San Francisco, CA's Ty Segall cut his teeth in the San Fran garage rock scene as a member of bands like the Epsilons, the Traditional Fools and Sic Alps, where he learned to make records the loud, quick and easy way. He continued this tradition when he went solo, but things changed when he made 2010's Melted, which made room for slow-burning psych-pop in amongst the noisy garage fits. In moving labels from Gone to Drag City though, Segall has written the next chapter in his career with Goodbye Bread, his first real attempt be become a serious songwriter. By making his most personal record to date, Segall obviously felt the need to eradicate the belligerent nature of his earlier work. And so, his fifth full-length is a slower paced, cleaner sounding effort that literally took ten times as long as his previous records. The extra time spent is evident mostly in his lyrics, which poetically confront mortality on the sleepy, Lennon-esque title track, and propose romance in a comically forward manner on "You Make the Sun Fry." Segall understands that this is a transitional record and knows some fans may abandon ship, but Goodbye Bread contains his biggest hooks and best songs to date ― you just have to wait around a little longer to hear them.
Goodbye Bread is a pretty big departure for you.
I didn't want to make a party record; I did that when I was 16 and 21. And that's cool, but it gets to a point where you gain the ability to reflect more and talk about things. I've always had a hard time writing and not thinking it was cheesy. This is the first time I felt I could get a message across without it being tacky and cheesy and keep it a little sarcastic and light-hearted, but still have some meaning. That was the main point, for me. There is only so much aggressive music that you can make and put out before you need to take a step back and mellow things out. At the time of recording, I was really sick of aggressive music, at least playing it; I wanted to try my hand at playing slower stuff. It's cool, but now I want to make a really heavy record.
What will that sound like?
I want to do a total glam Stooges meets Hawkwind and/or Sabbath, something like that ― evil, evil space rock. Put a little Satan in space and you got the sound. Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" meets Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." meets Hawkwind's "Master of the Universe." It sounds nothing like my other stuff, so that's why I want to try it; it would be really funny. I want to throw people off. I have no idea if people will dig it. I mean, who cares? [laughs] I'll make another record after that.
(Drag City)Goodbye Bread is a pretty big departure for you.
I didn't want to make a party record; I did that when I was 16 and 21. And that's cool, but it gets to a point where you gain the ability to reflect more and talk about things. I've always had a hard time writing and not thinking it was cheesy. This is the first time I felt I could get a message across without it being tacky and cheesy and keep it a little sarcastic and light-hearted, but still have some meaning. That was the main point, for me. There is only so much aggressive music that you can make and put out before you need to take a step back and mellow things out. At the time of recording, I was really sick of aggressive music, at least playing it; I wanted to try my hand at playing slower stuff. It's cool, but now I want to make a really heavy record.
What will that sound like?
I want to do a total glam Stooges meets Hawkwind and/or Sabbath, something like that ― evil, evil space rock. Put a little Satan in space and you got the sound. Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" meets Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." meets Hawkwind's "Master of the Universe." It sounds nothing like my other stuff, so that's why I want to try it; it would be really funny. I want to throw people off. I have no idea if people will dig it. I mean, who cares? [laughs] I'll make another record after that.
