicated".

Studying entrepreneurship wasn't stimulating, either – Colon reckoning that he could learn more productively from YouTube tutorials. A year-and-a-half in, Colon quit to pursue music. "I'm very self-aware – and I cannot do shit that I don't like," he says. "If I'm not passionate about something, I'm not gonna do well at it."

The musician haplessly uploaded songs onto YouTube under the handle Tylersemicolon. He also unsuccessfully auditioned for the reality shows American Idol and The Voice. However, Colon was a participant in MTV's dating program Are You The One?, winning the sixth season in 2017 alongside Nicole Spiller. It reignited his competitive streak. 

Returning to Los Angeles, Colon developed a gameplan – involving carpe diem, DIY and self-actualisation. The key was to apply himself, be resourceful, and grind. "There's a quote – it's like, 'Winning doesn't feel that good, losing just sucks terribly,'" Colon relates, "and I was just losing. I was like, 'We need to find a way to love something.' It was just like, 'What do I like? Okay, I like comedy – let's do stand-up comedy.' 'Okay, I like podcasts – let's try to make a podcast really big.' 'Okay, I like modelling – let's try to get a modelling contract.' 'Okay, let's fucking try to go and do acting' – and I was an extra on a Tom Cruise movie. 'Let's do reality TV' – and I was on a reality TV show and I won 50 grand… I just would try out everything. But my one love was music."

Bizarrely, that Tom Cruise movie was Top Gun: Maverick – the sequel to the '80s action classic that, after multiple delays, will finally screen in May. Colon was the stand-in for Jay Ellis, the actor best known from Insecure. "I'm the same height as him, the same kind of complexion," he explains.

Still, even hustling, Colon languished in day jobs – increasing his determination to succeed. "I'm just not made for that nine-to-five life," he rues. "It's just very suffocating."

A quaro phenom, Colon proved that Stuck… wasn't a fluke when he followed with A-O-K – his first chart hit Stateside (it's now platinum in both the US and Australia). But, while A-O-K was hailed as a sanguine summer bop, it's ambiguous. "To be honest, my music isn't that happy," Colon maintains. "If you've listened to any of the lyrics of A-O-K, it's saying like, 'I'm trying to be happy' – and that's only with that one song. I talk about relationships; I talk about depression and stuff like that."

Last May, Colon presented his debut album, TV, with production input from Mike Posner cohort Adam Friedman. The singer/songwriter admits that Arista suggested he initially roll with an EP. But, ever the disrupter, Colon had other ideas. "I really just was like, I'm gonna do more than I think people expect," he states. "I was like, 'No, motherfuckers, here's an album – 'cause I'm an artist.' I'm like, 'An artist drops albums – it's just how it goes.'

"I don't need permission from anyone to do anything. I don't need to be ready to do anything… Everyone's like, 'Oh, you have to have a song to be this or whatever to do whatever.' No, you don't! You can just do whatever you want. There's no rules to any of this. We're all gonna die as well. So none of it matters – just do whatever you want."

Sonically, Colon hybridises pop, rock, emo, R&B and hip-hop. He's unforthcoming about direct influences, simply alluding to "feel". "I'm just gonna be the first motherfucker that can do everything," Colon asserts. "I don't have any sort of thing. I mean, I love making music that I like – so I have to like it first."

Colon has largely avoided collabs. Yet the trendsetter cut Sheesh! with the Splendour-bound US band Surfaces – in fact, he was previously an extra in their Sunday Best video  – and notably solicited the rapper 24kGoldn for a remix of A-O-K.

Colon wryly tells personal stories in his songs – but he also taps into cloud rap's pervasive ambivalence and nihilism. Ironically, post-A-O-K, Colon was sent demos for "feel-good pop songs" – which he declined. "My goal is not to make 'happy music'," Colon reiterates. "My goal is to make art. At that time, in that moment in my life, that was the art… But most of my words come from me – like every single song that I've made.

"All my songs are my experiences, things that I have done – all my verses are like verbatim what happened. I'm being so vulnerable on these tracks. I want people when they listen to my album to get to know how I think about everything, because that's how you get it. Nobody wants to listen to an album from somebody that they don't know."

Today Colon attributes his good fortune to having social media acumen – self-marketing paramount. "There's a reason why I'm here right now," he says. "It's not because I'm the best singer in the world or the best producer." But, no cynic, Colon is resolved to never become a novelty act – his music authentic. And he's been afforded critical acclaim, Stuck… listed in The New York Times' "Best Songs Of 2020". Colon is about airing "quality shit that you believe in."

In January, Colon issued LAst dAy oN EaRTh, his dramatic rebuff to the capitalist fatalism of "that nine-to-five life". "I just know that you could die anytime; you could lose the ability to do anything – like I could lose my vision, I could lose the ability to speak, I could lose an arm or a leg, I could lose brain cognitive powers for the way that I think right now…

"I just don't see enough urgency. I know you have a long time to do whatever you want – but I don't see the urgency to do stuff that you love enough. I see people just struggling for no reason – struggling on something that they don't like that much. Don't struggle for that; struggle for something that you actually love – 'cause that actually feels worth it, compared to something that you think is gonna be worth it in 20 years or whatever.

"When I go in the studio, even if I have something where I don't come out that day, it's just like, 'You know what? We took a step forward to something that I actually enjoy doing – that was fun.' You should be saying that more often after you've done six hours or something, not coming out of work and being like, 'Shit, what do I get to do this weekend?' Living for the weekend is an easy way for a short, slow, terrible, depressing death."

Colon is already teasing his sophomore, HDTV, which will have "around 20 songs". He's lately dropped the single 3 outfits. "There's four albums that I'm gonna do – kind of like in the same vein of Ed Sheeran [albums], where it's all a theme," Colon enlightens. Following HDTV, he plans to have LPs entitled 3DTV and 4KTV. "I'm gonna do it, no matter if people are listening or not. I really don't give a fuck. I just wanna do it 'cause I think it's cool."

Colon holds that, by delivering albums that encapsulate different eras, he can establish himself as a three-dimensional megastar like Taylor Swift. Indeed, the artists Colon "looks up to" don't "necessarily" make the music he digs, but he admires how they utilise their talents. 

"I think everyone is [potentially] Taylor Swift, but they just might not have the resources. But it's not like Taylor or all these people are coming up with stuff that's completely crazy as well. I think everyone's fucking human. 

"I have some privileges in my life where I think that I can do exactly what anyone can do – and that's because I just have the confidence in it. I don't believe in 'genius', I believe in time on task – and I'm gonna spend time on the fucking task."

In the meantime, Colon is building a live profile, selling out dates. Astonishingly, he performed his first-ever set at 2021's Lollapalooza to a crowd of 35,000 – adeptly covering Weezer's Beverly Hills. Again, Colon is self-effacing. "I don't even know if those people were my fans. I think they might have been bored. They were just like, 'Let's see the first show that comes on' – and I was the first one on the main stage." Nonetheless, it was "a crazy experience" to hear punters singing along to his finale, A-O-K. 

Possibly, Lollapalooza was peak Tai Verdes. "I went out there and I just did it," Colon flexes. "I thought I was gonna be nervous or something – which I was – but I'm too old for that shit. I'm not like these 18-year-old kids that are fucking brought up on TikTok – like, I have to do it now or just don't do it at all."

Quizzed about whether he'll play ukulele in Australia, and the mercurial Colon leaps up to demonstrate it, even as the interview wraps. "You're gonna be mad at me," he jokes one last time. "But look at this… It's broken!"