Ty Segall - In Conversation
Introduction & interview by Beau Croxton
Ty Segall by Denée Segall
For our 16th installment of In Conversation, we are thrilled to have an interview with Ty Segall.
Next Friday, August 28th, California garage-rock torchbearer Ty Segall returns with his new album, Chrome. While another new album comes as no surprise to devoted fans who are familiar with his prolific output, this particular record roars with an old-school glory that’s worth getting absurdly excited for.
In recent years, Ty has expanded his universe through a series of delightful deviations from his roots. From the variety of First Taste, to the synth-y left turns of Harmonizer, the acoustic introspection of “Hello, Hi”, and the vast song cycle of Three Bells, Segall has been consistently adding fresh spices along the way, all while having an fascinating and consistent output.
With his last record Possession, Ty brought back a familiar and satisfying formula of his earlier work that leaned into more straightforward pop/folk/rock structures while breaking new ground with some orchestral elements and lyrical collaborations with his peers.
As suggested by the man himself, Ty Segall’s upcoming album Chrome is his most back-to-the garage, straight up rock n’ roll-charged LP since 2012’s Twins. Continuing on his recent collaborative spirit, Ty worked together with his band on the tunes (Ben Boye, Evan Burrows, Mikal Cronin & Emmett Kelly), and found further collaborations with Denee Segall and Matt Yoka.
Chrome is a total ripper, but it's also an album of contrast; furious charges of sludgy rock that recall Ty’s earlier work are met with casual, twangy jams and a few delightfully odd moments that feel in line with his recent material. The work meets Ty where he’s at, while recalling his loudest glory days– it's a fresh and exciting update that should check all the boxes for fans old and new.
“Running to Nowhere” is a beast of reckless abandon that charges at full speed until it meets its classic rock-tinged, Crazy Horse-style break. “Glass” brings Ty’s fast, catchy and instant garage rock right out the gate, which is eventually contrasted by a down tempo, half-time jam that should urge fans to throw their lighters up at his upcoming shows. Anthemic lead single “Black Paint” juxtaposes its loud and quiet passages in a classically-Ty way that floods nostalgia of his best cuts on Twins.
The melodic and uplifting approach of album highlight “Everything You’ve Been” is delightfully contrasted by thick, sludgey riffage and rollicking drum rolls. It charges in with a similar rush to “Running To Nowhere” while bringing a gentle sense of euphoria that lands in the clouds.
“Let Go” thrives on manic, ripping guitar solos and supremely distorted bass over a tempo built for adrenaline, and "Separation" flaunts a lively camaraderie of gang vocals with an approach that wouldn't seem too out of place on one of his Fuzz records. In a move that doubles down on the excitement of this era, a companion EP of “slo-mo, doom 'n dirge ” titled Love Fuzzz, will also drop on August 28th, the same day as Chrome.
I caught up with Ty Segall on a call in Late July to discuss his very exciting new LP, collaborating with his peers, guitar gear, his drum influences and much more.
Check it out below!
INTERVIEW
TY SEGALL: Hello!
BEAU CROXTON: Hey, what's up, how's it going? Nice to meet you, Ty. I'm Beau.
TY SEGALL: I’m doing good! Hey Beau, how's it going, man?
BEAU CROXTON: I'm doing well, thank you, I'm excited to talk to you today. I got some time to get familiar with your new record, Chrome, and it's an absolute blast. It's really exciting! How are you feeling about rolling out this monstrous record?
TY SEGALL: Thank you! I'm feeling good. It was fun to make. It's fun to play. Well…we're gonna have some fun, I don't know!
BEAU: My entrance to your music and live show was during the Twins era, with the first show being at Webster Hall in New York City in February 2013. So Chrome definitely kind of feels like a full circle sort of thing for me, at least.
TY: Awesome.
BEAU: I've really loved all your different eras and explorations, but I feel like Chrome is a bit of a natural shift after Possession, considering it had some shades of your earlier style of songwriting.
It seemed inevitable that you would shift back to a fuzzy, loud record, but I was just wondering, why now particularly?
TY SEGALL: I don't know, it just kind of felt like the right time. I've been loving how my band has been sounding, and I kind of always had it in the back of my head. I wanted to get the band to do another kind of “live in the studio” record, you know?
