Interviews

Published on July 25th, 2019 | by Percy Crawford

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Tyler Dumont Opens Up About Her Departure From “Making The Band,” the Music Industry and Her Return!

After a lengthy hiatus, Tyler Dumont returns with her new single, “Don’t Mean It,” from her upcoming album, “Nomadic Behavior.”

They say the best things come to those that wait. If this metaphor holds any truth, the sky is the limit for talented vocalist, Tyler Dumont. Tyler was a finalist on, Diddy’s, “Making The Band,” show, but after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, the then teenager had to make the difficult decision to walk away from the show and go say her final goodbyes to her ailing mother. After battles with depression and loneliness, Dumont decided it was time to get back to her happy place; the studio. After years away from the biz, Tyler decided it was time to put her dreams and musical goals back in motion, essentially dusting herself off, getting back on the horse and riding again. Never one to mince words, her single, “Don’t Mean It,” dives right into the ups and downs of a relationship. Although she expresses pain through the lyrics, her voice is soothing and smooth. Her talents speak for itself, but her uncanny resemblance to, “JLo” doesn’t hurt. Dumont has already endured a lot, but she refuses to use it as a crutch, instead, chalks it up to experience and a tool to thicken her skin.

I caught up with the lovely, Tyler Dumont to discuss her trials and tribulations that she vows to turn to triumphs.

How are you doing?

Tyler Dumont: Everything has been great, Percy. I can’t complain. I’m blessed.

You show the two sides of a relationship with your new single, “Don’t Mean It.” Tell us about your thought process behind the record.

Tyler Dumont: Basically, the single is about, two people are together, they get into a verbal altercation or disagreement, we tend to say things we don’t mean towards the other party. At the end of the day they have to remember it’s all love. They are just angry and in the heat of the moment, we said things that we didn’t necessarily mean.

During your hiatus from music, you have been able to sit back and watch the landscape of music and see how things are and what’s trending. I love the record, what made you go that route with your single?

Tyler Dumont: That’s a great question, I think it was more so about keeping it real. I wanted to put on content that would resonate with people. What I try to do with my music is, always say, how many people will connect with it. I want all of my music all of my songs to kind of hit a cord with people. The crazy part is, I have been getting such a great response. I get, “Oh my God, I’m going through this right now.” I feel like I reached that goal that I wanted to reach with people. It’s coming from a place where everyone could resonate with and connect with.

Not only do you resemble, Jennifer Lopez, but you also sound a lot like her. I’m sure you get that a lot.

Tyler Dumont: (Laughing) the looking alike part, I have gotten, but not the sound like her. That’s actually a first. That’s awesome. That’s a first, but it’s a good thing.

With, Diddy announcing that he was bringing back, “Making The Band,” do you ever think what your career or life would be like if you didn’t have to step away from the show to care for your mother?

Tyler Dumont: I’m always grateful for every opportunity that I have gotten in my life. “Making The Band” was one of those opportunities that I would forever be grateful for. Had I not gone through it, I don’t know what it would have changed exactly where I am now and if I would have done things differently, but I will say, it really taught me a lot about myself. It was a really bad time. She was sick. She was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was 19-years old. I was overweight because of my depression. And all of these things that a young girl being naïve and being unsure of what she’s going to do and how she’s going to do it, I felt like it in a way thickened my skin. I’m thankful for that. It implemented a lot of discipline, even through that journey of taping the show. So, I did grab that from that experience. Would it had changed anything today, no. I think I’m now obviously a grown and more mature woman. I do have thicker skin, I’m wiser and I’ve learned a lot even from my own life and my own experiences. It’s basically molded me into the person who I am today, and it had prepped me to talk about the things that I am going to talk about in my album, “Nomadic Behavior.”

Any time you have to put your dreams on hold, it’s a setback. We understand why you had to leave the show to go be with your mom, but that’s still a selfless act for a teenager. Do you feel that making such an adult decision at a young age helped you as well?

Tyler Dumont: Yeah! In a way it did. For the most part and what they don’t show on the show is, most of the people behind the scenes knew about my situation. That also in a way really had more to do with why I left the show. She was in critical condition. She had days to live and I had to go there to… I guess say goodbye. I couldn’t just stay and continue without seeing my mother to where I can at least say goodbye. So, it was a tough decision obviously. But it had to be done. I’m glad it happened that way. Again, I had certain dreams and aspirations, but the love and loyalty I had to my mother was first and foremost. So, I had to do what I had to do. But yeah, to answer your question, I think it did.

Do you think her passing and you dealing with the aftermath of that is why you stayed away from the music industry for so long?

