Tyler Cole

Tyler Cole fuses alt-rock with R&B across his solo releases We’re in Love & the World Is Ending (2017) and Existential Crisis Boy, Pt. 1 (2023), as well as through joint projects alongside WILLOW and Weezer, underscoring the fluid boundaries that now connect genres in 21st-century mainstream music.

Born in Traverse City, Michigan, Cole spent his formative years in Los Angeles, where he developed parallel passions for music and filmmaking during adolescence. He balanced both pursuits by portraying a homeless teenager in the 2015 feature Between the Miles and issuing his debut album, Stranger, the following year. With the arrival of his second full-length, We’re in Love & the World Is Ending, in 2017, he named Childish Gambino and Bon Iver among his influences while drawing attention to songs such as “Blow Up Your TV!” and “Love at First Fight.”

Cole appeared in a recurring capacity during the debut season of the Netflix series Family Reunion in 2019. The next year he joined longtime partner and frequent creative ally WILLOW—daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith—on the alt-rock-leaning effort THE ANXIETY. After “Meet Me at Our Spot” gained traction on TikTok, Rivers Cuomo enlisted him to produce Weezer’s SZNZ: Autumn EP in 2022. Cole’s third album overall and first for Def Jam Records, Existential Crisis Boy, Pt. 1, arrived in 2023, led by the bossa nova/trap-inflected single “Crying in My Car,” which includes guest verses from rapper Teezo Touchdown.