Adrian Lyles is a musician and actor well known for his role in “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.” On the show, Lyles played Jet and through his performances gained traction as a singer. Many people who watched Lyles wanted to see more of his independent work, and his following grew quickly.
Lyles’ music career started at a very young age, learning the piano, and although Lyles enjoyed it, he believed there was something more exciting for him out there. This passion for more ignited his talent for singing.
“I just kind of started exploring,” Lyles said. “I saw Jon Bellion in concert and was like ‘Oh man! This. I want to do that’ and I started giggling.”
LHS Publications recently had the opportunity to interview Lyles. From the age of 13, Lyles played at bars and restaurants, singing anywhere that would let him.
“My mom and dad are so sick dude,” Lyles said. “They were the ones that were going into random restaurants and being like ‘do you guys do live music? Because our son he plays the piano and he’ll sing.’”
This beginning period in Lyles’ career was rocky, and he remembers playing in places so loud he couldn’t even hear the piano.
“The hardest gigs to do are the small ones,” Lyles said. “Playing to a stadium or theater of people that are there for you, that’s easy, you know? Like you’ve already won all the people over, but playing restaurants where the people aren’t necessarily there to hear you, those are the hard gigs.”
Nevertheless, these challenges did not stop Lyles’ love for song. Recently, he released his song “King of Everything.” This is just one of over 150 songs Lyles has put out during his career.
Another accomplishment Lyles has put under his belt this year is going on tour. He had the opportunity to open for the band Almost Monday.
“It was the best! I loved tour!” Lyles said, “I’ve been playing gigs for my whole life, but playing gigs for a crowd of people that are there for the music, that know your songs… yo.”
Lyles has been working hard all his life, and through the help of his parents and team, never gave up.
Lyles plans to continue his career with the release of multiple EPs this year with albums hopefully to follow in coming years.
“If a song is a chapter, [albums] are the whole book,” Lyles said, “You can get a full story from the artist and discover a whole bunch of things they are saying and what the theme of their life is.”
Lyles’ passion for his storytelling is what makes his songs so heartfelt and easy for an audience to connect with. When creating a song, he says that every aspect of his mood and life affect the music.
“’King of Everything’ is where it’s like ‘Oh man I’ve been feeling this for 7 years of my life and so I finally wrote a song about it,’” Lyles said.
Lyles started from a young age, with his goal in mind, and he never gave up. Today, Lyles has more than 100,000 listeners, with plans to further his career with many more songs.
“The beautiful thing about life, in the sense of flourishing, is that there’s so many ways to do it, like there’s not one set way,” Lyles said. “A lot of it is being able to do what you love in some form or capacity and for me a flourishing life is the fact that i get to make music and I get to put it out.”