So it just felt like the right move. The right follow-up to Possession was to just get louder and keep going with the guitar stuff. But also I was feeling like collaborating a bit, kind of like I did with Slaughterhouse with the band...just writing with people from the band. I wrote a lot with people for this one.
BEAU: Excellent. I’m curious to hear about what the collaborative process was like with the bandmates, but also with Denée and Matt Yoka as well.
TY: Yeah, it was really fun. I'd get together with (Evan the drummer) and we would just jam. Probably half the record came from those jams. Then I would write the lyrics either by myself, or I'd write with Denée, and then I'd finish it up and there was the tune!
Then the other half of the songs, I kind of had those already. We kind of tweaked them a little bit with the band. The song “Chrome” was from a jam with Emmett, Evan and I. Emmett had that first riff. He kind of came up with that on the spot, so then we all just jumped in, and then I arranged it a bit. So it was fun– it's really collaborative. Ben also came up with a bridge for that song “Play Cowboys”. Everybody was involved.
BEAU: Speaking of sick jams, “Hospital” is such an intriguing opening track. I really love the warped synths and how the riff lands when you don't expect it. I absolutely love the freak-out towards the end. What can you tell me about you making “Hospital”?
TY: Yeah, I wrote that synth line with a sequencer. I kinda wanted to have it be a little bit of a nod to big beat or 90s electronic music a little bit. I was thinking about it like a “big festival" type song (laughs), you know?
Ben (the keyboardist in my band) is incredible, and he's a psycho, and he could actually play it. It’s just so fast, and he could actually play it that fast for that long…. it's almost like some Philip Glass speed. So it worked out great, but it was kind of an experiment, and most of the tunes are not as experimental. That one was a bit more of an experiment with the sequencer, and I was even gonna go a little bit more sample-y originally, but then I pulled it back and decided it should all be the live sound.
BEAU: So there's some seriously sludgy, deep fuzz-tones all over this record. What kind of ammunition were you working with when creating the guitar tones for this record?
TY: You know, I only had two pedals going for the record. I think Emmett also had two main fuzzes. Michael had more, and Ben was just using his own pedals that he makes called “Boye Toys,” because his last name is Boye…Ben Boye.
So I had a “Guyatone” fuzz. I forget the name of it, but it's really cool. It doesn't jump up in volume as much as other fuzz pedals, so it's kind of harder to use live. But for recording, it's great, and then I just had my (Death By Audio) Fuzz War. That was it– simple.
BEAU: I'm hearing something super deep. It almost sounds like there's some low-octave situation.
TY: Yeah, I think the Guyatone pedal has some octave-y tendencies.
BEAU: “Black Paint” is probably one of my favorite singles you've released. To me, it feels a bit like a spiritual-sequel to “Thank God for the Sinners”, sonically speaking, with the contrast between the dry verse and the heavy chorus. What can you tell me about that track?
TY: Yeah, I think all the tunes were just trying to be like immediate, you know? The idea was just immediate– get to the point. It's a shorter record, it's like 33 minutes or something. When I was like 25, that would be a normal length or whatever, but now it's shorter for me. It was just a “get in, get out, and get out of the way” kind of idea for that song.
There's a version of it that's kind of folk-rock or something, and I kinda tweaked it, because it's a poppy tune. I just kinda mangled it a bit. Then when the band played it, I was like, “Oh yeah, there it is. Now it's super loud and crazy”, with a bit of the quiet/ loud, quiet/loud thing.
BEAU: I really love the uplifting vibe on “Everything You've Been”. It's interesting how that's going on with filthy tones around it. What can you tell me about that track as well?
TY: Yeah, that one is almost like a pop-punk song or something, (laughs) but not. I mean, it's way gnarlier and nastier. It's like keeping the sweet, poppy, sugary thing while keeping it as nasty as possible. All these songs are about surreal, subconscious, life-cycle things, mental things. That one is about uncontrollable dreams that we all have. It's kind of like, “you are who you are in your dreams”, you know– you can't hide from that.
Ty Segall & band by Denée Segall
BEAU: So, you're such a gnarly drummer. I was at the Death by Audio space in Brooklyn, way back when you played with Fuzz in the 2010s. You must have played for two hours straight, tearing through drum fill after drum fill. I was also at the First Taste show you did at Bowery Ballroom, and you opened the show playing drums and singing “First Taste” instead of guitar, right at the forefront.
