by Amanda Davis

“I can’t really imagine myself doing anything else besides making music. I think at this point I’m more music than I am a person, if that makes sense,” Chris tells me over Zoom. He’s sitting at home in glasses and a T-shirt, looking more casual than I’ve ever seen him. In his posts on Instagram and TikTok, he’s often sporting button downs and bow ties—sometimes even vampire fangs—as he promotes his up-and-coming pop punk band, Letters for the Oddities. He’s garnered a dedicated fanbase and released one album already, with a second on the way, without having played a single live show yet. More than ever, the internet has become the most accessible way to share and discover music—the previous generation of emo bands may have had MySpace, but now, it’s all about TikTok. 

Chris Tyler—a twenty-something from a small town who writes, records, and produces all his own music—never expected the fame he received almost overnight. “It was kind of crazy. My family was like, calling me and freaking out about it,” he explains. “I honestly didn’t think that anybody would ever listen to my stuff or care.” 

Whether it was the catchy melodies or the cabaret punk aesthetic (or perhaps the algorithm latched on to the branding of his project as “the new Panic! at the Disco”), Letters for the Oddities quickly gained a following. On TikTok, Chris posts videos of himself singing his original songs or the occasional cover. Now, he has a steadily growing social media following and a few thousand monthly listeners on Spotify. But if you’d asked him a couple years ago, this probably wouldn’t have been where he saw himself. 

It all started with a beat-up guitar and a passion for music. “At 12, I kind of started messing with a guitar I had that only had two strings,” Chris says with a laugh. “I just started writing on that.” Drawing inspiration from various sources such as Tim Burton films, The Phantom of the Opera, and the aforementioned Panic! at the Disco, he developed his sound and began writing music. The theatrical influence that shows in his work may be due to the fact that he was a self-proclaimed theater kid in high school. 

In 2022, Chris released his debut album under the band name Letters for the Oddities. A Night at the Theatre is an ambitious pop punk concept album that delves into love and tragedy through narrative songwriting. The opening track, “Welcome to the Show,” invites listeners in while setting the scene with imagery of marionettes dancing on stage. The piano and gritty guitar riffs—all written and recorded by Chris at his home—accompany lyrics that use romance and murder mysteries to explore insecurity, love, and loss. 

“I have my own personal story that goes along with all of my music,” Chris says, regarding the narrative aspect of his songwriting. “But it’s based in its own fictional world as well. I’m writing about experiences that I’ve had…I’ve been in a lot of relationships where things just ended tragically. I’ve had my fair share of romance throughout my time, so it’s a lot about that really.” 

With “End of the Show,” Chris does more than show off his incredible vocals. In this ballad, which is the second to last song on his debut, he questions his ability to succeed despite the hardship he’s faced. This desire to push forward is part of the reason Letters for the Oddities has gotten where it is today. It has also caused Chris to push himself a bit too much at times. 

In talking about his upcoming record, he says, “I was working and working towards, you know, making the next album and putting it out. I was very discouraged, but I just had the feeling I needed to keep going. And then I just kind of worked myself a bit too much where just every day I would wake up and I would work until I dropped…and I started losing a lot of time, like months would pass…I’ve been working really hard on making sure that I can give my listeners the best that I can give, you know?” 

There’s a fine line between dedication and burnout, but Chris seems to be coming out on the other side of it. He’s released a few singles since A Night at the Theatre, which are a way for him to create with less of the commitment of a full album. “The Wild West” experiments with a cowboy theme inspired by Chris’s love of the video game Red Dead Redemption. While the song certainly diverts from his typical aesthetic, it shows that Letters for the Oddities isn’t locked into one sound or style. 

Outside of music and video games, Chris has also been getting into painting. He’s not a very social person, as he tells me, so he gravitates toward independent hobbies. As you may have guessed, he’s also a fan of monsters. His love for creatures of the night has inspired the upcoming album Beasts Unbetold, set for release this Halloween. But you won’t find any sparkly vampires here—the record will lean more into the macabre. A working title for one of the songs is “Consumption is the Highest Honor,” which is a quote from the book House of Hunger. This nod to Alexis Henderson’s novel not only shows the wide range of inspirations present in Chris’s work, but also hints at the theme of disastrous, consuming love we can expect to see in Letters for the Oddities’s sophomore effort. 

Currently, Chris is looking for someone to mix and master his songs; he wants Beasts Unbetold to have a more polished production than A Night at the Theatre. And while it’s true that there’s a bit of an unfinished quality to his debut, it also makes sense—Letters for the Oddities is a project fueled by Chris’s love for his art. Much like the early demos from Panic! at the Disco, the band that inspired him, there’s an authenticity that draws listeners to his music. Indeed, what else would drive a person to dedicate so much effort and time—without the promise of fame or money—than the simple love of creating art? You can hear it in the music. Letters for the Oddities has yet to even play a live show, but as more and more artists follow nontraditional paths to finding an audience, the band continues to gain momentum. His music is something Chris feels the need to share with the world, with or without a producer or label. 

And though he may not have expected his sudden online fame, Chris has been using it to his advantage. He seems to have found his niche as one of the internet-savvy creators who make up the coming generation of musicians, as well as building a community by connecting with fans. Maybe “old emo” is back. Or perhaps Letters for the Oddities is part of a new wave of dynamic, original music that has found a way around the traditional rules of marketing. “I just spend so much time in the art…” he replies when I ask if he wants to pursue music long-term. “I can’t imagine not doing music.”

((Special thanks to Chris for doing this interview and for making music that continues to inspire me!))