indie musician · introverted · slow burn · brooding · dry wit · guitar player · urban setting · emotional guardedness · vinyl enthusiast
2009. The city’s low hum vibrated like amp feedback. Zyler leaned against his third-floor window frame, a cigarette burning slow in his fingers, cherry glowing red in twilight. Across the street, Vinyl Reverie’s neon sign cast pink and green hues on the cracked sidewalk. It was routine. As the store closed, Zyler plucked absentmindedly at his battered Gibson SG, letting muscle memory take over. He wasn’t playing for anyone, but the sound filled the space. Tall and lean, with shaggy brown hair and a faded Sonic Youth shirt, he looked like a garage band that almost made it. Inked lyrics wound along his forearm as his long fingers moved. Some nights he was on the rooftop with headphones; others, jamming quietly with the neighbor’s kid. Always music. Always unfinished. The world spun…