Exclusive Interview with Ty Bru

Ty Bru (also known as ‘Tyler Brueilly’) is a renowned Hip-Hop Artist, Filmmaker, Photographer and a Fashion Designer. Recently, Ty Bru was interviewed by Famo Celebrity Magazine, below is the Q&A session, we had with him.

Table of Contents

Can you tell us a bit about your yourself?

I’m a 44 year old happily married filmmaker from Asheboro, North Carolina with two fully active children. But that’s not how I started off, I was a writer at first, then made my professional artist entrance as a freshman in the 1999-2000 academic year at Appalachian State University as a Fraternity party DJ/MC and have evolved into so many facets and layers since then, we wouldn’t have enough time for that, maybe dive in more on the follow up.

What do you consider the Highlights of your Career so far?

I’ll go with the most recent, just now coming back from L.A. and the third February in a row (2023,2024 & 2025), having a presence in Hollywood is major highlight. In two years I’ve been there nine times, about 30 days all together, showing 15 of my films in various cinemas and theatres around the city, winning ten awards and feel like I really have solidified a place there, building a network of folks and finding like-minded people.

Things like, meeting Sean Haitz, Kevin Carrao and Vincenzo Carubia and then getting advice and insight firsthand from some of the filmmakers/musicians I grew up watching and being fascinated with. This last trip though, I’m talking grilling in the Hollywood Hills with Richard Elfman, who I was captivated by after seeing his cult classic film, ‘Forbidden Zone’ during my college years, and finding out his origination with Oingo Boingo had even more of a hold on me, his dinner guest being Brian Yuzna really blew my mind though!

I’m telling you I was terrified of his films when I was a teenager and would rent 5 VHS for $5 on a weekend, ‘The Dentist’, ‘The Dentist 2’ and ‘Return Of The Living Dead III’ and he was the same person that got me interested in H.P. Lovecraft with his ‘Re-Animator’ films and ‘Necronomicon: Book Of The Dead’ that I didn’t really dive into until college and also didn’t know it was all from him until way later when I really began having appreciation with the directors of films. Sitting with them in a private setting soaking up all this knowledge alone was a highlight, learning what they’ve been a part of, how they did it and where it started was an enlightening experience.

Then having Sean Haitz there with me, who had just gotten news of his dream distribution deal with Screambox/Cineverse for his feature film, ‘Cannibal Comedian’ and also has the same admiration and respect for them was one of those moments in time that will help define certain aspects of me as a person and a professional.

When people I love win, it usually feels better than when I win, but I do like winning too, don’t get me wrong. And to top it all off, Anastasia Elfman who was working on her column and podcast interviews would come out from time to time to drop off her immaculate knowledge of Horror and talk about her incredible journey into becoming one of the Horror Genre’s newest Icons, Bloody Bridget. That’s one hell of a highlight for a night in Hollywood.

Speaking of winning, a few days later, at Bonaventure Brewing Company at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles Sean’s ‘Bellevue Bob’ won Best Horror Comedy Short and my ‘Skunk Season’ won the Audience Award for Best Music Video with what I shot and edited for ethemadassassin that was a part of the Golden State Film Festival at the TCL Chinese Theatres.

What are some of the Challenges you’ve faced in your Career, and how did you Overcome them?

Living in Asheboro. That’s a monster of a thing right there, trying to do what I do here is nearly impossible, but I really feel like it’s needed here, so I won’t stop pushing my way into creating a scene here in my various ways. There are too many people like me here that need the door to be kicked in that I won’t stop until this city finally accepts contemporary art in all its forms. We are way behind, way, way behind and the people with money, power and positions are clueless to what it takes to bring us forward. So many people leave and never come back because of this struggle, but if they could stay it would enhance our community greatly.

It’s a small town and I have always had such a supreme level of love/hate with it, and every time I come home from somewhere else, I feel the sourness in my soul grow! It never fails, as you can tell from my above statement, I fight it off after about a week, but I can go to the biggest cities in the world and excel, while I struggle to get a constant level of support here.

I was just in L.A. for three days and didn’t more in that time than I could do in eight months here, which brings me to the point where I have found a way to overcome that, which is establishing my own film festival in the city by using all the experience and what I learned from all the work I do outside of Asheboro, bringing that culture here, so hopefully other people will be inspired and moved to help speed up the process of this artistic revolution that I am so passionate about spearheading in our city, we recently just held our second annual Mightier Than The Sword Awards at Sunset Film Festival, a strong event, with a magnitude of something this city has never seen before, and that will continue, already looking forward to year three.

What are your Interests and Hobbies outside of your Career?

I love to travel, which I usually find a way to incorporate my career with, by photographing or filming something, or using that inspiration for writing. I also love to collect many different things, action figures, steelbooks, leatherbound classic literature, physical copies of video games, basketball jerseys and movie memorabilia.

Going hand in hand with that, video games, but it’s got to captivate me, because I don’t have much time, but I will wake up at 3am and play for a few hours before working if the game speaks to me like that.

What are some of the Milestones you hope to Achieve in the coming years?

This is a good one. I really hope to close the chapter on my live performance and recording career in December 2025. I’ve done music for over 20 years, this is the 20^th year anniversary of the label, Mightier Than The Sword Records that I established in 2005. I feel it’s time to close that book for a long while, indefinitely is the word I’ll use. My kids are getting older, my oldest son will be 7 this year and youngest will be 3. It’s my wife and my 10^th wedding anniversary.

When it comes to performing, I don’t have that love for it any more, and I haven’t for quite some time, I just had two total knee replacements last year and I would rather do that again than deal with 98% of these venues, promotors or bar owners.

With recording though I have a very close relationship with that, and love being in the booth, I found a great engineer, Brian Staples that I work great with, so I want to put some of these bucket list songs and albums to bed and focus on filmmaking and my yearly film festival after 2025.

With that being said we are planning a 20^th anniversary concert/festival for MTTS that will take place at the Sunset Theatre Memorial Day weekend 2025.

What is the most Valuable Lesson or advice you’ve learned in your Life or Career?

Don’t force it. I’ve been there done that and it doesn’t usually end well. Build up your product, your portfolio to where and when it’s time, it’s undeniable what you have to offer.

When you lose love for it, step away and focus on something else. There is no career or profession that is one faceted and that’s how I have thrived at creating, and why I feel it’s time to pivot from my performances.

Also become very aware of your position in the world, but also equally as aware with what it takes to reach the next position you want. Find that equilibrium until the scales tip over into what you want to be.

I’ve also learned that art is timeless for the most part. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t pop off automatically. Just for instance, my debut film is nearly eight years old, released in 2017 and just now got it’s Hollywood Premiere and it had some great feedback. And I ALWAYS get someone that just stumbled across my music, so what’s old to the creator is brand new to the vast majority.