WELCOME BACK?

Home-recording & performance projects including Be Your Friend (2002/LP), Propane (2003/EP), Edwardian Helvitica (2003-11/EP) & Titles (2011/Single) merging genres and influences including high school band medleys, soft country, heavy metal, easy listening & synth-pop.

Edward Van Halen finger puppet by Kerri Reid.

In the early 2000s, Vancouver’s independent arts community was sustained by a network of venues and broadcasters that actively supported experimental and interdisciplinary practices. The Sugar Refinery functioned as a central gathering point for musicians, artists, and organizers, providing an inclusive space where lo‑fi, performance, improvisation, and cross‑media work could develop without commercial pressure. Artist‑run galleries such as the Orr, Western Front and the Crying Room contributed to this environment as well, offering openings and events where music and visual art regularly intersected.

Broadcast media played an equally important role. CBC Radio’s Radio Sonic, initially under the direction of David Wisdom, consistently highlighted emerging and unconventional work from across the country, helping to legitimize experimental approaches within a national context. Grant Lawrence’s live in‑studio sessions and work with Radio 3 further reflected the program’s commitment to documenting and supporting independent production. At the local level, UBC’s CITR‑FM — through programs such as Parts Unknown and Replica Rejects — provided artists with an essential platform for non‑mainstream material, ensuring that exploratory music remained audible within Vancouver's cultural landscape.

Alongside these supports, artists engaged in a range of informal public spaces. For myself, these included amplified synthesizer performances on Granville Street and developing a simple acoustic‑augmentation system using funnels and a length of garden hose to create a stereo listening experience for pedestrians on the Burrard Street Bridge. These activities paralleled the broader ethos of the period, in which experimentation often occurred outside traditional venues and relied on improvised methods and public interaction.

Taken together, the venues, broadcasters, and artist‑run spaces of this period formed an interconnected system that enabled experimental work to circulate and develop. My recordings and performances from this time reflect the conditions shaped by that system: resource‑driven, interdisciplinary, and supported by people committed to fostering independent artistic exploration.

MP3 DISCOGRAPHY

Farewell to the Department was self-released by Tyler Brett in 2002 in an edition of 10 copies (CDr format on consignment at Zulu Records Vancouver) as, Be your friend? by THE DEPARTMENT. Home recorded in a storage room with 4 1/2 foot high ceilings on a Macintosh 8600 using Sound Edit with synth and drum tracks sequenced on the Roland W30. Vocals were captured with either the Realistic omni 33-984c (1980's Radio Shack model), Roland CP-40M mini condenser, or a Sure SM 58. Electric guitar was a Fernandez copy of a mid 80's Charvel Jackson with Fender-Lace sensor dual pick ups. Guitar effects were created with Sound Edit plug ins and/or with a malfunctioning Tom Scholz Rockman x100.

In between shifts selling hotdogs at Stanly Park and popcorn at the Ridge Theatre in Vancouver, additional production and live instrument tracks were recorded in Vancouver by Chad Fryling and Tyler Brett in Chad's bedroom on a Mac G3 using a combination of Peak, Reason, and Sound Edit. Rhythm Ace was originally recorded on a tape recorder with drum beats selected live on grandpa Enos's 1960's Ace Tone Rhythm Ace drum machine while playing the Lowrey "Festival" FL vacuum-tube organ. Farewell to the Dept. instruments, vocals and music 2001-2002 by Tyler Brett. Remastered, mixed and produced in 2002 with Chad Fryling.

Relatively, Be Your Friend? by The Department, 2002 (re-released as Farewell To The Department by Tyler Brett, 2024).

Party Number, Be Your Friend? by The Department, 2002 (re-released as Farewell To The Department by Tyler Brett, 2024).

Winner Like You, Be Your Friend? by The Department, 2002 (re-released as Farewell To The Department by Tyler Brett, 2024)

Be your friend?, Be Your Friend? by The Department, 2002 (re-released as Farewell To The Department by Tyler Brett, 2024).

Rhythm Ace, Be Your Friend? by The Department, 2002 (re-released as Farewell To The Department by Tyler Brett, 2024).

Now We Sing, Edwardian Helvitica by Tyler Brett, 2003