Theresa Ndrejaj interviews Tyriq
June 20, 2024
I met up with the entity known as Greyhound (or my friend Tyriq), a man of many hats and all of them brimming with talent. On the Bumbo’s patio we discussed his upcoming shows, Spooky Saloon, authenticity and vulnerability. His very own record label, Ecce Homo will be presenting a show at Moondog Cafe on June 29. Also be sure to catch him at Ghostlight on June 22.
THERESA NDREJAJ: What is your ideal live performance situation?
Greyhound: Just being immersed in the crowd. Off the stage and actually in front of everyone. Come here, be close, indulge in this shit.
TN: You need to get a round platform.
GH: That’s kind of what I’m planning to do for the June 29th show at Moondog.
TN: A circle of salt around you?
GH: But the circle of salt is the crowd. I want everyone to be a circle of salt around me.
TN: Like Spooky Saloon?
GH: Yeah (laughs).
TN: Getting smoked out of Spooky Saloon to your gtfo improvisation.
GH: Yeah, gtfo, that was great! It was perfect timing. I only had two more songs left, but that night was good…it was kinda cursed but…
TN: That setting really fit your brand.. Dusty, dark...
GH: Very gritty, y’all made it happen. If I could recreate that setting for everything else…ideal.
TN: This year, it won’t top last, but at least we won’t get shut down by some Grecian goon.
GH: The Russel Industrial goons, man.
TN: They gooned the shit outta you.
GH: Forreal they stole my shit, they stole my laptop. It was a blessing and a curse. If I didn’t get my laptop stolen I probably wouldn’t have made this new album.
TN: You know it was Friday the thirteenth and an eclipse?
GH: Yup, Friday the thirteenth, an eclipse, Boiler Room was happening, it rained. They pulled the alarm, he was looking for trouble.
TN: So you’re doing a little mini-tour? Ghostlight on June 22 and Moondog cafe on June 29.
GH: June 22, my friend Kelly put it together. Someone is coming through from New York. I got Moondog Cafe on the 29th and then I got two more shows in July so I guess it’s kind of like a little tour in a way. This is the first Ecce Homo presents…show. The (Greyhound) vinyl is coming out through Ecce Homo and Remove Records in Hamtramck. Later in the year, I plan on pressing another one of my albums and possibly pressing an album from an artist that doesn’t want to be named yet.
GH: Ecce Homo was an idea I had in ‘22. I was doing self released stuff but I wanted to put other artists on it. Like Jandek, whom I love. He’s this very reclusive artist, active since the 70s. All self-released under his label Corwood industries. He’s a very outsider folk artist, unknown for the longest. I found that really inspiring. I just wanna do something more reclusive and mysterious. Not for aesthetic but just, what if something came of it?
TN: Your video for Pure…there’s a certain loneliness, desertion. Isolation out of fear. The paradox of wanting to be alone, but needing to be close to someone so desperately, even if it hurts.
GH: That’s kind of the basis of Greyhound. During the live shows I do a lot of walking away from the stage cuz I need a moment. I don’t do it to be mysterious, it’s an actual response (to the performance).
TN: It’s the way you’re comfortable, the way you feel like you can perform.
GH: During my last performance, I went away from the crowd and obscured myself behind the speaker. I was singing behind the speaker. That’s what I feel like art is. Feeling the loneliness and having it resonate with people. There’s so many times where I just don’t want to do shit anymore, even as Greyhound. I think I’m gonna take a 5-year break from performing in Detroit cuz I wanna perform other places.
TN: Motivation to branch out?
GH: In Ohio I performed to, and met, new people. My homies were in the crowd but to perform in front of strangers and they’re vibing with me? Of course I want to perform somewhere else.
TN: Where else do you want to perform?
GH: I’ve never been to New York. I want my first experience there to be a show. Philly, Baltimore, somewhere in California, Chicago. I’d love to go overseas. UK, I have a lot of listeners there and for some reason a lot of listeners in the Netherlands. Also Australia, I have listeners out there too.
TN: Nuuuaaarrrrr...
