Actor and musician Tyler Posey is no stranger to the entertainment business. Known for his lead role in the Teen Wolf TV series, Posey has been familiar with the film set since early childhood. Not long after beginning in the field, Posey found a similar love for music, specifically Punk and Pop-punk.
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While working in Canada at the age of eight, Tyler found a “dope” skateboarding and Punk scene in Toronto and instantly gravitated towards it. “I would spend my time at the local CD stores and just got blink [-182],” he explains. “They would talk about Screeching Weasel, NOFX, Green Day, and I would just fill my repertoire with all this Punk stuff… Before I started playing guitar, I knew the sound I wanted to emulate and what scene I wanted to be a part of.”
Now an established actor, Tyler tells Audacy’s Kevan Kenney that he made a pointed effort to stay humble and start his music career in the same ways as other artists who have come before him. Remembering to a previous visit to KROQ in Los Angeles, Tyler says he tried to get the DJs to play his music. “They played like two seconds of it,” says Posey. “But now I’m here for music,” he says excitedly sitting with Kevan in the very same building. It’s really cool.”
“I wanted to earn everything,” says Posey. “I know in this scene, even for me, if I see an actor starting to play music I’m like, ‘What’s going on here? What are you trying to pull?’ I don’t want to be seen as that so I’ve always been trying to earn it from the ground up and earn my stripes the way that a normal person who’s not in the limelight would do it. My first tour, it was me and my tour manager/photographer. He and I were the drivers, you know, even though we had the means to get a bus or whatever. I didn’t want to be extravagant, I just wanted to work from the ground up.”
“It is a trip,” Tyler says. “The fans are loyal and I love them,” although he adds, “I do want to be seen as somebody who is really trying to do it the right way and earn those stripes like a true Pop-punk person.”
Tyler is aware his fame likely got him introduced to Goldfinger singer and famed record producer (including blink-182) John Feldmann, whom he met at the very last Warped Tour. After striking up a friendship, Feldmann eventually asked if he wanted to record with him, an invite which Tyler immediately accepted. “I’ve always kind of seen my life, from when I was a little kid, I knew that I was gonna be in the presence of the blink-182 umbrella,” Tyler says. “Now I’m with the guy who produces them, and he’s one of my best friends.”
Circling back, Posey says while he thinks that “it would be stupid" of him not to "take advantage” of the position he is in with his film work being recognized, “I don’t want to piggyback on it, I don’t want to lean on it too hard. For me, I’m such a die-hard Punk fan, I know that is sort of frowned upon in this scene. People want to see you earn it.”
Posey is of the belief that he has earned, and is still earning his way. “I’m proud of the hustle that I’ve done,” he admits. “I feel like I am in a world where I am earning this type of recognition for what I’m doing.”
“Acting is great, I’ve had my qualms with it over the years,” Tyler says. “One of the reasons I got into Punk as a really young kid was because I never felt connected with acting. Growing up on a set… I was around actors at a very young age and I just didn’t have the same agenda as them. There was something even in my young self that I felt disconnected about… I was always talking about skateboarding and Punk and didn’t really have anybody to connect with on a set. So, Punk, and music in general, is something that I found on my own.”
Throughout his work on Teen Wolf and other projects, Posey has always tried to stay as transparent as possible with who he is at heart and how he is portrayed in the media. “I think people learned pretty quickly that they couldn’t train me,” he says. “I don’t know if it’s because I grew up in a small town, or I grew up skateboarding or listening to Punk rock, and Punk rock is all about being true to yourself – I don’t know when I was taught that but I’ve just stayed super-firm with that. I liked who I was growing up; I was this goofball, weird, eccentric person and I didn’t want to let go of that.”
A member of the Post-Punk and Emo scene for quite some time -- punching the clock on the Warped Tour with his band PVMNTS and releasing music under the names Five North and Lost In Kostko as well -- Tyler is officially back with a new solo project, which we first got a taste of in his collab with Travis Barker and Phem, called "Shut Up."
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"It's kind of an experiment," Tyler told us back in March. "I just followed my gut, pretty much with everything I've done in my entire life, and it's usually worked out really good. I've been really lucky and fortunate."
Posey just released his latest single today, “Past Life,” which you can check out above. You can expect an EP “early this September,” he says. “Just before tour starts.” Posey is scheduled to hit the road with his pals MOD SUN and girlfriends, kicking off September 9 in West Hollywood, CA.
Watch the full interview with Tyler and Kevan above and be sure to check out an extended chat with the pair right here on the Kevan Kenney Dot Radio podcast
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