“When I’m in writing mode, I love to just be on the road, traveling in airports, train stations, or on the subway,” Tyler Shaw tells Apple Music. “I like to have everything in motion—that gets my mind working.” Fittingly, the B.C. pop singer's third album was born in a blur: After wrapping up a Canadian tour in late 2019, Shaw immediately set out for fruitful songwriting sojourns to LA and the UK. But the pandemic didn’t just send him home, it forced him to reorient his creative process around the more humdrum pace of domestic life. “While I was doing mundane things around the house, I was thinking of ideas,” he says. “That kind of goes into why the album is self-titled: It's very interior.”
That’s not to suggest Tyler Shaw is full of slow, quiet songs about doing the dishes and folding laundry. Rather, it gives us a 360-degree view of Shaw’s psyche, showcasing the heartbroken acoustic singer-songwriter, the R&B seducer, the EDM idealist, and even the budding rocker. But no matter which Tyler Shaw turns up, you’re guaranteed ample doses of open-hearted candor and sky-high hooks. “I guess this album is kind of like a reintroduction to who I am,” he says. “I love to write songs that are relatable, so I hope people are able to listen to these and feel what they need to feel—whether it's celebrating or crying or healing. It's all there for you.” Here, Shaw gives us a track-by-track guide to his changing states of mind.
“Remember”
“This one was written in the summer of 2019. I had released 'With You' off of my Intuition album, and then Frank Walker did a remix. He hit me up a month or two after that came out and was like, 'Let's get in the studio, let's write an original together.' I love how I sound on it. It's not what I would typically do, which excited me. It's a straight-up EDM track, and I've never done that before.”
“Heaven”
“This one was written on one of my UK trips right before the pandemic by myself, Jake Gosling—who's known for working with Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes—and my buddy Pilz [aka Alex Vujic]. I wanted to write about a utopia—what if there's a better place out there? But then during the session, I was like, 'Well, I don't want someone to dream about going somewhere else when we actually live in a pretty amazing world.' As much bullshit as there is on Earth, there's a lot of beauty in it. There's a lyric in the song: 'When you look close, it's beautiful.' Don't overlook the simplicity and beauty of life.”
“I See You”
“I remember seeing fans and reading messages when I was on tour saying, 'Like my comment!' or 'Notice me!' People were basically telling me that they wanted to be seen. And I was like, 'Oh shit, this makes so much sense.' At the end of the day, when you're having a very shitty day, it's a strong message for someone to come up to you and say, 'I see what you're going through, and I empathize with you. I'm here for you.'”
“Sex on the Beach”
“This song is pure fantasy, and it’s definitely one of mine. This song actually started as a fun kind of thing—like, 'Let's try something completely new. Let's get a vibe going and see where it goes.' We had the intro music going and I was like, 'I feel like I'm in Miami or Malibu, walking down the beach.' The first lyrics that came out of my mouth were 'It's not even noon and we're sipping on tequila!' It was originally called 'Nights on the Beach.' But we were like, 'Why don't we just say what we mean here? Let's not beat around the bush about it—pun intended—and just get to the point.'”
“North Star”
“I've always been big into the rock genre, whether people realize that about me or not. I grew up listening to Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, TOOL, and 30 Seconds to Mars, and I still love them. So I wanted to bring a little bit of that music in, because I feel like that's where I want to go eventually. I wanted to be really abstract about the lyrics, after coming in hot with the first line: 'I was staring at a waterfall because I was on fire.' I just loved the ambiguity of it.”
“Worse for Me”
“This is one of the most emotional songs I've ever written, and it has a perspective on a breakup that I've never heard before. It's mature—like, 'I'm torn up inside, but I know this is good for you, so you go do your thing.' I remember being on the mic for that one, with the lights down low and getting into the vibe, and I started tearing up while singing the lyrics, because it's just so beautiful.”
“Love Me Again”
“This song and 'Worse for Me' kind of go in tandem. It’s about falling out of love with someone during a relationship and then over the period of time you're apart, you grow and you discover yourself. I believe timing is everything, so maybe it wasn't the right moment for this relationship, but you kind of hope that the other person is still in love with you. So you're wondering: 'Could you love me again? Will you love me again?'”
“Be Like You”
“I love the contrast when things are epic-sounding but what you're saying lyrically is a little bit more concerning. The dynamics of that just make complete sense in my mind. I love doing that within the music.”
“When You’re Home”
“During the pandemic, I was bored as hell, so I got a Nintendo Switch and was checking out what games were out there. I found this trailer for a video game—I was listening to the background music and it was very whimsical and romantic. It had that waltz vibe, and I thought that would be really cool to put into a pop song. I started on piano, and the writers in the room—myself, Henry Brill, and Alex Beitzke—loved it. This was one of the fastest sessions I've ever had—we wrote the song in 45 minutes.”
“Drifting”
“I did this with Nick Henriques, who did 'Remember' with me and Frank. He actually had a short loop of the track and I was like, 'Cool—I love the vibe, let's see where we can take this.' And then someone had the line 'Floating in the darkness/Like a bullet with no target.' And I was like, 'Holy shit, that's a great line!' We based the whole song off of that lyric. I wanted it to be as cinematic as possible—it has the strings and this big drawn-out production with a lot going on. I just wanted it to be as big as possible.”
“Say Nothing”
“This is probably the most personal song on the record. I remember the day before my scheduled session, I got into an argument with my wife. Nothing crazy, just one of those little arguments that people have in relationships. When the dust is settling, you can either say something and see what happens, or say nothing. It was probably only five seconds, but the silence after our argument—when we were standing just a couple feet away from each other but saying nothing—was so powerful, and I was still feeling a certain way about it the day after, so I took it into the session.”