Dylan Bird is joined by Ty Segall ahead of his upcoming Australian tour to chat about his memories in the country, the evolution of his voice and sound, the process of making his latest album Possession and the role of music during social and political unrest.
For how unabashedly bizarre his music can be, Ty Segall is an affable guy.
Settled on an outdoor couch, sipping from a Pacific Coast Highway mug, his measured cadence makes a real case for oceanside life’s tranquilizing effect. At times, that breezy tone is tough to square with his reputation for grinding rock’s cutting edge with a spree of fuzzed out monoliths. But experience has steadied his hand, and by now, he’s got more than enough of it to breathe easy with the throes of his passion.
“I’ve spent so much time on the road in the States, it’s all just turned into one drive, you know?” he reflects. “It’s weird to think about ‘cause you’re just kind of going and going and going, going, going, going.”
Ty Segall came up through the late-’00s West Coast garage-psych scene that also gave us the Oh Sees, The Intelligence, White Fence, and more. For a while, he was matching those artists’ output with a constant barrage of albums, including solo releases and through his various side projects. These days, 17 years since releasing his debut album, Ty is slowing down a little. He’s married, has a kid, and moved his Harmonizer studio to the family’s new home near Pasadena. Possession is Ty’s 17th solo album, depending on how you count — and his most immediate yet.
Possession is billed as Ty Segall’s sixteenth album, but that feels about as underreported as the tip jar at an anarchist cafe. You have to factor in the slew of side projects as well, like Fuzz, GØGGS, and Freckle, the last of which being a new band with Color Green’s Corey Madden, which put out an unreasonably slept-on self-titled debut just a few months ago. It’s an old cliche at this point that Segall never slows down, but part of why it’s been easy to keep up is because he insists on slicing through fresh terrain, often with new people holding on for dear life alongside him.
“[‘Fantastic Tomb’ is] an energy-charged anthem that would feel right at home on classic rock radio.” – Paste
“Segall sets his hard-luck narrative to the grind of a fried electric guitar riff, while a smattering of keys and blustery saxophone solo further bring his story to life.” – Paste
“[‘Fantastic Tomb’] explodes with color; every element sounds like it’s been filtered through California sunshine. If you’re looking forward to a summer road trip, this is the song for you—its freewheelin’ groove practically demands to drift from cracked-open car windows, out onto the open road.” – Paste
Last year, Ty Segall shared the album Three Bells in January and followed it with the instrumental LP Love Rudiments in August. Today, the restless rocker is returning with the announcement of a new record called Possession, slated for release in May, as well as full-band tour dates.
Ty Segall has announced a new album. Co-written with his longtime collaborator and filmmaker Matt Yoka, Possession is the prolific rocker’s follow-up to the two records he released last year: Three Bells and the instrumental LP Love Rudiments. The new one is out May 30, via Drag City, and is led by the single “Fantastic Tomb,” which you can listen to below.
Mac DeMarco, King Gizzard & the Wizard Lizard, Jim James and the War on Drugs are just a few of the dozens of artists featured on a new benefit album released on Tuesday to help raise funds following the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
Super Bloom: A Benefit for Los Angeles Fire Relief, is 62 tracks-long and also features songs from Guided by Voices, Jenny Lewis, Dr. Dog, Ty Segall, and Swamp Dogg, among many others. All 100 percent of the proceeds from the album — organized by nonprofit Sweet Relief Musicians Fund — will go toward wildfire relief to organizations including Mutual Aid LA, the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, and Pasadena Humane. A digital copy of the album is available to purchase on Bandcamp now for $10, though customers could also pay more as a charitable option.
The multi-instrumentalist has always shown his talents, but on Love Rudiments, Segall proves he can make a compelling record without wielding the instruments (including his voice) he is typically associated with. The drums are joined by instruments like vibraphone, which gives the album a mysterious and curious quality, enticing and hypnotising listeners with every note.
Yo Gabba Gabba! is back. The kids television show is being revived as Yo Gabba GabbaLand!, and it comes with a soundtrack with an impressive list of names such as Kurt Vile, Ty Segall, and Thundercat.
“Three Bells, is one of [Ty’s] most ambitious to date, a progressive psychedelic opus that’s at times playful and freewheeling, but invariably returns to moments of more intricate sprawl
Three Bells finds [Ty] properly flexing his most creative muscles, following flights of fancy into weird and exciting places”
Over and over again, the tunes on Three Bells twist and turn, chasing ideas around corners, zigging when you expect them to zag and vice versa. In “The Bell,” for example, the rhythm shifts on a dime several times as the song evolves from gently woozy to a galloping buzzsaw and Segall introduces the album’s central concept: […]
Were Ty Segall to start his entire career over again, he might not do it under the name Ty Segall.
It’s a bit late for that now, well over a decade since he emerged as the princeling of San Francisco’s garage rock revival. Back then, he was a college student in a city vibrating with the heady optimism of Obama’s first term, where you could still rent a house in the Mission with your friends and without being employed by Google. The goal was to be successful, not recognizable. Now, at least within the context of independent music, he is both. It has made him aware of recognition’s discontents, or at least how it can get in the way of being a regular person dealing with people in a regular way. And he is, he claims, a regular person in his mid-30s with a wife and daughter who just so happens to have a double-digit number of albums to his name.
