Rising star Adrian Lyles breaks down his debut single and music video
Listen to "Formalize Me" on all streaming platforms.
Adrian Lyles, best known for his role as Jet in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, is quickly becoming an artist to watch. After exploring music from various singer-songwriters on Disney+ and rediscovering his sound, Lyles has delved deep back into his childhood passion for songwriting and creating music. He is an artist who knows what he wants to create and is not afraid to make changes. Now, with the release of his debut single, “Formalize Me,” he is aiming to make his mark as the next big star. United By Pop recently had the opportunity to chat with Lyles about his new project and what makes it stand out.
Hi Adrian! Congratulations on the release of “Formalize Me”. Have you done anything special to celebrate?
We celebrated the night it came out. I invited a few friends and a family member over, cut a cake, and looked at reactions. It’s been good. I’ve been at home staring at my phone.
I have never heard the word ‘formalize’ before. Where did you find the word and what does it mean to you?
Okay! You know what is funny? Me neither. This is funny. There is a Frank Ocean song called “Fertilizer” and I was like that is so cool. So I looked up words that rhyme with fertilize, then formalize came up. I was like that word sounds cool. Then I found out what formalize meant and then I wrote the song afterwards. But it was only because I thought ‘fertilize’ was such a cool word that I was like I want a word that sounds like that word.
After I wrote the song, I started hearing the word more. But I never heard the word until after the song.
It would’ve been cool if you invented the word ‘formalize’ though….
That would have been really sick. We could change the story and say that I invented the word.
You’ve had some amazing experiences collaborating with songwriters for High School Musical The Musical The Series on the song “Right Place”. How have those experiences shaped your solo work?
I have been writing for a long time but this is kind of the first time we have been doing it in such a big way. It feels super weird because it feels the same as when I was writing in high school and the same as when I was writing when I was a teenager. But bringing the song to a label and writers who responded , ‘Oh my god, we like it’ feels so strange to me because I did this in my room at home and showed it to my parents afterwards. It feels so crazy to me but that is the magic of songwriting, I don’t think that most of the time it’s this lightning strike moment, it is writing about your experiences. If you experienced something, you can write about it.
It has been cool working with people who have their own techniques. There are a lot of people on the High School Musical team who write their songs and their techniques are really delved in. It is cool to see them write but then working in sessions with other songwriters and seeing their process [is different]. It is always cool to see the different ways people work.
For my ways, I have always been relaxed. I don’t like to force it. I let it happen or whatever. And that is how all the good songs I have liked come to be, by letting them flow.
Walk us through your creative process when it comes to songwriting. Are you more of a notebook and pen type, or do you prefer using digital tools like your phone or computer?
I used to hand-write songs. In high school I had a huge binder filled with songs. I would try to write a song a day. I filled that huge binder up. It is actually still somewhere in my closet. Now I type lyrics on my phone. Although, It feels so much better to write it out by hand but it is easier to talk into a phone
Some of your lyrics in “Formalize Me” are really abstract, like the line, “When we could spend a month vacation in the Bahamas / But you’re busy makin’ it like Okonma.” Can you break down the meaning behind this line?
It is funny because it is kind of both. I had my team and a lot of fans texted me about this specific line. This whole verse is talking about conforming. The story is also about conforming, as a person who fits in with what the people around you want you to be.
This line is saying,” With the money we could make by doing what you are told, we could spend a month in the Bahamas. You’re busy makin’ it like Okonma,” Tyler the Creator’s last name. And the next line is “But you’re busy makin’ it like Lamar;” like Kendrick Lamar. I am a huge artist guy. I am a fan of a lot of music while I am trying to make it. I feel like those people are creatives through and through to me. Tyler’s whole brand is “I am not doing what anybody else tells me what I want to do. I am doing what I want to do. Nobody is going to instruct me on how to create my art.”
The line is basically saying that we could live lavishly and make this super artistic left of center thing instead of the mainstream thing we want you to do.
Have you ever been to the Bahamas?
I have when I was little. I want to go back. When I was younger my parents and I went. I don’t remember it but I know we went.
Even your rap goes by so fast that you can’t think about what it means….
Right. I feel like that is the most convoluted lyric in there. I have to dig for what this specifically means. I don’t think “Formalize Me” is surface level but if you read the lyrics out you can get what most of it is. However, that is the line that makes people go “What?” That’s what it feels like to me too.
When you were in the process of creating your original music, who were some of the artists you were listening to at the time?
I love finding music as much as I love making it. This time I was in a hard Dominic Fike phase. Dominic ruled my brain for a moment because his album was coming out. He has a single on there called “Mama’s Boy” and at the end there is this huge cracking down chaotic moment at the end of the song.
