Tanner Stewart’s life may have taken an unexpected detour, but it’s the decision he made as a young boy in
Birmingham, Alabama to be a musician that ultimately saved his life.
Throughout most of his childhood, Tanner spent weekends watching his father’s band perform 90’s hits in local
music venues and it was watching those shows that made him want to be a musician. He dove head first into guitar
lessons but ultimately leaned less on the technical side and more on his natural instincts and passion to write his own
music.
Then, at just sixteen years old, this budding musician’s teenage life of school and music took a path far different
than anyone could have planned. On what started out as an average day, Tanner passed out and was taken to the
doctor, and was later diagnosed with a rare red blood cell disease called Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA).
Tanner spent a tumultuous few years back and forth between in-patient and out-patient status in the hospital.
Doctors treated his AIHA with cocktails of pain medication, steroids and even a round of chemotherapy. Eventually
he managed a victory of a full four months without medication. Then, at nineteen his system crashed, pulling him
out of remission and Tanner was devastated when the doctors wanted to start the same lengthy treatment process all
over again. After a second round of intense chemotherapy as well as having his spleen removed, Tanner was
officially in full remission from his AIHA, yet he was far from being “healthy”.
The removal of Tanner's spleen was a painful one. One in which he used heavy prescribed narcotics to manage his
pain. The lines became blurred between the need to numb his physical pain with the emotional difficulties he
experienced with his sickness and his teenage years. Writing music was integral to his recovery, but the more
Tanner experienced, the more he relied on the pills to get him through it.
In full remission and now an adult, Tanner left home for college, but quickly learned that his pill habit was an
expensive one to keep up. He graduated from pills to harder drugs, as his addiction grew stronger. Throughout all of
his ups and downs, Tanner always remained connected to music in one way or another. When he needed money, he
found that playing cover songs out locally was the best way to fund his habit and he continued on until he hit what
he felt was his “rock bottom”. One rock bottom turned into multiple ones as he attempted treatment in various
rehabilitation centers and programs, ultimately landing him in an Arizona treatment center where he truly gained the
tools and knowledge to help him stay sober.
Over a year sober and now living in New York City, armed with the wisdom of having “been there and done that”
and never wanting to go back again, Tanner is more focused than ever on his music. He traveled back to Nashville to
team up with producer, engineer and mixer Brian Virtue (Jane’s Addiction, 30 Seconds To Mars, Chevelle) to revisit
and rework the songs they had initially written and recorded a year or so earlier during the ins and outs of his
treatments. Over the last year he not only had navigated through his sobriety but also the journey of falling in love
and the heartbreak that followed.
The resulting six songs that make up his first EP have been through a similar journey. The songs are delivered with
the experience, knowledge and clarity of someone well beyond Tanner’s twenty four years, yet not without the angst
and raw emotion that one would expect, considering his history. The guitar has taken a backseat in the recordings
and the vocals are the main focus with heavy bass lines coming in a close second.
The album opens with the commanding "Come Alive" which embraces the ability to grow as a person separates
from a toxic relationship. Followed by "Where You Go" which conveys Tanner's gritty blues side while “Satellite”
brings a larger than life rock ballad complete with past relationship hindsight every listener can relate to.
The closing track, “Mend”, is filled with a gloomier lyrical element of loving someone from a distance but somehow
still sacrificing for them, while the sweeping choruses and harmonies are filled with hope.
All of the songs lend themselves to the kind of performer Tanner is. One that feels most at home on stage telling his
stories; Stepping away from the instruments and into a dynamic front man role much like his own musical heroes;
Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison and the first he saw live, Scott Weiland with Stone Temple Pilots. Following in their
footsteps, his focus is writing real songs, the songs of Storytellers and Tanner’s got plenty of stories to tell