The California guitarist returns to cerebral, glammed-out form on his latest solo LP, co-produced by Cooper Crain of Bitchin Bajas.
A new album from Ty Segall during any 12-month period once seemed like a certainty. The psych/garage singer/songwriter has probably forgotten about more songs he’s written than most of us could ever hope to commit to tape, and with a standard of quality that’s hovered reliably between kickass and raucously fun. He released 10 of his 15 studio albums in a seven-year stretch, making the most of a good idea before it goes stale, his most white-hot streak arriving in 2012 as the noise punk squall of Slaughterhouse, the lo-fi scratch of Hair and the garagey swagger of Twins all arrived within months of each other. By the time he’d let us hear what kind of new permutation of his fuzz-swathed psychedelic rock he’s been working on, the next two or three were likely already underway.
The 15th solo album from the prolific songwriter is epic, indeed. Its sprawling 15-track mosaic includes plenty of recognizable chunks from Segall’s usual musical touchstones (guitar psychedelia, garage rock, early-’70s glam and prog) which he keeps finding arresting new ways to mix, match, and juxtapose. With the exception of the heavy-riffing “Move,” which was recorded with members of his Freedom Band, Segall plays drums on all of Three Bells’ tracks, a move which helps give the album its quirky sense of internal logic.
If you believe in everything having a natural ebb and flow, then you probably think that an artist’s creative output has at least one dud. Out of all the great things someone can do, there’s always an instance of something being mediocre or subpar. It’s part of the deal when it comes to forging an artistic endeavor, but there are outliers who counteract this particular notion. One of them is Ty Segall, who has put out a ton of music throughout his career as both a solo musician and in a variety of bands. I haven’t heard anything lacking in quality from the Los Angeles based dynamo since I became a fan of his over a decade ago and his 15th studio album Three Bells that came out via Drag City Records today (January 26) moves this trend forward.
Just when you thought you knew everything about the modern renaissance man Ty Segall, he released a new album. Segall’s imaginative world of psychedelic garage rock seems to make a hyperbolized impression of itself on Three Bells, the monstrous new LP. Imagine walking into a carnival on another planet, colors unrecognizable to the human eye dancing like LED lights in a blurry photo as Segall plays contortionist with his vocals for his most ambitious and satisfying album to date. Once you hit play, you have fully entered the world of Three Bells so make sure you are comfortable and prepare to be amazed by the sonic wizardry of Ty Segall.
One of our most prolific and seemingly tireless songwriters, Ty Segall has never shied away from trying something new. On his latest album Three Bells, the Laguna Beach, California musician draws on some of his favourite, lasting influences — psych rock, folk, heavy metal — and twists them to produce one of his most conceptual and narratively clarified records.
Ty Segall – Three Bells (Drag City)
The 15th solo album from this psych-rock wunderkind keeps his hot streak going
Ty Segall has shared a new song, “My Best Friend.” The track arrives alongside a music video he filmed and directed himself. The clip prominently features Segall’s two dogs, Fanny and Herman.
Kudos to Ty Segall, who won the internet today by releasing the video and tune “My Best Friend.”
Since 2008, Ty Segall has played out his hunger to be free through a dozen solo LPs, a variety of collaborative projects, and a rippling eclecticism of songs, sounds and production, all conversing from album to album in a mad diversity of voices. This search continues with Ty’s newest album, Three Bells, a fifteen song journey to the center of the self with Ty pushing the limits in his writing and performance, casting light on his inner psyche. Today, leading into the album’s January 26th release via Drag City, Ty welcomes the new year with “My Best Friend,” a new single and video and the final song to be released prior to the full unveiling of Three Bells. It follows the previously released Three Bells’ numbers: “Void,” “Eggman,” and “My Room.”
After sharing the songs “Void” and “Eggman,” Ty Segall announced his new album Three Bells in November and unveiled “My Room.” Today, just a few weeks before the LP’s release, he’s unleashing the wholesome final single “My Best Friend” with an adorable music video.
Do you like dogs? So does Ty Segall and the video for his new single “My Best Friend” features his adorable dachshunds, Fanny and Herman. The song’s a keeper, too, and downright poppy. New album Three Bells is out January 26 via Drag City.
This prolific garage-rocker is easy to take for granted. With the exception of Robert Pollard, nobody in indie rock puts out more music. At some point, it becomes impossible to keep up with the output, though Segall’s batting average for putting out quality material remains admirable. His next album, Three Bells, drops January 26.
SAN FRANCISCO — One of the most gifted songwriters and musicians to emerge from the San Francisco garage-rock scene during the late 2000s, Ty Segall plays a rare solo acoustic show at the Sebastiani Theatre in Sonoma on Dec. 1st.
Taken from the prolific songwriter’s proggy new album Three Bells (due January 2024), My Room offers a sort of warped, spiritual counterpart to Brian Wilson’s ode to the comfort and safety of your inner sanctum.
Here Segall’s electric guitar is left knocking on the door of his room – an increasingly invasive presence that tries to pierce its way through as the time passes.
“My Room” by Ty Segall featured in “Songs You Need to Know”
Over the past few months, Ty Segall has released a couple singles — “Void” and “Eggman” — and today he’s announcing a new full-length album, which those two tracks will appear on, alongside today’s new song “My Room.”
