“I’m a singer-songwriter, pianist, and I act sometimes. I’m just so excited to be making music and sharing it with people.” Adrian Lyles grins, casually sitting cross-legged on the floor. With a new single on the way, the rising star discusses his musical journey, how a role in Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series kickstarted his music career, and his songwriting process.
Getting Started
“Music is everything to me,” Lyles states simply. He was just three years old when he started learning his primary instrument. “I can’t remember not playing the piano,” he muses. “I’ve done it for so long; I know nothing before that.”
Classical piano provided the foundation for Lyles to begin covering popular songs that made him feel seen. “I remember my first time hearing the Twenty One Pilots Vessel album. At the time, I felt misunderstood, and Tyler Joseph sang a three-minute song about exactly how I was feeling. That changed my whole life—like it was the first time I heard music,” he exclaims. “I had been playing classical piano for so long that I was like, ‘I think I can go home and play these songs!’”
"One of the reasons I love singing, songwriting, and the piano so much is you can say things that you'd never normally be able to express."
Finding His Voice
From Tyler Joseph’s nasal-forward vocals to Jon Bellion’s warm bass and the smoothness of John Legend, Lyles explored vocal styles by imitating his favorite artists. “And then when I started writing my own stuff, I was like, if this is my own thing, who am I supposed to copy? My voice became me, plus all the other people I was emulating.”
Songwriting gave Lyles an outlet for feelings within himself he didn’t entirely understand. “One of the reasons I love singing, songwriting, and the piano so much is you can say things that you’d never normally be able to express. And sometimes, I wouldn’t know what I was feeling until I wrote a song,” he explains.
Throughout high school, his parents supported his musical ambitions, accompanying him to gigs at bars and restaurants. His mom eventually encouraged him to explore an unexpected path into the music industry—acting. After just a few months of auditions, he got his first big break, landing a role in Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. “I’ve always been a musician. It’s so crazy the thing that brought me to a record deal and singing and performing for people was acting.”
"The most beautiful and frustrating thing about music is there's no formula. Nothing works consistently."
Somewhere to Go
Now, with Hollywood Records behind him, Lyles is working toward his first album, including a new single, “Somewhere to Go,” dropping November 15. “The most beautiful and frustrating thing about music is there’s no formula. Nothing works consistently,” he shrugs. “At the end of the day, the process is sitting down and feeling it out until something flows.”
“Somewhere to Go” is one of those creations that poured out of Lyles. He wrote the track in just thirty minutes while warming up before a session with writers and producers Dan Gleyzer and Tony Ferrari. “I was sitting at my piano, messing around because I wanted to warm up before I went into the session. I came up with these chords, put my phone on voice memo, and sang most of the song—everything but the bridge, the verses were a little different, but everything just flowed.”
Lyles took the fledgling track into his session with Gleyzer and Ferrari. “I played them the song, and they were like, ‘This is sick. Let’s do it.’ It’s one of the few songs that came out exactly how I wrote it alone on the piano in my room,” Lyles says. “This song feels right. It just feels completely and totally right to me.
On the Horizon
There’s a buzz of excitement around his upcoming music releases. Scroll through the emerging talent’s social media accounts, and you’ll find a flood of comments praising sneak peek clips and begging for the title of his album. “I am so excited to finally share my music with everyone. It feels like I’ve been sitting on a secret,” he grins.
Lyles hopes his songs touch others in the way hearing Twenty One Pilots helped him feel understood as a kid. “I want people to hear my music and feel angry and sad and happy and confused. You’re a person, and you’re not alone. You’re valid, and no matter what’s going on, there’s someone who understands. I understand.”
