Tyrone Wells is an American singer-songwriter from

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

. He is the lead vocalist of the duo, Oh the Larceny, with Dustin Burnett as the producer. He is also the lead vocalist for the bands WAR*HALL and Royal Deluxe.

Career

Wells was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and raised in Spokane, Washington. He has said in interviews that he was inspired by his older sisters who "brought out the music in me" but did not begin songwriting until his move to California. While attending

Hope International University Hope International University is a private Christian university in Fullerton, California. It enrolls around 1,140 students. While Hope is non-denominational, it has strong ties to the Restoration Movement and the Christian churches and churche ...

in Southern California, Wells joined the band Sinai in 1994 turning out two LPs on Say-Sos Records before signing with Word Records and renaming the band Skypark for their 1998 Dove Award-nominated album ''Am I Pretty?''. In 2000, Wells launched his solo career, playing acoustic shows in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

. In 2006, Wells signed a recording contract with

Universal Records Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

. They re-released his independent album ''Hold On'' on the internet in 2006, and released it in stores on February 6, 2007. On ''Hold On'', Wells worked with producers Chris Karn and

Marc Ford Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system o ...

. Wells released his solo album ''Remain'' on January 27, 2009. The first single from ''Remain'', "More", reached No. 13 on the Triple A radio charts. The second single "Sink or Swim" was used in promos for the season 6 premiere of ''

Grey's Anatomy ''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series that premiered on March 27, 2005, on ABC as a mid-season replacement. The series focuses on the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they develop into se ...

''. In September 2010, Wells's song "Time of Our Lives" was used in the series finale promo for American daytime soap opera, ''

As the World Turns ''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other soa ...

'', as well as ''

The Vampire Diaries ''The Vampire Diaries'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural teen drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson (screenwriter), Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the The Vampire Diaries (novel series), book series ...

'' episode, "Memory Lane" (season 2, episode 4).

''Remain'' album

Wells traveled to London to work on ''Remain''. "Half of the album was done in London and the other half completed in the States," says Wells. "I didn't know what kind of record I was going to make before I got to London, but something just seemed to click while I was there that really defined what I wanted to do with this album." Wells worked with songwriter and producer Martin Terefe (

Jason Mraz Jason Thomas Mraz (; born June 23, 1977) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, ''Waiting for My Rocket to Come'' (2002), which spawned the single " The Remedy (I Won't ...

KT Tunstall Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall (born 23 June 1975) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician. She first gained attention with a 2004 live solo performance of her song " Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on '' Later... with Jools Holland''. Th ...

, James Morrison) and

Iain Archer Iain Archer is a writer, producer and solo artist from Bangor, Northern Ireland. He is a two-time Ivor Novello Award winner, winning the 2004 Album Award – ''Final Straw'' by Snow Patrol and Most Performed Work in 2016 for Grammy nominated ...

(UK indie artist and

Snow Patrol Snow Patrol are a Northern Irish–Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in 1994 in Dundee, Scotland. They consist of Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar, backing vocals), Paul Wilson (musician), Paul Wilson (bass guitar, ...

co-writer) in the UK, and

Tim Myers Tim Myers (born November 30, 1984) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer born in Orange, California. He's had over 600 synchs in TV/Film and commercials and has written and produced songs for Aloe Blacc, Capital Citi ...

(formerly of

OneRepublic OneRepublic is an American pop rock band formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2002. It consists of lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Tedder, lead guitarist and violist Zach Filkins, rhythm guitarist Drew Brown, bassist and cellis ...

David Hodges David Hall Hodges (born December 5, 1978) is an American songwriter and record producer from Little Rock, Arkansas. He was a studio contributor to the rock band Evanescence from 2000–2002. He has since had success co-writing and co–produci ...

(formerly of

Evanescence Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer and musician Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording independent EPs as a duo in the late 90's, and a demo CD, Evanescence released their debut s ...

) and

Matt Scannell Matthew B. Scannell (born February 10, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. Scannell is the lead vocalist, lead guitarist, primary songwriter, and founding member of the alternative rock band Vertical Hor ...

(

Vertical Horizon Vertical Horizon is an American alternative rock band, formed in Washington, D.C. Vocalists and guitarists Matt Scannell and Keith Kane started the band in 1991 when they were students at Georgetown University. The band have undergone multiple ...

) in the U.S. The song "Losing Ground", one of a handful of production/songwriting collaborations between Wells and Terefe, was written and demoed in less than 3 hours during their first writing session together.

''Metal and Wood'' EP

The 2010 independently released EP, ''Metal & Wood'', saw Wells return to his acoustic, singer-songwriter roots. The album spent nearly three weeks at No. 1 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter album chart, with the track "Running Around in My Dreams" topping the song chart.

''Where We Meet'' album

Released on March 3, 2012, ''Where We Meet'', ushered in a new beginning for Wells. His fourth full-length album and first since leaving a major label, ''Where We Meet'' embraced both sides of Wells' acoustic vulnerability and pop rock irresistibility. The album's first single, "Freedom", spawned a music video and was used in trailers for Disney's ''

The Odd Life of Timothy Green ''The Odd Life of Timothy Green'' is a 2012 American fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Hedges from a story by Ahmet Zappa. Starring Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, Dianne Wiest, CJ Adams, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston, ...

''. ''Where We Meet'' debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter album chart, reached the top ten of iTunes overall and No. 3 on the ''Billboard''

Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart.

''This Love'' album

The recording of ''This Love'' found Tyrone Wells in the studio on and off throughout most of 2012. Tyrone teamed up again with producer Michael "Smidi" Smith. Smidi produced nearly half of Tyrone's sophomore major label release (Universal Republic), ''Remain'', as well as being responsible for 7 of the 8 songs on Tyrone's acoustic EP ''Metal & Wood''. About ''This Love'', Tyrone says, "I did my best to make a mostly acoustic record. I always find myself listening to acoustic music, so I did my best to build the record around the acoustic guitar and make an organic sounding CD that I would enjoy listening to. Smidi was the perfect choice to produce this record. Smidi does a fantastic job of not getting in the way and helping really serve each song." ''This Love'' debuted at No. 2 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter album chart and reached No. 19 on the ''Billboard'' Heatseakers chart.

Personal life

Tyrone and his wife Elina have three daughters named Aria Lian, Ireland Mele, and Taya Aika Neal Wells. A video of him singing to Aria went viral in 2014. Tyrone and Elina also have an album together.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Tyrone Wells'' (2001, True American Records) * ''Snapshot'' (2003, True American Records) * ''Close: Live at McClain's'' (2005) Position Music/True American Records) * ''Hold On'' (2006, Position Music/True American Records) * ''Remain'' (2009,

U.S.) No. 17 ''Billboard''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

* ''Metal and Wood'' (2010, Position Music) * ''Where We Meet'' (2012, Position Music) * ''This Love'' (2012, Position Music) * ''Beautiful World EP'' (2012, Position Music) * ''The Christmas Album'' (2013, Position Music) * ''Roll with It'' (2015) * ''Days I Will Remember'' (2018)

Singles

* "

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", also known as simply "Let It Snow", is a song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in July 1945 in Hollywood, California, during a heat wave as Cahn and Styne imagined cooler conditions ...

" (2006, Universal Records) * "What Are We Fighting For?" (2007, Universal Records) * "Patience" (2008,

) * "More" (2009, Universal Records) * "Freedom" (2012, Position Music) * "Rise Again" (2018)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Tyrone American male pop singers American male singer-songwriters Living people Musicians from Spokane, Washington Singer-songwriters from Washington (state) Year of birth missing (living people)