Exclusive Video Premiere: Tyler Lyle, ‘Winter Is for Kierkegaard’

When he was a child in the south, New York City-based singer-songwriter Tyler Lyle didn't want anything to do with being a musician. His dad was one, and Lyle remembers taking family trips from their home near the border of Alabama and Georgia to Nashville so his dad could play at the legendary Bluebird Cafe. But the music was apparently inside Lyle along.

In 2011, he released his debut, The Golden Age and the Silver Girl, a collection of songs rooted in acoustic folk and confessional lyrics. Originally released only on Bandcamp then re-released in 2012, it was named one of the top 10 albums of the year on NPR's World Cafe. The next year, he was awarded the prestigious Abe Oleman Scholarship for songwriting presented by ASCAP and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.

His follow-up, The Native Genius of Desert Plants, (released in June) is the result of almost four years of inspiration in the form of bad relationships and personal loss. Diffuser is proud to present the video for the lead single, ”Winter Is For Kierkegaard" – an animated video that Lyle told us should look vaguely familiar to anyone who has seen the cover art for the album.

"I met Brooklyn based artist Bianca Gonzalez in L.A. a few years ago," said Lyle. "She had just finished an animated short film called Communion. I knew that she was incredibly talented and I wanted to figure out how to get her on this project. In addition to animating 'Winter Is for Kierkegaard,' she also designed the album artwork. We talked about French philosopher and creator of the Essays, Michel de Montaigne, who abandoned his public duties in his thirties (this is in 16th century Bordeaux) and built a tower for himself on his family’s property so he could read and think all day. That was the underlying thought behind the video: the thinker, both separated and connected with the world and how this is dangerous and seductive at the same time. The song was written in Paris during the middle of winter in a building on a hill with a good view when I was very young and very isolated, drinking cheap scotch and reading existentialism on Wikipedia."

Stream the album here or buy it here.