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Home Local Music Revisiting Tyler Traband, Milwaukee’s Piano Man
Tuesday, May 13,2008
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Revisiting Tyler Traband, Milwaukee’s Piano Man
Tyler
Traband’s self-released Re-issue EP
is not a repackaged collection of five old tracks, but five songs rerecorded
and issued for the first time in their new versions. For Traband, a pianist and
prolific songwriter, the disc was an easy opportunity to showcase five old
songs with his new band. “The hope was to catch the live vibe we’ve been
getting,” he explains.
The
rippling piano, quirky hooks, rousing refrains and earnest lyrical delivery of Re-issue have long been hallmarks of
Traband’s sound. The current ensemble, however, is well worth showcasing. At
the core of the arrangements are guitarist John Simons, drummer Tim Rush and
bassist Geoff Howard. Esteemed
With
four previous CDs of original material and more than a hundred other songs in
his notebooks, how did Traband choose a handful of tunes for Re-issue? Answer: He didn’t. “It was too
hard to make that decision. I love all my songs!” he says. “I left the decision
up to everyone else.”
Everyone
else was Reissue’s co-producers Kevin
Arndt and Joe Puerta. Puerta was once a member of The Range, the backing band for
Bruce Hornsby, whose style of playing sometimes overlaps with Traband. Hornsby,
however, doesn’t rank among the
“It
starts with Dave Brubeck,” Traband says. “My dad loved straight-ahead jazz.
Further along came the terrible pop of the ’70s, though some of it, like
Journey, sounds pretty good compared to some of today’s music. As a young
adult, I loved The Beatles, Crowded House, Toad the Wet Sprocket.”
Elton
John and Billy Joel aren’t people he cares to be compared with. “For a long
time piano wasn’t cool—it was the bane of my existence,” he says. “Thank god
for Tori Amos and Ben Folds and Coldplay—piano is a big part of their sound. I
like the modern pop thing.”
These
days Traband and band play one or two times a month, sometimes in outlying
areas such as Pewaukee and Hartland. Traband and Simons also perform as an
acoustic duo. A modest income streams in from downloads on iTunes but, like
most contemporary musicians, it’s more about the joy of making music and
finding a few fans than constructing a career.
“I
just want to keep writing and putting things out,” Traband says. “The people
who find us love us. I can’t imagine not writing. It’s part of my soul at this
point. It’s still lots of fun, putting everyone together as a band and seeing
what happens when you flesh out a tune.”
Tyler Traband performs May 17 at the
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Crude
