We talked with Ty Tabor of King's X about music as art and what inspires him. Since the time of our interview, King's X has released their 9th studio record called "Manic Moonlight" (Metal Blade). The Houston-based trio is appearing at the Webster Theater on October 25.
Tabor proudly admitted that the band feels honored to meet the fans that come out for the shows. He said further, "One of the coolest things about touring the world, is that each culture is different and the fans are different in each place. They're all cool in their own way. It's a real honor to go into unknown territory and have a sold-out show with people who know every word, in this country you've never been in before."
Ty told us that each of the 3 band members - Ty (guitar/vocals), Doug Pinnick (bass/vocals), and Jerry Gaskill (drums/vocals) -- share in the song-writing duties, and they intentionally don't bring any demos into the studio so they can start from ground zero together. On King's X inspiration, he said, "We've always had the same philosophy, and tried to be true to it with our music, and that is, to treat music as art. If there's anything true in all our music, it's that we're honest about our own lives, whatever we happen to be going through at the time. Sometimes it might be spiritual type things or just taking the garbage out. Just every area of real life is what inspires real art. We show ourselves with all our faults. It's just who we are."
When I asked Ty about the mood of the new record, he paused for a slight moment before explaining, "It's been so difficult to explain to someone what the album is like who hasn't heard it. Because it's so different from anything we've done before. We generally have been a band kind of known for totally changing on every album, or at least for making radical turns from album to album. This one is certainly no exception. It's a bizarre album for us in that we started experimenting with a lot of loops and just different way of making music…It was a lot of fun!"
Besides his busy life with King's X, Ty has 3 other music projects running simultaneously. Plus he's made time to work with Yamaha on a signature model guitar, "Yamaha is making a fantastic guitar that we designed together and I couldn't be more happy with how they're coming off the line."
When Ty reached his mid-20's he had a "thirst for knowledge" and taught himself about computers and how to do programming. He's also a self-taught music producer and engineer. Ty gets involved in teaching too, most recently for the National Guitar Workshop's Connecticut sessions.
Ty sounded pumped about his multitude of musical projects, "By being involved with four separate projects, it keeps me inspired creatively in different areas. So when I move on to a different project, I'm totally fresh. I'm inspired to write more as well." Be sure to check out pending releases from his non-King's X musical projects:
Other than his obvious love for music, he spends free time scuba diving with his son, jet skiing, and at the motorcycle races. For more on Ty and King's X, check out this great fan-powered site: kingsx.net
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