Tyler Bates – HuffPost 8.10.11

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

Tyler Bates: From my perspective, you really need to get to know who you are as a person and an artist. You need to pursue your own individuality–I don’t think the business needs a legion of John Williams or Danny Elfman wannabes. You’re going to be best off doing your own thing and developing a style of your own. When I say getting to know yourself, that comes through life experience and your music. If you can create a two or three chord statement that sounds like you, that is you. That’s, for me, what I’m always striving toward. I would definitely study business as well. It’s a business and you need to have a grasp of that if you want to be successful on any level.

MR: The Donald Passman book is also nice for that.

TB: Yeah, there is Steven Pressfield’s great book called The War Of Art. It’s a short easy read, but I think it’s really fantastic, and helping any artist or entrepreneur about the way they are working, and maybe what they can do to be more honest with themselves. It’s not a preachy book. It’s actually entertaining and fun, but I’ve never met anybody who’s read it and didn’t really praise that book.

This is a very strange time as far as business, and you have to be very inventive as far as being yourself and the way you conduct yourself and what your goals are. I don’t know if getting into scoring, yourself, is enough. It might be for some people, I’m not sure. But I think as an end all be all, it might be a difficult end to pursue. I think the business is intense and tough, it’s definitely doable, but it’s a different business than when I got into it.