The secret to Zander Tyler's success

He's warm, amicable and down-to-earth - I imagine his celeb persona doesn't have to be pruned and packaged too much - Zander Tyler is Jack Parow. Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” Aspiring musicians should take this to heart as Tyler has done - he's very aware that it's his uniqueness that has made him so successful in South Africa, as well as abroad. 

 

What makes Jack Parow such an exportable artist?

 

"I think it's because it's something different. Think of an English rock band - they sound like three million other English rock bands in the States or in the UK. I think it's just that whole thing of bringing something fresh and different to it. I try - when I'm writing and stuff - I don't listen to any other music, I try and give it a completely fresh and unique flavour, and I think that's the important thing. If you give [people] stuff that sounds like the stuff they know, then they're already kind of like 'fuck it', then they can just as well listen to what they've been listening to. I think it's just that fresh perspective on stuff that people like about it, and I've got an amazing producer as well in Justin de Nobrega, and that obviously has a lot to do with him as well," explains Tyler.

 

Tyler's accomplished so far what very few South Africans artists have - he's turned Jack Parow into a sustainable career, and his easy-going onstage persona makes it all look like a walk in the park.     

 

 

What's your secret?

 

"Fucken work hard - like it is a 24/7 job. I might look chilled, but on the inside I'm fucken burning the midnight oil. It's hard, hard work - there's always something else that jumps up. I'm lucky to have a good team around me that helps me and supports me, but it's hard work. I think people are quick to give up or think they want to do a song and be big - they think that one hit wonder thing works - that doesn't happen. No-one ever just writes a song and goes huge, I promise you. 99% of the time there's a lot of work that went into them, into their career, before that happened," says Tyler.

 

So there is no secret, it's all just really hard work - if you're not prepared to put in the time, don't expect to shine. Tyler has been rapping since 1999, it look 10 long years for him to get noticed. 

 

Even though he's flavour of the month for quite a few sponsors, he hasn't forgotten his roots. Tyler's planning an album for the end of the year - 'Jack Parow presents Cape Town' - on which he hopes to feature artists he used to rap with - artists from the Cape Flats scene including the likes of Garlic Brown aka Knoffel Bruin, Isaac Mutant, Kreem etc. Also in the possible pipeline are bloc parties with Redbull, hosted all around Cape Town. 

 

 

What does the future hold for Zander Tyler?

 

"I just want to keep making music for a while longer, and then also this thing that I want to do for the end of the year, start also promoting good music as well, that I like, and hopefully be able to blow up other artists as well and kind of put myself behind them and maybe end up taking a backseat. Maybe end up having more like a record label / producer kind of role which is the way I think I would like to go at the end of the day so I can still be involved in music, but I don't have to fucken be on a stage at 60 or 70 - it will be kak - I might die, or I will die," he laughs.  

 

Zander Tyler was never in the music game for the fame or fortune, he truly loves rapping. I imagine even without the success, he'd still be somewhere writing rhymes. Two important lessons we can take from his career thus far are; be yourself - there's literally no-one else like you, use your uniqueness to your advantage; and work hard and stay committed - success in music is a long, hard road. Treat it like a marathon, not a 100-metre sprint.