It's just a week before Dualistics guitarist and singer Tyler Despres is slated to release the debut five-song EP of his new side project, Science Partner (which features Charley Hine from Dualistics on bass and Carl Sorensen on drums), and he isn't even close to having the disc finished. He still has to lay down more guitar tracks and vocals and write parts for Jessica DeNicola and Maria Kohler to sing. He doesn't even have a title for the EP. But he's not stressing about it, because he says he thrives in these kind of situations. In fact, before this one's even pressed, he's got plans to record another five songs and release a full-length by the end of the year.
Westword: What do you see yourself getting out of playing your own stuff versus Dualistics?
Tyler Despres: Well, it's actually surprising to me that I haven't branched out and done this prior, because I've been doing this singer-songwriter thing since I was eleven. I've been doing it for, like, sixteen years; I just never did anything with it. I just sort of played for friends and stuff. Around this time last year was the first time I ever played out, and I got a good response. So I was like, "Ya know what? I got a little extra free time." And then I sort of put a little time towards it. I just started writing more songs and started doing the open stage at Meadowlark, and that sort of motivated me to write more songs, and I just kept writing and writing and writing. In the last year, I've probably written twenty songs, which isn't a lot for a lot of people. But it's more than I'd written in my entire life, so I figured I might as well start some sort of project. And actually, Jonathan Bitz really motivated me, too, because he was a big fan of the songs I was writing. He said, "Get a drummer, a bass player and get some backup musicians." And I did it. I actually give a lot of credit to him for motivating me.
How would you say your music differs from Dualistics stuff?
There are a few pretty cool riffs in this Science Partner stuff, but it mainly differs because it's more vocal oriented, I think, more lyrically oriented — where in Dualistics, we're just trying to rock your socks off. I think this is actually on the Wheel's MySpace page: It's like, "Why do people form side projects? It's for the stuff that doesn't fit the mood of the band you're in." You write music, and if fits with one project, you do it in that project, and if it fits with that other project, you do it with that project.
