With a new album and UK tour coming soon, William Tyler met us to discuss all things Goes West, from the composing to the gorgeous old Martin box that stands at its centre.
Goes West (reviewed here) finds William Tyler making a departure from his last album, Modern Country, with the songs being built around a strong acoustic core. Perhaps it’s the lighter sound of the acoustic guitar that results in these ten pieces sounding more optimistic, although William is quite surprised by it. “It’s interesting to hear that, because it’s something that a lot of people have been saying about this record,” he begins. “But it’s weird for me to hear that because most of my songs come from a pretty reflective and sad place. It’s sort of arbitrary because there are no lyrics, so the mood is subjective to the listener…” He pauses a moment. “I guess I was pretty explicit about what the whole artist statement was when I put out Modern Country; I was reflecting on something that I thought was underneath the national mood, which of course came out in the election. So that to me felt more melancholic because it was more explicit. But also maybe this one sounds more hopeful because it begins and ends on two different up tempo major key moments. The album ends on such a simple song in ‘Our Lady of the Desert’; I can’t remember where the decision came from to put that last, but I knew it had to be first or last because it doesn’t fit with the compositional complexity of the rest of it. I like how it ends things because it points the way to what the album after this is going to be like.”
The song in question has a gently upbeat repeated acoustic refrain, with minimalist electric guitar support from Bill Frisell adding texture. “That’s the first song I wrote when I moved out to California,” William explains. “I spent the night in the desert at Joshua Tree, and the guy whose house I was staying at had a guitar and I remember waking up and sitting down and coming up with that melody and thinking ‘okay cool, that’s a song’. I guess there is an expansiveness to California and the west coast, like a speculative optimism or reinvention. There’s a reason why so many things that are important to American and international culture, from the psychedelic movement to the Internet, started in California; there’s something about the fact that you can’t go any further west, or you’ll hit the ocean. I think there’s an exploratory nature to the people who end up out here, especially now. I’m not sure if it’s restlessness or optimism in people or a combination of things.”
William mentioning the desert and expansiveness is interesting, as Goes West certainly seems aware of the space it leaves between sounds throughout the album. Although far from being sparse, the acoustic nature of the arrangements, compared with the reverb lines running through Modern Country, naturally leaves more room. “Yeah, it’s kind of a funny dance I feel like I’ve done with folk music, if you could call it that” he answers. “I’ve labelled myself all sorts of different genres, but let’s say that’s what I would consider myself. I toured with Michael Chapman a couple of times a while ago and he would playfully get riled up, but still pretty offended, when people described him as a folk musician. He’s very rock and roll with his vibe, but I joked with him and said you do get up there with an acoustic guitar, which is what people consider folk music. And although for me the whole ‘going electric’ thing wasn’t a big statement, there was a part of me with Modern Country that was consciously trying to reframe what I was doing away from specific post-Takoma acoustic music. It felt easier to do that with a record like Modern Country, but even as that one came out I had begun writing more acoustic songs and had already decided that whatever the next thing I did was, it was going to be almost completely acoustic.”
But far from being an album in the American Primitive mould, Goes West is something different again, with many genres subtly entering the ear at different times. “I always joke about the fact that the genre is called ‘primitive’, when most of it pretty complicated,” William laughs. “I think on this one, it’s more in the Windham Hill territory, but honestly I think a lot of it was influenced by classical piano music, which was what I was listening to most of the time. I don’t have any formal training, but I feel that what I’m aspiring to is more classically influenced.” It is a surprising album, perhaps with hints of jazz coming through too? “Well yeah, but I do think it’s important to state that if there’s a lineage I’m a part of, then it’s more in line with the Takoma school,” he considers. “Because as far as I know, Leo Kottke didn’t have much formal training and I know Fahey didn’t have formal training. I’m also not a music school guy; I have chops, but they’re not formal chops, so to speak. But I’m influenced by jazz, for sure and if there’s one contemporary guy that I’d like to follow in the footsteps of then it’s Bill Frisell, who is arguably the greatest jazz guitarist alive, although you could make a case that his music is not jazz, or what you would consider jazz… The short answer is that I would love my music to be called jazz; if it could apply to a palette of genre-less music that embodied an aesthetic, then yes, that’s what I aspire to.”
We could talk about the many layers to Goes West all day, but when it comes to the crunch and when the material goes live, it will be purely acoustic music, performed solo by William. “There are many layers to this album, but they are in the passenger seat, and in the driving seat is the acoustic guitar,” he says. “I can get away with playing most of these songs solo and have them convey the same effect, and I can’t say that about Modern Country, that’s a really tough album to play without a band. And, going back to earlier, that’s really why I structured this record to be more acoustic. Honestly, the economics and the way I like touring, I just like playing solo, it’s my preferred way of doing a show; there’s something intimate and conversational about it. The way Michael Chapman told stories and jokes on stage in between songs was really special, it’s how you connect with people when there’s only you on stage.”
And in that lone environment, the instrument up there with you also somehow becomes more important and personal; in William’s case, there is a clear favourite. “The main acoustic on the album is the Martin D-18,” he tells us. “That was the only guitar I brought to the session. I’m a Martin guy, for sure; I’m definitely not formally affiliated with them, but I sure am a brand ambassador! There is something really special about them and my D-18 is the guitar I have travelled and recorded the most with. It was my uncle’s guitar and I remember visiting him in Virginia and him saying he hadn’t looked at it in twenty years. The neck was coming off and it was unplayable, but you know when there’s an item of clothing that you’ve worn to death and it almost becomes an extension of yourself? This is a special guitar and the only material thing I have that I would be pretty despondent about if I lost.”
Goes West is released on 25th January 2019 via Merge. Available on Digital | CD | Vinyl here
Read our album review of Goes West.