Tyler Wolverton - Early Career

Early Career

Wolverton started drumming at the age of thirteen. He is entirely self-taught, and began playing along with the songs on a local mainstream rock radio station. Eventually, his tastes in music would change, and his skills would increase. He then started playing along with some of the heavier and more complex CDs in his collection, such as Converge, and Between the Buried and Me.

The earliest official project was drumming with his friends Nathan and Danny. Sumo Night Club, they called themselves, was lo-fi rock act doing mostly covers. "Quite frankly, we didn't do a damn thing besides mess around, but that was fine by me. We were having a lot of fun doing that," he recalled in an interview with his friend's music website. After several months with Sumo Night Club, Wolverton decided that it was his time to move on, and pursue something heavier and more technical. Sumo Night Club would eventually recruit Michael Hayden as their new drummer, and Wolverton set foot in a new direction.

Honky Tonk Murder was a mixture of country and metal and, oddly enough, one of the better-known projects in Wolverton's early career. Most people knew that HTM was nothing more than a joke, but some people thought it to be a sincere musical endeavour. When reminded of "The MURDER," as some call it, Wolverton said, with a laugh, “I guess you could tie it into my love of ridiculous, over-the-top music. Sure, it's not as insane as some of the solo crap I've done with drum and synth programs on my computer, but it's still one of those things that makes you think 'Whoa, what the hell?'” Honky Tonk Murder became a joke at his highschool for a while. Wolverton, known in the band as T-Texas Tyler played guitar and vocals on each track recorded. The band went on to write a handful of songs before it disbanded, but not before their only song “I Been In Love With The Same Woman For Thirty Years... Don't Tell My Wife” was released on their Myspace page.