When The Word Alive frontman Tyler “Telle” Smith played bass for Greeley Estates in 2008, he remembers trashing a hotel room. “We toilet-papered our hotel room for no reason,” he laughs. “We woke up with toilet paper everywhere…’What happened? Why did we do that?'”
On a warm spring afternoon on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, Smith says he is much less naïve than the days when TP-ing lodging accommodations were part of the routine. With final mixes in the works for The Word Alive’s sophomore album Life Cycles, out July 3rd through Fearless, Smith says the new record is more developed, more grown-up than Deceiver, the band’s debut album.
Says Smith on working with producer Joey Sturgis on the record, “By the time we got [to the studio] and we started showing him the material we had, he was blown away. He told us that we were one of the bands that made him love why he does what he does. That was a huge honor.”
As Smith and I acquaint ourselves outside House of Blues Sunset, he speaks of growing up in Ohio and listening to bands like Dead Poetic. From working as a janitor in his early teens to building a life as a touring musician, Smith gives insight into The Word Alive and his own personal life cycles.