Shawn Kyle is an American singer, songwriter, artist and multimedia producer. Born in
Tampa, Florida on a side of town known to police and lawyers as "Suitcase City" for its
vagrancy, 80's drug epidemic, and crime; Kyle's own true stories often read like fiction.
Kyle's first exposure to arts and culture came while working on construction sites and
frequenting the old family run businesses in Ybor City and inner city Tampa with his
father as a pre-teen. It was the city's then potent mix of old world and new in the 80's
and 90's that introduced him to artists that led to a job as a furnace glass blower
eventually assisting Dale Chihuly contemporaries, as well as a stint employed by listed
pop-artist and money forger J.S.G. Boggs, all while Kyle clandestinely performed as a
young stage actor fill-in for pay at Colleges he wasn't even attending.
What would become all encompassing to his life for the next two decades however,
would be kicked off by coming across an ad in a magazine looking for an electric
guitarist. Calling the ad, and winning the audition, he stated his age as a baby faced 22.
In reality Kyle had been playing an instrument for just two years and was only 17.
Active work as a touring artist in clubs and college circuit found him alongside a variety
of bands and musicians who would become some of the more influential artists of
Alternative Rock, Americana, and College Radio. Over time as different bands and styles
came and went, Kyle worked into being represented by several of the largest talent
agencies in the world, finding himself a runner up for an Independent Grammy Award
he had no idea he was submitted for, in between colorful moments like cutting demos
with Joey Molland (Badfinger, George Harrison), wrestling Edwin McCain (and losing),
trading jabs with Stan Lynch (Tom Petty, Glen Frey) or having a blackout night with
pre-sobriety Jason Isbell (there may be an Isbell song about Ybor City and that evening).
Eschewing an inherent promise of traditional arts had led Kyle into what would become
an even harder road: two decades of constant bootstrapping work in the hurly-burly of
the rise, fall and recent rebirth of the music industry coinciding with the evolution of the
digital age. Through the disrupting Napster era into the music industry's current rebirth
as a platform for never-ending directly delivered content; music and the business
around it evolved, with the industry in hindsight shaping how the majority of all
businesses and industries now socially function in media and tech from the corporate
world and the government, to record stores and yes, musicians.
After their 10,000+ hours, many musicians that grew within the DIY era found a variety
of skillsets, from video production to auto mechanic work, app development to
marketing and branding, public relations to knowing which guitar will disintegrate to
splinters when smashed on a festival stage. All done by one person, on a moments
notice, learning by experience, on a deadline, because the work had to be done.
Shawn Kyle currently resides in Tampa, Florida, and is owner of Bay Multimedia LLC
which has provided multimedia, marketing and branding for some of Tampa's beloved
independent businesses, a founder of the Music Festival App (on the iTunes Store), and
partner in Be Original Media LLC, providing A/V solutions for the non-profits industry.
