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"America Online"
"America Online"
Single by The Midnight
from the album Monsters
Released	May 13, 2019
Length	5:49
Label	Counter Records
Songwriter(s)	Tim McEwan; Tyler Lyle;
Producer(s)	Tim McEwan
Monsters track listing
	Monsters "1991 (intro)"; "America Online"; "Dance With Somebody"; "Seventeen"; "Dream Away"; "The Search for Ecco"; "Prom Night"; "Fire In The Sky"; "Monsters"; "Helvetica"; "Brooklyn"; "Deep Blue"; "Night Skies"; "City Dreams (interlude)"; "Last Train";
The Midnight singles chronology

Tyler Lyle
Tyler Lyle
	Lyle performing live with The Midnight in 2022
Background information
Birth name	Jamison Tyler Lyle
Born	December 1, 1985 (age 40); Carrollton, Georgia, U.S.
Genres	Folk; Americana; World; Country;
Occupation(s)	Singer; songwriter; record producer;
Instrument(s)	Vocals; guitar;
Years active	2007–present
Member of	The Midnight; Smith, Lyle, and Moore;
Website	tylerlyle.com

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Tyler Lyle

Lyle in 2022

Jamison Tyler Lyle^[1] (born December 1, 1985) is an American musician who is the primary guitarist, vocalist, and lyricist for The Midnight.

Born and raised in rural Georgia, Lyle began his career in music as a young adult and became regionally known after winning a songwriting contest in 2010. This led to the self-release of his debut album, gaining him national exposure, and he also began writing for other artists.

Lyle moved to Los Angeles in 2011, and in 2012 his A&R representative arranged for him to meet Danish producer Tim McEwan for a songwriting session. The two had an instant connection and began making music. Lyle and McEwan became a duo known as The Midnight and self-released their first extended play (EP) in 2014 and have continuously released new music since.

Outside of The Midnight, Lyle continues to release solo work and regularly tours around the United States. In 2016, he began a semi-regular podcast titled From The Secret Lair that includes music and self-commentary. He is married and has one child.

America Online

America Online^[2] is a song by The Midnight. It is the first single and second track from their album Monsters. The single was released on May 13, 2019.^[3]

The song was written by band members Tim McEwan and Tyler Lyle and produced by McEwan. It has a running time of five minutes and 49 seconds and is in the key of B minor.

During a tour stop in the Spring 2019 Tour about a month before the single's release, the band talked with NewRetroWave about America Online:^[4]

As a kid you’re sort of [disconnected] from the world… But when you’re in your teenage years, everything is sort of inner-conflict, relationships, all happening at once. The tensions of romantic love, acceptance in groups and things like that. …it’s not a sunset right? It’s more of a sort of blog track. I love going on vaporwave track playlists on youtube. I love the low-grade, low-fi, bitcrushed sound – it’s like that but with a bit more of a cleaner palette, a cleaner mix. So, that one will set the tone. Tyler is definitely on it, but in a bit more of a…vocodery way.

In an interview with Magnetic Magazine after the release of Monsters, The Midnight further stated:^[5]

Tim: This sets the tone for our album. We’re in the era of connectivity. Gone are the days of being a kid, riding around on bikes, exploring the world around you. You’re a teen now and your nights are spent online in your bedroom, logged onto chat rooms, while the door to your parents is shut and you are searching for your own identity.

Tyler: This track was basically done and we’d decided to do it as an instrumental, but at the last minute I decided to try and write something. By that time we knew what the album was about roughly. This became the premise of the record- is love necessarily reciprocal- is hate? What is intimacy without proximity? Are we really connected at the bottom of all of this, especially when “all of this” is mediated by so many layers that seem un-human.

According to McEwan, the synth used in the opening of America Online is Serum with EchoMelt 2 added to get the uneven tape jitter effect.^[6] The vocoder used is a mix of VocalSynth 2 from iZotope and BitSpeek.

The date on the single artwork for America Online is August 6, 1991, which is the day the world's first website was published by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN.^[7]^[8]

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Explorers

News

6th November, 2025: Tour - During a Reddit AMA, Tyler Lyle announces that Oliver McEwan (Music Director and bass), Rhett Shull (guitar, groove boxes, sound design), and Oblvyn (synths and vocals) have been added to the touring band. They will replace Lelia Broussard and Royce Whittaker.
29th October, 2025: Tour - A three-date Australian leg has been added to the Time Machines tour. The shows will be in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney beginning January 29, 2026.
3rd October, 2025: Music - Syndicate is released.
3rd October, 2025: Tour - The Time Machines tour is announced. The tour will begin on April 16, 2026, in Miami Beach and conclude on May 15, 2026, in Los Angeles.
17th September, 2025: Music - Runaways is released as a single.
17th September, 2025: Tour - The Fall 2025 EU/UK Tour begins in Helsinki.
29th August, 2025: Music - Summer's Ending Soon is released as a single.
1st August, 2025: Music - Syndicate is officially announced as the next album and will be released on October 3, 2025. Shadowverse is released as a single.

Archived news

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Did You Know?

...that The Midnight played 77 shows in 2019, which is the most in one year since they began touring?
...that Lost & Found was originally released on the Tyler Lyle album The Native Genius of Desert Plants?
...that Tim McEwan is originally from Copenhagen, Denmark?
...that Golden Gate, Souvenir and Brooklyn were originally solo Tyler Lyle songs from his album The Floating Years?
...that planning for The Midnight's graphic novel Shadows began in 2020, four years before its release?
...that the PROFF pres. Soultorque Remix of Days of Thunder was on the Fall 2023 North American Tour setlist and was the first time that a remix was performed live?
...that Dream Away was described by Tim McEwan as being an ode to "Pure Moods compilations from the 90s"?
...that for five years Comet was nothing more than a small snippet on Facebook before finally being released in 2021?
...that Tyler Lyle once lived in Paris?
...that The Midnight's first live concert was at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco in July 2017?