GH: I just wanna see a weird spider or something nuts.
TN: What are some of your biggest influences?
GH: Biggest influence is Dean blunt for sure. My favorite artist of all time. Probably the most important artist of the 21st century. I just feel like he’s done everything right to make people wonder who he really is which, makes the music more beautiful.
TN: Authentic?
GH: Yeah, he is prime authentic. He’s been an Art Pop man since day one. I remember watching this live performance of his, he was playing the drums and he had the microphone in his mouth. He was drumming so sloppy but he’s left-handed. It sounded so good. He gets up off the drum set with the mic still in his mouth and he’s pacing around. Performing in venues where it’s full of fog and smoke, you can’t see him at all. I always try to perform in dimly lit areas.
TN: What about performing outdoors?
GH: I’ve never performed outdoors. I never want to. Wait, what am I talking about? I performed in a tent on Belle Isle. What am I talking about? I’m a liar.
TN: Oh yeah you did! That wasn’t a vibe for you?
GH: It was a vibe. Lemme stop lying, lemme stop lying.
TN: That was in the daytime and you were in a tent so you could be kind of concealed from the audience.
GH: It was raining too, it was storming.
TN: You kind of had blinders and the rain created a white noise sort of blocking out the crowd.
GH: It was like a veil.
TN: What about outside at night?
GH: This is an ideal spot.
TN: This is the perfect spot for you. You’re the Bumbo’s wallflower.
GH: Forreal! No, forreal, dawg. I would do a live band though. I’ve been trying to do a Greyhound band for a minute. Just gotta find the people. I dont want someone who’s in a fuckin band already, I’m so tired of the scene I’ve immersed myself in. I wanna see new bands, new people. It just gets old.
TN: Yeah the same group of people playing in the same handful of bands over and over again.
GH: Forreal, that’s why I’m doing this show on the 29th. My friend Jalen Elk is playing a rare set. My friend Jackson, seen him perform a few times. To have people come out, hopefully, to see them perform and vibe with them and that can give them an opportunity to do more stuff. That’s why I did it. So down the road I can do more Ecce Homo presents…shows.
TN: Your art is kind of romantic and forlorn but also cynical.
GH: Thanks for noticing.
TN: I feel that you have a higher understanding of your own emotions so you’re willing to be open even if others aren’t willing to let themselves be.
GH: I would say I am open but I’m still coded, still very coded with things and esoteric.
TN: So you find the right balance, when to close yourself off in a way that’s healthy for you versus when to be open.
GH: Exactly. I felt like the best time to be open was with the music. The music. My books. The last book was the most vulnerable. It was called “The Last Time I Saw Myself Fully Put Together”. I was really proud of that. It was a lot of one-act short plays, stream of consciousness stuff, and poems and pictures that I feel connected together well. I was trying to put on this play this year. It’s finished, I just need to do a casting call. It’s called “HE IS HERE”.
TN: When are you going to go forward with that?
GH: I think I might do a casting call in August, maybe end of July. I just need to get a box made. And then I might put some casting call posters around here. Trying to find anyone who would be fine with sitting in a box for 25 minutes.
TN: Sitting in a box for 25 minutes…
GH: Just three people sitting in a box for 25 minutes.
TN: Oh you mean like black box theatre vibes?
GH: No, a legit box. Imma build a box, make sure it’s spacious enough so they can sit and be comfortable, stretch their legs out and everything.
TN: That sounds awesome. It’ll also be really cool to see who you end up choosing.
GH: I would really love for it to be people I’ve never met, and if that relationship builds I can use them for something else. That’s why I want to stop Greyhound for a bit because I want to put my foot into other things. I’m still working on other things, I’m tryna write a book, like an actual book. But I got the play, it’s done. Book I’m tryna work on. I have new music.
TN: I gotta write a book. How do you write a book?
GH: Gotta write the first page. Write a book! You can do it. You can literally put your heart towards anything, you can do it. I did it with Greyhound.
TN: You did. You kept it real, kept it 100 the whole time.
GH: No, forreal, I did.