Student muscian Tyler Serrani moves to Burlington for career growth  

In the backyard of someone’s apartment on Main Street sits a makeshift stage and a couple of artists. One of the bands features Tyler Serrani and bandmates Hunter Smith and Logan Toleman.  

Most students are familiar with Serrani’s music, so on the cold October evening, it’s safe to assume the majority of the crowd was there to watch him perform.  

The band opened the show with some folk covers from artists like Tyler Childers. Then later in the night, it closed the show with fan favorites like “Standing in the Promenade” and “alrightokitsfine.”  

They also covered the song “Brisk Outside,” from the Pleasant Boys, whose members are Will Buck and Adam Osha, both Castleton alums.  

Toleman, Serrani, and Smith all come from different backgrounds and have different feelings when performing live.  

For Toleman, this can be a euphoric sensation.  

“The feeling I get on stage is just genuine euphoria. Nothing in my life matters, nothing else is on my mind except for playing the songs to the best of my ability and just having a genuinely good time,” he said. 

For Smith, it’s not about a singular mindset, but how the group works together.

“When it’s all gelling on stage, there’s a shedding of the singular ego that elevates the entire performance. I play with a few groups and there have been moments coming off stage with all of them where we realize what had just taken place,” said Smith, also a Castleton graduate.  

Serrani values feeling like himself on stage while being able to relate to his audience.  

He started performing live in seventh grade with his school’s choir. He would do coffee house shows, but it was always a bit frightening.  

But as he got older, things got better.  

“I remember fucking up and getting really in my head about things, but as I performed more and more and I grew into myself, it’s just become my form of expression and whenever I’m on stage I just do my best to be me. So, when I’m on stage I feel like me,” he said.  

With each member bringing something different to the table, their musical influences are all over the map.  

“The band itself is a menagerie of sonic forces, ranging from hyperpop, to folk influence, to shoegaze, it’s really all over the place, but unmistakably us,” Toleman said.  

Like most artists, their musical influences bleed(s) into their sound as a band.  

For Serrani, he takes pride in being undefined in their sound. They are a multi-genre bad, which doesn’t limit them to one particular sound. 

Serrani just wants to just be himself, and wants the same for his bandmates. 

“I want to be myself. But going forward for the band I want it to be me, I want it to be Logan, I want it to be Hunter. I want it to be a community-based thing where we’re all sitting in at sessions,”  Serrani said.  

Smith said he likes the idea of having a defined sound, and then throwing that definition out the window.  

“At this point, ‘the band’ refers to Tyler, Logan, and myself, and Logan and I bring very different influences to his sound, so as we get older, we’re hoping to continue to add different elements to his recordings and take the idea of having a sound that people associate us with and kinda destroying it,” said Smith.  

In the future, the guys hope to expand and add a drummer to their band. “Stagnancy is what kills artists. The only way to go is outwards and upwards, so we will definitely be expanding our reach,” Toleman said.  

Becoming more Burlington-based will allow for bigger audiences and growth for the band.  

For Serrani, that means moving to Burlington for a couple of months, which has been possible because of the flexibility with VTSU. He’s going to be able to take his classes online while he’s living in Burlington.  

“That’s a liberty that I personally have just due to the merger. Which, I’m actually not upset with the merger. I’m upset that Castleton’s culture has kind of been diminished due to the merger but the merger, it is quite possibly benefitting me in the best way that I could have ever imagined.” 

Serrani will be able to grow with his band in a way he didn’t think possible for his current situation as a student.  

As for what’s coming in the future, Serrani gave some insider details as to what we can expect.  

“Honestly, you know what, I’m going to spill. We’re doing these things called the mimicry tapes. Which I’m basically just putting out a lot of different music throughout the year on these tapes that are probably going to be like six to eight songs long and it’s going to be Mimicry Tape Volume 1, Mimicry Tape Volume 2, 3, et cetera,” he said.  

“It’s just going to be a bunch of collaborations with artists and solo songs that I can just spit out, that don’t need to have any particular story along with them that people need to follow along with.”  

Serrani said there will be big things coming in December for eager fans and he appreciates the patience that listeners have.  

“It’s been a very transitional time for me right now moving to Burlington so my artistry has been really hard for me to focus on and I think just being around everybody is really going to help me out with staying focused on my craft and just continuing to improve,” he said.