Tyrone Wells 'Hold On' album

Singer-songwriter Tyrone Wells masterfully blends pop, soul and rock, infusing each song with energy and passion. Listening to Tyrone with your eyes closed, you'd think you were listening to a legendary soul-singer - which is in stark contrast to the tall, skinny white boy you see on the stage (not to mention... his name is Tyrone).

Tyrone Wells will release his fourth album and major-label debut Hold On on February 6th. Hold On is a creative blend of his singer-songwriter roots, soul and rock.

Tyrone has already sold over 25,000 albums independently and developed a strong fan base from a constant tour schedule. His music has been featured in TV shows including "Windfall," "Numb3rs," "Ghost Whisperer," "One Tree Hill," "Rescue Me," "North Shore," and "Summerland." The track "Dream Like New York" was also featured in the Fox animated feature Everyone's Hero.

As a young boy growing up in Spokane, Washington, it seemed unfathomable that Tyrone Wells would soon be a popular and passionate singer/songwriter. But with the release of his fourth album Hold On, Wells comes across as a figurehead for a generation that’s both idealistic and confused, a young adult who croons about heartbreak, true love and war with equal power and sincerity.

In his four years on the music scene, Wells has evolved in an honest and organic manner, first scrambling for gigs and selling albums from the trunk of his car and eventually selling out The House of Blues and having his songs featured prominently on major television programs, including “Rescue Me,” which starred Dennis Leary.

Hold On is filled with soulful pop songs such as the poignant “What Are We Fighting For,” which combines strummy guitars, chiming organ and a pulsing funk beat. Then there’s the delicate, ruminative “Sea Breeze,” in which Wells’ voice swirls around a bed of slow beats and velvety rhythms and “Sugar So Sweet,” a groove-laden soul song that reaches a crescendo with a surging rock chorus.

“I was in such a great space when I wrote the record,” Wells says. “I was just going for it, and trying to write the best songs I could and I got totally lost in the process. But also, I had just met my wife and I was experiencing the golden years of an independent career. I was making a living doing music and there was nobody telling me what to do.”

One of five children born to a church minister, Wells experienced a conservative upbringing, and while he was exposed to the music of his church choir, he was discouraged from listening to pop and rock music. Then, when he was in junior high, he heard Stevie Wonder’s pop sensation “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” and his live was instantly transformed.

“I thought, ‘Man, I really like this,’” Wells says. “I didn’t understand the scope or power of great R&B at the time because I hadn’t been exposed to it, but when I got older, I started eating up all this stuff from The Commodores to Marvin Gaye and it was really inspiring.”

Around the same time, Wells, discovered pop and folk performers like Simon and Garfunkel, Damien Rice, and David Gray, whose storytelling style rubbed off on Wells and encouraged him to use his songs as tools to communicate with his audience.

“I don’t presume to be a teacher, but I feel like a lot of pop music is not necessarily truth, and I want to be a communicator of what I perceive to be truth.”

While Wells wrote songs as early as junior high and high school, he didn’t take the craft seriously until he attended college at Hope International University in Fullerton, California. When he wasn’t studying, he wrote songs on an acoustic guitar, and even though he could hardly play the instrument, he soon started playing local coffee houses. On night, he wound up at a small place called McClain’s and after the show, he asked the owner if he could play there every Thursday. She happily gave her permission, and the residency lasted four years, during which time Wells learned how to interact with an audience and hone his performance chops. By the time he stopped playing there, the room was maxed out every night and crowds were spilling out of the doors of the venue and listening from outside. “

“I was like, ‘Wow, this is really working,’” Wells says. “The fact that it sustained itself and grew, and I had to go to a bigger room was amazing. I was selling a lot of records out of the back of my trunk by doing things in a really grass roots fashion, but I could see the growth and that was really important to me.”

Wells recorded his first album Snapshot by himself on home recording equipment, then followed with Live at McClain’s in 2005. He started working on Hold On in late 2005, and culled the songs from material he had written over the prior two years. Unlike his earlier records, which were solo acoustic, Hold On is a full band album. Excellently produced by Chris Karn, the record proves that Wells is just as capable of turning up the amps and rocking out as he is of soothing audiences with bittersweet lullabies.

“It’s great because I can do both kinds of songs live now,” he says. “I love the intimacy of an acoustic show, and when I’m rocking, I miss being able to break down and talk to the audience. But you can’t beat the energy of the way the crowd reacts to a good rock number.”

By early 2006, Wells was regularly selling out Los Angeles clubs House of Blues, The Viper Room, The Troubadour and The El Ray Theatre and lots of people in the music business were taking notice. The singer/songwriter was barraged with offers from various record labels, but elected to sign with Universal Music because they had the best understanding of his organic vision.

With Hold On, Wells appeals to generations of listeners on various levels. And his crowds are made up of a growing element of fans that don’t usually listen to his style of music. “There was this big Korn fan recently who said to me, ‘Wow, your music really hits me really hard,’” recalls Wells. “He talked about this girl he was kind of crazy about that he met, her and played her one of my songs and said it reminded him of her.’ It’s really great to write songs that can have that sort of effect on people.”

The songs on Hold On resonate with honest, emotional expressions that strike a chord in the listener. The title track is a heartfelt song about being held in the arms of a loved one, “She’s Leaving” confronts the disbelief of being walked out on and “Dreaming of New York” draws a parallel between the majesty of the Big Apple and the mentality of those who refuse to stop aiming for the stars. But the most powerful song on Hold On is the single “What Are We Fighting For?” a track that could be perceived as an anti-war song or a number about the difficulties of maintaining a relationship.

“I was watching the news ,and was just overwhelmed with all the death,” explains Wells. “And as I wrote the song, it started to take on its own life. I was thinking about people, communication and loving each other and then the rest of it just came out. It addresses some important questions and I think that’s good. I’m not going to be one of those people that’s always waving my fists because I’m not that way. But I do want to share what my life experiences have taught me because when I feel like I’ve communicated something to someone in the audience, that’s when I feel the magic.”

In addition to “Rescue Me,” Wells’ magic has translated on the television shows, “Ghost Whisperer,” “Summerland,” “Numb3rs,” “One Tree Hill,” “The Mountain” and “North Shore.” And with radio programmers embracing “What Are We Fighting For,” the preacher’s son with the childhood love for Stevie Wonder seems destined to join the pantheon of great singer/songwriters whose music and message transcend music and become a part of the collective unconscious of a nation in serious need of some beautiful healing.

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Tyrone Wells - Hold On