Tysen are self described “Federal Way kids,” except for one who may or may not be from Sedro-Woolley. Tony D’Angelo (lead vocals and guitar), Jin Wooh (guitar and background vocals), Matt Hettler (drums), Ryan ‘RyRy’ Marth (guitar, synth and background vocals) and Cory Meyers (bass) were friends first, and then became band mates.

According to Marth, the band they formed was a boy so they named him Tysen. That was almost two years ago. Since then they’ve traveled all around the country with fellow rockers Cavalier on a tour sponsored by Rockstar Energy Drink.

They recorded an EP at famous London Bridge Studios in Seattle (that recorded legendary bands Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden) with producer Geoff Ott. They designed and sold lots of Über cool band shirts and inspired some fans to make silly lipsync videos of their songs (check them out on Tysen’s MySpace page — funny stuff).

And about those songs, they’re good stuff too. “Tony wrote the songs and we all threw in our two cents,” explains Hettler.

Tysen is looking forward to playing in Tacoma this week.

“Playing local shows is always fun because you have a hometown crowd that sings your songs back at you,” says Marth. “On the road it’s more of an earning respect from a crowd of strangers. We feel incredibly blessed to be cared for by such amazing fans.”

“We seem to be accepted by a lot of different scenes locally,” adds Hettler. “We’ve played shows with metal bands and have gotten great reactions from them. We’ve also played shows in the ‘pop end’ of the scene and received a reaction that was just as warm. Lots of times we hear ‘Dude ... I hate the kind of music you play, but I love your band.’“

“Music is what we love and we wouldn’t want to be doing anything else,” explains Marth.

Listen now at www.myspace.com/tysenrock. — Angela Jossy



[The Viaduct, with Sullivan, Cavalier, The Real You, Return of the Bison, 8 p.m., all ages, $8, 2725 Alaska St., Tacoma, www.myspace.com/viaductvenue]