Ty Segall

Early career (2008-2011)

Segall began his recording career as a part-time musician in various underground bands in Orange County and the San Francisco Bay Area, before beginning a solo career in 2008. Segall's first solo release was the cassette Horn The Unicorn released on the Wizard Mountain label (later re-released by HBSP-2X on vinyl record). Around the same time, Wizard Mountain also released a split cassette featuring Segall and the band Superstitions entitled Halfnonagon.

After Segall befriended John Dwyer, of Thee Oh Sees and Coachwhips, Dwyer offered to release Segall's debut solo album, Ty Segall (2008), on his label, Castle Face Records. The two became firm friends, with Segall noting: "The music community is amazing here, super-tight, and John Dwyer's like the Mayor of San Francisco. Come down here, you'll see him riding his bike, drinking a beer, and he'll probably take you out to get a taco. He's the nicest guy in the world.". In a recent interview, Larry Hardy, creator of In The Red Records, talked about the possibility of a band with Segall and Dwyer.

Ty Segall was followed by a string of limited 7" singles and a split LP with the band Black Time. In 2009, Lemons was released by Goner Records to positive reviews. This release was followed by another string of successful and limited 7" singles and the LP Reverse Shark Attack, an album with longtime collaborator Mikal Cronin. The studio albums Melted and Goodbye Bread followed in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Hair, Slaughterhouse and Twins (2012)

2012 saw the release of three full-length albums by Segall: Hair, with White Fence, released in April; Slaughterhouse, recorded with his touring band and released June 26; as well as one solo album, Twins, released on October 9. This last album spawned two singles: "The Hill" and "Would You Be My Love?" When questioned about his LP Twins, Segall stated; "I want to do a total glam Stooges-meets-Hawkwind or Sabbath, something like that. I think that would be super fun. I want to throw people off. I want to make a really heavy record: evil, evil space rock. Put a little Satan in space and you got the sound."

Fuzz, Sleeper and Manipulator (2013-2015)

In 2013, Segall, bandmate Charles Moothart and Roland Cosio formed a new hard rock outfit called Fuzz, releasing three 7" singles. A full-length album, titled Fuzz, was recorded in May and released on October 1, 2013. Previous to this release, Segall released a primarily acoustic solo album, Sleeper, in August. Largely influenced by the death of his father and subsequent estrangement from his mother, Sleeper received positive reviews from such media outlets as Pitchfork and Consequence of Sound. In November/December 2013, Segall performed at the final "holiday camp" edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Camber Sands, England, UK.

In 2014, Segall released Manipulator, his first double LP, as well as his first to integrate some psych music. Segall toured in support of the release, with support from Wand, whom he had signed to his label

In 2015, Segall produced the debut album by Peacers, featuring his former Sic Alps bandmate Mike Donovan. A new EP, Mr. Face, was released on Famous Class, and a second Fuzz album, II, was released in October 2015.

Emotional Mugger and The Muggers (2016)

In November 2015, Segall announced a new studio album, Emotional Mugger, by sending a VHS tape to Pitchfork. Subsequently a website was also created, www.emotionalmugger.com, that would feature a short video of Segall explaining the concept of emotional mugging and a video of Segall and his band wearing baby masks and playing a live version of a song from the new album. This latter video also offered a hotline number to call. The number, 1-800-281-2968, features a brief message from Segall. The video also introduces The Muggers, which, upon the album's release, Segall formed as a backing band. The band consisted of Mikal Cronin (bass, sax), Kyle Thomas (guitar), Emmett Kelly (guitar), and Wand's Cory Hanson (keyboards, guitar) and Evan Burrows (drums). During live performances, Segall adopted the name of Sloppo while wearing a baby mask. Still in Rock described this LP as being Segall's first experimental rock album.

Ty Segall and The Freedom Band (2017-present)

In November 2016, Segall announced the release of his ninth studio album, Ty Segall. The album was to be his second self-titled release, following the release of his eponymously titled debut album in 2008. It was preceded by the release of the single "Orange Color Queen" in November 2016. Later, the song "Break A Guitar" was released to streaming platforms on January 19, 2017. Also following the album's release, Segall began touring with the backing band that recorded the album, which was now named The Freedom Band.

Musical style and equipment

Segall's music has been described as garage rock, garage rock revival, lo-fi, indie rock and psychedelic rock. Segall has stated in interviews that his favorite band of all time is Hawkwind. Notable glam rockers David Bowie and Marc Bolan heavily influenced Segall's early career, as well as heavy rock and punk bands such as Black Sabbath, Kiss, The Stooges, and Black Flag (especially in the Ty Segall Band). However, over time Segall's output has gotten mellower on albums such as Goodbye Bread and Sleeper, taking cues from Neil Young, The Byrds, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Beatles (even being compared to John Lennon vocally on some of his albums), and early T. Rex (when they were known as Tyrannosaurus Rex) and Grateful Dead. A big source of his inspiration also comes from the San Francisco garage and indie rock scenes, from which he has named bands such as Thee Oh Sees (being personal friends with frontman John Dwyer), Sic Alps, and White Fence (both of which last two bands he has collaborated with) as inspirations.

Segall has mainly used Fender Guitars going into Fender Amps. Most often, he uses a sunburst classic player Fender Jaguar and an original Sonic Blue Fender Mustang that has aged and changed color over time. Early on in his solo career, Segall played a white Fender Stratocaster given to him by his grandmother as a present. He has been seen playing through silverface Twin Reverbs, Quad Reverbs, Super Reverbs, and Super Six Reverbs. His main and sometimes only pedal is a Death By Audio Fuzz War pedal. Death By Audio actually manufactured a signature reverb pedal inspired by him, the Death by Audio Sunshine Reverberation Pedal, in 2013. Only 100 were manufactured. In 2014, he began playing a sunburst Gibson Les Paul on his tour supporting his then-new album Manipulator. His main amplifier is a '70s Fender Quad Reverb; he sometimes uses Music Man HD amplifiers. He also uses a Gibson EB-0.

GOD? Records

Segall has his own record label imprint on Drag City called GOD? Records. In 2014, Segall signed fellow-garage rock act Wand to the label and subsequently invited them to join him on tour.

Discography