I don’t like to emulate sounds when I am making music. I don’t like to say, “Dominic Fike made a song, I want to make a song exactly how it sounds” but I am like “Okay if this song made me feel this specific way, let’s make a song that feels this way.” And so, the end of that song felt so chaotic and over the top, I said to myself, “I want to make something chaotic and over the top and overwhelming too.” I listened to a lot of Dominic Fike, 21 Pilots is always bouncing around in my brain too.
The strange thing about my song is that normally with a lot of the other songs it can come with reference on reference. But for this one [“Formalize Me”], it really didn’t have any. At the end of “Mama’s Boy” it had this crazy ending, I wanted that. But other than that, it just happened between me and the producer. It somehow turned into what it was.
That’s so cool because songs don’t always happen like that! Everyone wants to know more about the music video, can you give us a walk through of the story line?
Absolutely! I am a big fan of all of the world coming together, like it can’t be one strong part. Like how a great book needs a great movie. So if we created a song that is really cool, I want to create a music video that feels the exact same chaos, overwhelming, hopelessness, and aggressive as the song feels.
The specific story that the music video follows is about this guy who is being followed around by this masked figure that is consistently altering his way of life and what he is doing. When he wakes up in the morning, he [the masked figure] wakes him up early, he goes to get dressed and the masked character changes him and puts him into business attire. Then they go to this office. Everywhere he goes, he follows him around and chases him. Then at the end of the video, everything changes. It seems like the character I am portraying becomes the masked person that has been trying to turn him into the whole time. At the very end in the middle of the field, the masked man takes his mask off and it turns out it was me the entire time.
My way of justifying is saying, I don’t think humans are one dimensional. I think that you are allowed to feel a whole bunch of emotions that can be conflicting. You can be really sad about something while also being really excited about another thing at the same time. You don’t have to feel one way. My thought process with that was kind of two versions of myself. The main version where I was like “I don’t want to do this, I want to be myself,” but then the other version of myself was like “maybe it would just be easier if we do what everyone else is trying to make us do.”
It is basically two versions of myself fighting a battle with myself trying to force myself into a corner of picking a side.
Everyone is also dying to know the significance of the mask, can you explain more?
With the mask we did a lot of treatments for the music video. I submitted a rough draft of the idea I was thinking of for the video. Afterwards, 12 directors reached out to me with a storyboard that enabled me to read a whole bunch of story ideas. I settled on this incredible director and filmmaker named Christina Xing.
She created this detailed version of what I had sent. The plan was to have me follow two sock puppets and they were the ones doing the videos. Then at the end of the video the sock puppets are revealed and they were on my hands the whole time. I loved the concept of taking off the disguise and it was me. Then I thought, “how do we do that in a way that feels more sinister and real?”
We went back and forth though. “Maybe the masked figure was your friend talking into your ear and giving you hints.” But I wanted it to be an internal thing so, “what if it is me but we cover your face and you don’t know it is me until the end?” That is what we decided.
Earlier, you mentioned wanting the video to feel chaotic, so why does it end with such a calm scene of you lying in the grass?
I wanted to set it up for what is to come and with tension. The end of the music video is the reveal of the fact that it is me in the mask the entire time. I wanted to do more than take the mask off and it was just me. I wanted to do this thing where I take the mask off like a multifaceted human being. I wanted it to be this feeling of, “Okay I take the mask off and I go to the formalize side then there is regret about it. Like I don’t feel as good as I felt about it as I thought I would. I don’t feel as happy or as free as I thought it’d make me feel when I made the wrong choice.”
I also wanted to create this feeling of tension because I love a story with music. I love albums that have a story line with them and music videos where it’s like, “what did I just watch?” I remember being at the record label office being like, “there has to be an end credit scene.” I love that stuff so much.
I want to create everything in this realm of, “if I watched this from someone else’s POV, would it be cool?”
In terms of creativity, did you get to collaborate on your cover art work? From a glance it looks like a photo shoot.
Right, so like I keep saying I am a big theme guy. They [Hollywood Records] have also given me this crazy level of creative freedom which I think is amazing. For the song, I was thinking “ how do I introduce myself?” I wanted to tell people “hello! This is what my face looks like and this is the song.” We went for a simplistic approach.
Lastly, can we talk about your Discord server and how it is about music, community, and social space?
I am so grateful for the Discord server. I never thought it would become as pivotal as it has become. A year ago before any music was out was when this was created. I did an Instagram live stream where I showed some of the songs I was working on. After talking to a few people, I ended up making this Discord server. And then a bunch of people joined. It has become a space for people to hang out. There are people who are genuinely good friends who I met on the server.
I played two 15 minute opening shows for these artists at this place in L.A 15 minutes, that’s like four songs! People from the Discord server flew out from all around the world to come and watch me play a 15 minute set. Before I was like, “I will try it out and if no one joins, I’ll try again when music comes out.” That is how close the server has become. It’s such a comforting environment. I love it.
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Listen to the song on Spotify
