Ty Brueilly’s Mightier Than The Sword Records turns 20 years old this year, with over 100 released albums in it’s history which has evolved into a world wide respected brand, evolving and expanding to film, fashion, photography, event planning and it’s most recent, Asheboro’s first ever International Film Festival which is going into phases of it’s third year of and aims to be the best one yet.
Sunset Theatre-May 22-25, 2025
234 Sunset Avenue, North Carolina, NC
Asheboro, NC native Ty Brueilly established MTTS the night of his Appalachian State University graduation at Macado’s on King Street in Boone, NC in May of 2005, since then 100 albums, over 80 films, over 50 artists, exhibitions in a dozen countries, 2000 plus shows, 1000 plus events planned, and hundreds of international awards have been associated with the entity.
“Up until then, we were casual with it. We released three pre-MTTS albums and several EPs and mixtapes and didn’t care about how professional it was or the numbers. It was a college dream, an extra curricular activity as it were. I had just lined up a three week tour in Europe and needed something more official to attach to my name to, and thankfully at 25 years old I was aware of that need, so right then and there in the wooden booths of Macado’s my college roommate at the time, Derrick Holder and my two best friends from my teenage years, Michael and Derrick Gaines, talked about creating something that we never knew would really become an eternal legacy and last 20 years and counting, it wasn’t hard at all for me to choose that name either.” Brueilly says.
As a lifelong fan of film Brueilly talks about the name he chose, “I remember when I got the Tim Burton version of ‘Batman’ of VHS in 1989.. I watched it several times at my grandmother’s house and then when my parents picked me back up I asked my mother, ‘What does, the pen is mightier than the sword mean? because that line the Joker said really spoke to me, so she explained it and it always stuck with me.”
Fast- forward to 2025, where MTTS was lived a long life of 20 years, a milestone that Brueilly wanted to make an impression with, and in his hometown of Asheboro, NC. “I’m 44 years old, and I’ve lived in Asheboro 34 of those years. I am familiar with the area and aware of it’s struggles as an evolving artistic community or honestly the lack thereof. That’s why MTTS maneuvered and operated in so many other areas during that 20 year period of time. However, when I began to work with the Sunset Theatre and City Of Asheboro to bring them the first ever Film Festival, a relationship was forged where I felt like we could start bringing some of this contemporary style art forms to our city.”
One of these was the Sunset Theatre’s first ever Hip Hop show, on Saturday May 24, 2025 which was the highlight of the four day festival. “Sword Saturday has become a staple with MTTS. It was a monthly concert series in it’s height, that turned into a yearly event. I always wanted to hold one at the Sunset Theatre because it never was an opportunity for me or that genre growing up at that venue or really anywhere in Asheboro for that matter. Now we did it and I overbooked the heck out of it so that people could get a chance to be on that stage, even if it was for a verse at the cypher at the end of the night, it was so beautiful to see so many important pillars of our North Carolina hip hop community come to join in or just to show up and support. It was a great way to send off and close off the Sword Saturday series, in a heightened form of celebration in my hometown. I’ll miss putting them together but this only opens up room for other things and other people to take the helm and book their own event at the theatre.”
The four day, 20 YEARS OF MIGHIER THAN THE SWORD festival began May 22, 2025 in a collaboration effort with the Asheboro/Randolph Chamber Of Commerce as a special engagement of their ongoing ‘Business After Hours’ events. Brueilly who served on the Chamber’s board from 2020-2023 reignited his relationship with the Chamber when Adam Deathe became the new President/CEO. “I really connected with him off gate. We’ve been having monthly meetings discussing the state of Randolph County’s artistic/entertainment scene and he helped us out at our award ceremony for the second annual Mightier Than The Sword Awards at Sunset Film Festival back in 2025. Teaming up with them again is helping bring awareness to the changes we must make in our city/county to enhance the way people see, participate and enjoy the arts here in my hometown.”
Along with the forementioned, NC Legendary musicians Donna Hughes and JTimber performed. An episode of the ‘Drugs Did This’ Podcast was recorded live on stage, Brueilly’s upcoming short film ‘7EVENTH 7IRKLE’ wrapped up it’s filming on site, sculptures from Casey Mull & paintings from Laura Ashley Live Art were displayed for the entire festival and a core segment of the 20 Years Of MTTS documentary was filmed by Iximché Media. The festival ended on Sunday May 25 to a full day of independent film showings, with special guest and host, Carl J. Grasso moderating panels and introducing films. This was a make up date for the films that were unable to be shown in January during the second annual Mightier Than The Sword Awards at Sunset Film Festival due to harsh winter conditions.
For interviews, samples, photos, the complete press pack or more detailed summary of this event please contact:
Ty & Megan Brueilly
336-963-8980