Tyler Dumont: Oh definitely! That’s actually a great question. To be completely transparent, it was a combination of a lot of things. Not only her passing, but I was left alone at 19-20- years old. At that age, what the hell do you know about life? So, everything that she had taught me before hand, I kind of held with me and close to me and tried to apply it to my everyday life. I didn’t have any parental guidance. My father was away in another city, my sister was back home in Miami… I didn’t have anyone. I didn’t mourn her death properly. I wasn’t inspired to write or record. It was a really tough time for me. A lot of people say, “Things happen. You have to move on. You can’t let the past make you. You have to continue to be persistent and persevere,” and yes, it’s easier said than done. When you think about it and you’re stuck in that reality that you just loss the closest person to you, it’s not that easy. You have to cope with that on an everyday base. So, dealing with it allowed depression to sink in. I’m self-diagnosing myself by the way. I believe I went through mild depression. It really held me back because I didn’t know where to go, who to turn to or even who to talk to. Who to tell me, what’s next? After taping the show, what should I do next? I had none of that. It was just me against the world pretty much.

Was there a particular incident or moment that you had, that made you say, “You know what, let me get back to the music!”

Tyler Dumont: It was a couple of years after. I would say, 4 or 5-years later, it dawned on me. I was like, here I am continuing to mourn and think and be stagnant and not moving and missing music because music is so therapeutic for me. When I say music, it comes with everything; writing, creating, singing and recording. I missed all of that. It came to a point where I said, this is enough. I needed to get back to the proper therapy that I needed to persevere and in order to make the dreams and set goals that I had in mind and make them come to fruition.

You just spoke about the loneliness after your mom passed away. Do you feel like you have a foundation around you now that if something happened where you needed to lean on someone, that you have that someone or that kind of team around you?

Tyler Dumont: Yes! When you have a solid team is always helps. But it never quite satisfies a broken heart. And I don’t mean to get all deep and profound, but as you get older and you go through these obstacles and turbulent times in your life, it’s almost like… it makes it so hard to trust people. I still consider myself a loner. Being a Virgo, we are real selective of who we have in our circle. Like I always say, I’d rather have 4-quarters than 100-pennies in my corner. So, to me, it’s more about the quality of the person. I have a tough time trusting and in this business it’s hard to trust also. It’s important to surround yourself with good hearted people and people that really want to see you succeed and they are rooting for you authentically. So, to answer your question, I really do keep to myself, but I do have some people who I feel like is family. That’s important to have.

You said you consider yourself a loner. I assume that’s why you named the album, “Nomadic Behavior.”

Tyler Dumont: I named the album, “Nomadic Behavior” because all of my life I’ve moved around. I’ve lived in, Nashville, Birmingham, Alabama, Atlanta, Virginia and New York. I’ve moved around quite a bit. So, I considered myself a nomad and I wanted that essence to fill out my whole album. I wanted every emotion to be different, every story to be different; maybe a sound or different genre. I wanted to sound a bit nomadic, so I think that’s where it came from. The flavor was always nomadic because of all of the things I went through, all of the different shades and colors of my story and my words and everything. I thought it was appropriate.

Anytime you move around like that, you gain a lot of different experiences because every city and every state are different. Do you feel you were able to capture some of those different experiences?

Tyler Dumont: Yeah, absolutely!

You grabbed, Cardi B’s producers; SwanQuo and Josh X for this album. Did you just really like her sound or the obvious answer, they are hot right now?

Tyler Dumont: It was actually through a connection. One of my team members mentioned them to me, we met, it was in the initial greeting. I really loved what I was hearing, and I was like, “Yeah, let’s work.” My sound is very very different from, Cardi’s. It’s a bit more soulful. It’s just different because what she does it just different from what I do. I also met with them because I wanted variety and a different sound with each song because I’m offering a part of me. The album is very autobiographical, but I wanted every song to sound different.

It can be a scary place letting people inside of your life. Was that the feeling you got creating an autobiographical album?

Tyler Dumont: Oh, big time! It’s scary when you have to open a part of yourself. Again, being a Virgo, we’re very private people. I’m a very private person. I don’t really put myself out there or my emotions. So, it was scary. But I said, you know what, it’s time to just give myself or a piece of myself to the world, so that they can understand who I am as a person and an artist. To go back and touch on some things that were quite hard and difficult for me to deal with at the time. So, I had to really be in a mind frame where I was ready to unleash and I’m ready to surrender. That takes a lot even as a song writer to tap into those things. Some of the things makes me cringe or some I just don’t want to talk about, but it’s important because I just want to make sure that I come off as very real and authentic. I want people to connect with me. That’s the most important thing to me and that’s what makes me stand out from the rest; my level of authenticity and honesty. I don’t really sugarcoat things or beat around the bush. I mean what I say, and I say what I mean.

Now that we know the show is returning, what advice would you give anyone who is going to audition?

Tyler Dumont: My advice to all the women and men who are going to try out for this competition, just have fun. Learn from the experience. Take it in with you; any little piece of information. Regardless if you make it or not, that’s not the end all be all. That’s not your ending destination. It’s just a part of the journey. So, take whatever you can from it and keep it going. If this is something that you love to do, it’s not going to stop there. It’s an awesome opportunity for people to see who you are and get to know you, but it doesn’t stop there. Keep going, keep being persistent, keep persevering and never ever make any excuses.

I appreciate your time and I truly wish you the best of luck. We will talk soon. Is there anything else you want to add?

Tyler Dumont: I just want to thank you so much and shout out to, Juanita. Take care, Percy.

 



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