Music Journalist – Educator – Musician
Music Nerd – Hottest 100 Expert – A Sixth Thing
Tyler, The Content Creator
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 eight years have seen me working as a prolific writer across a number of websites.
In addition to writing for the likes of Tone Deaf, The Industry Observer, The Brag, Don’t Bore Us, and Jplay, 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 the Content Manager for Gig Life Pro, 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, 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
Releasing 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 pre-order your copy now ahead of its release on May 1st, 2025.
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.
AS FEATURED ON…
PORTFOLIO
Since I first began a professional music journalist back in 2016, I’ve also become a prolific writer, with close to 7,000 articles, features, interviews, reviews, and more credited to my name. For an in-depth look back at all of these pieces, click on the appropriate links below to dive deep into my journalistic portfolio.
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A selection of the articles I’ve written over the years that I’ve personally deemed my ‘best’. Do you agree? Click through and form your own opinion!
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Any artist will likely need a bio in the lead-up to a new release. Occasionally, I’m tasked with writing up said bio. Click through for previous examples!
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Every now and them, I’m lucky enough to have an artist invite me into their creative process. Click through for a collection of my numerous interviews!
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If you love live shows as much as I do, you can’t help but write some words about how much you enjoyed it. Click for my many live reviews!
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For almost as long as I've been a journalist, I've had my work featured in print. Here's a full list of the magazines I've worked on over the years!
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Any mover, shaker, or creator needs a good press release whenever they do anything big. Here’s a selection of those that I’ve written!
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Not every piece of writing I’ve done over the years can be easily categorised, so here’s a fledgling page where I house all those offcuts. Mmm, esoteric!
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Feeling like a kid in a candy store? Can’t pick which of these you want to click? Simply click here for handy-dandy links to the entirety of my writings!
PREVIOUS ACCOLADES
Throughout my years in the world of music journalism, I’ve received a handful of honours, both as recognition for my work and as a way to give back to the musical community. In both 2019 and 2020, I served on the judging panel for the South Australian Music Awards, while in both 2020 and 2021, I was listed on The Music Network’s annual ’30 Under 30′ list. For more information on both, click through on the below links.
GET IN TOUCH
Let’s work together!
I’m currently available for any freelancing opportunities, with a noted history in having written long-form pieces, feature articles, interviews, live reviews, news announcements, artist biographies, and press releases. If you’d like to see examples of most of these, feel free to visit the Portfolio pages above.
For further information regarding rates, feel free to get in contact via any of the links above, or filling out the form to the right.
Please note: I cannot explicitly promise editorial coverage of any variety. Any requests for coverage are ultimately at the behest of the editors of publications I pitch to.