I'd love to know some of your influences on your drumming style, and how your role as a drummer plays into your solo records.
TY: It's definitely led the charge a lot of the time, especially the past handful of records before Possession. I'd say Possession is more of a guitar/piano record, and Chrome was too, where I was like, “I'm gonna focus on the guitar and the voice, and the melody.” Obviously, the beat is fundamental, and it's always there, but it wasn't the original idea for a song. Oftentimes, a beat will be like the idea for the song, and then I'll do the rest on top of the beat.
But I'm just a massive fan of rhythm. I've worked with people where the drums are like an afterthought, and it's never an afterthought for me. It's never like a secondary thing, it's always one of the most important things, even so sonically. I'm like, “If the kick drum doesn't sound good, the record sounds like shit…” you know? (laughs) That's like where my mind is at.
I think I've always been really into the classic big drummers of hard rock, like Bill Ward and Ginger Baker. I've always been a fan of those classic drummers from when I was a kid, like John Bonham…. but I lean more into a Ginger Baker-type drummer because you know, Ginger is weird. When I got older, I became obsessed with Robert Wyatt. There's so many interesting jazz drummers, and also Afrobeat, like Tony Allen and the Fela world.
There's so many great drummers out there, but I'm really into that middle ground where there's a vocalization, or almost like a personality, or a melody type-playing. You know, like a Robert Wyatt or like Tony Williams or some heavy jazz player.
BEAU: So you've had so many different eras and records. I imagine the answer to this question will probably be different every week, but if I asked you right now in this moment–
Is there a specific record or era of your solo records (or tours) that you look back on the fondest ?
TY: Yeah, you know… I don't know….I think they all are pretty fun. I do really like the Freedom's Goblin tour. That was a pretty over the top rock show, which is pretty cool. I think the Muggers tour was pretty extreme and I don't think I could do that anymore.
Also, for me musically, I'd say maybe Three Bells is kind of maybe my favorite record? I don't know. I'm not sure. It's also fun to just go back and think about the kind of gnarly punk, like Slaughterhouse kind of shows too.
BEAU: I recently had a chat with your buddy King Tuff, and we were geeking out about the Muggers tour, and that lineup. If I had to pick one, I think that lineup and that tour is probably the most wild.
TY: Pretty psychotic. (laughs)
BEAU: Yeah it’s such a good time. Gotta rewatch that KEXP every once in a while…so good.
TY: (laughs)
Ty Segall & band by Denée Segall
BEAU: Well, you've been on a quest to produce so many awesome records. Speaking of chats I've had recently, I interviewed Earth Tongue who were lovely– they're such a great band. You've produced stuff with them, Annabelle Chairlegs, White Fence and Upchuck, who are all fantastic.
So how has that whole experience of producing records been for you? Has it started to shape your own work?
TY: It's really fun. I like to keep it to stuff where I’m either friends with the bands already or or I'm into the music obviously, so it's very cool. It's very complimentary to have someone trust you with your kind of taste, which is pretty much what a producer does fundamentally, and then there's more stuff if you're invited into the process.
So it's fun to have every project be a little different. Sometimes I get more hands-on with constructing a little bit, um but it's nice it has kinda fine-tuned my skills as an engineer, and stuff like that. It's cool to jump into different studios too and be kind of like “alright, let's let's do it!”
Now I feel like I could show up at any kind of studio and run a session and know what I'm doing. I was definitely not that way ten years ago, so that's cool.
BEAU: Excellent. Well, you have a lot of tour dates coming up. How excited are we for that? Is anything in particular you're excited about
TY: Yeah, South America. I’m so excited to go down there, I've never been down there.
BEAU: Wow, yeah that should be a ton of fun. Well, next time you play New York, I'll absolutely be there, man. I really appreciate the chat. Your new record sick– I’m so excited for everybody to hear it!
TY: Hey, thank you! Nice talking to you.
BEAU: Yeah man! Nice to talk to you too, take care.
Chrome by Ty Segall is out everywhere Friday August 28th via Drag City Records.
You can grab Chrome vinyl from Drag City records here
You can order a bundle of Ty’s new album Chrome with the new Love Fuzzz EP on bandcamp here.
You can get all Ty Segall merch and more here on bandcamp.
And you can listen below.
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