What if you shuffled your Spotify playlist and heard your teacher’s voice? This is a possibility for Tyler James’ students. Tyler James has become one of the most popular music artists in Iowa, and he just so happens to teach at West, too. He has 51,363 monthly listeners and over 2 million streams of his song “Tribe.” How does he handle the success all while being a high school teacher?
Jame’s artist name is Jim Swim. This name has special ties to his family. “So James, my dad. Jim is short for James. And then Swim was my mom’s maiden name. I have like a very working-class Midwestern family with no artists in it,” James said. “My mom’s dad wrote these rhyming poems his whole life, and some of them are really good. And so his name was Jerry Swim. If I have any lineage creatively, in my family, it’s from him. So I wanted to use that name.”
James hasn’t always envisioned a teaching and music career. “I was playing sports, and I wasn’t a great athlete, but I was trying awful hard. And then I broke my ankle in my senior year playing basketball.” Turns out his broken ankle would help him launch his creative pursuits. “I went out for the school play. That was like the first creative thing that I’d done, and I loved it.” When it came to music, he began to freestyle rap with his friends while playing guitar.
As far as teaching, James did not originally expect this to become his profession. “After undergrad, I was in a band and working at Reds and Chilis, piecing it together. And then the band broke up. And I also had to get health insurance,” James said. “So I got a full-time job with [a mobile phone company], which I hated with the power of 1000 suns.”
The job wasn’t a completely negative experience, however. While James was working, one of his former professors stopped in to purchase a phone. From there, the two of them ended up talking, leading James to an assistantship at the university’s writing center and a decision to finish his master’s degree.
Indie artists are always like, oh, it’s not any genre, and then someone (else) listens for like 10 seconds. Like, that’s indie.
— Tyler James
James has built connections throughout his schooling. Mr. Robins, an English teacher at West admires James deeply. The two met while in college, and at the time James was getting his master’s degree, and Robins was getting his undergraduate degree. They both had several classes together which sparked the friendship between them. “He was the guy that I thought was saying the smartest, wisest stuff…” Robins says.
Robins is deeply impressed by James’ ability to handle both professions. In fact, he’s a big fan of James’ work. He’s implemented an analysis of James’ song “Tired Now” into his lesson plans. Not only does Robins admire James’ art, but also his perspective on life. “He’s always got like the ticking clock of what we get to do in this one life.” He adds, “he makes brilliant use of it (time). He makes so much art and spends time with others so meaningfully.”
During the school year, James is quite busy. “I’m in school, and then I come home, eat an early dinner and then right into the studio,” he says. “I’ve worked on music every night for like four hours. So other hobbies kind of get cut out.”
An Average Day by West Side Story
Sometimes, his busy life was overwhelming, but he discovered valuable lessons while teaching. “They make a good balance because this job forces me to not be self-absorbed.” Students have also inspired him to write. In fact, his most popular song, “Tribe,” was inspired by his 8th-grade students. “The 8th-graders were like, make us a song that we would like, but it ended up being the most popular song that I have.”
James describes his genre of music as a version of indie. “Indie artists are always like, oh, it’s not any genre, and then someone (else) listens for like 10 seconds. Like, that’s indie.” James describes his music as alternative hip-hop and bedroom pop. “There’s a lot of lofi elements and guitars, but then the vocals are pretty rhythmic and pretty hip hop.”
Students can see Jim Swim perform on Sept. 22 at the Ped Mall as a part of the Friday Night Concert Series.
