Tyler Jenke

Music Journalist – Author – Educator
Musician – Music Nerd – Hottest 100 Expert

Originally from Adelaide, I’m a Melbourne-based journalist and musician with more than a decade of experience in writing and publishing.

Having originally entered the world of music at a relatively young age, the last ten years have seen me working as a prolific writer across a number of websites.

In addition to writing for the likes of Billboard, The Australian, The Note, Beat, Tone Deaf, Music Feeds, and more, I’ve served as both a Staff Writer and News Director for The Brag Media, and spent three years as Editor of Rolling Stone Australia, overseeing both the online and printed editions of the publication.

These days, I’m a freelance journalist who is always looking for any and all opportunities, alongside working as a Staff Writer at The Music, and a guest lecturer at Melbourne’s Box Hill Institute

Outside of the world of the written word, you can often find me researching obscure music facts, performing in Melbourne grunge band Dental Plan, managing Melbourne duo Echo Social Club, collecting copious amounts of vinyl, tapes, and CDs, or simply situated in the front row for numerous live concerts. I also run the Trusty Chords podcast, which you can learn about here.

For more information, don’t hesitate to read more about my professional story, to delve into my portfolio, or to simply get in contact for potential work opportunities.

TISM’s Machiavelli and the Four Seasons
Released May 1st, 2025.

In 2023, I started writing my first book, a volume on TISM’s 1995 album Machiavelli and the Four Seasons for the 33 1/3 Oceania series. After being a lifelong fan of TISM, this felt like a natural decision, and resulted in one of the most intense, yet rewarding research periods of my life.

Read the description below, and order your copy now (if you feel like it, that is).

Focusing on one of Australia’s most enigmatic bands, This Is Serious Mum (better known as TISM), Tyler Jenke forms an in-depth analysis of the anonymous, pseudonymous Melbourne collective’s rise to prominence and unlikely success on the popular music charts with their third album, Machiavelli and the Four Seasons (1995). Jenke details TISM’s origins as they slowly went from a bedroom concept to an underground success to a staple of concert stages and commercial radio in Australia, growing a rabid fanbase in the process.

Despite the anti-commercial tendencies of TISM, whose album artwork didn’t feature the band, whose band members performed under pseudonyms and who rarely gave interviews, never mind sincere answers, TISM became a commercially successful group. In this book, Jenke identifies the steps the band took to shift their sound from their tried-and-true experimental Australian pub-rock roots to the burgeoning, youthful electronic music genre, employing synthesizers and samplers. With their new sound, TISM incorporated Dadaism – the use of unusual or everyday sounds – and both avant-garde and classic pop musicianship. The band’s new sound resulted in both top ten success and an ARIA Award. This is the first book to dissect TISM’s rise to fame within the Australian music industry and analyze TISM’s status as one of the most memorable, mysterious and paradoxically successful groups in the country’s vibrant alternative music scene.