Ty Tabor Interview

by Brian D. Holland.

Ty Tabor, the dynamic and innovative guitarist for power trio, King's X, is known for his John Lennon-like vocal phrasing and thunderously melodic chordal arrangements. Though modest about his own playing ability, his style has long been identified as one that's all his own. Many consider him one of rock's most underrated guitar players. Ty grew up in Mississippi playing bluegrass with his family, before the songs of The Beatles, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Rush, Aerosmith and others entered into his life, subsequently coercing him to alter direction and make a career out of music. After forming the band that eventually became known as King's X, with bassist Doug Pinnick and drummer Jerry Gaskill, they relocated to Texas. The band ultimately gained respect as one of the most innovative hard and progressive rock bands to ever come out of the Deep South.

Though it took nearly ten years for King's X to obtain a record deal, Megaforce Records finally released their sensational debut, Out Of The Silent Planet, in 1988. After producing such a gem, it was thought implausible that their sophomore release, Gretchen Goes To Nebraska, could be even better, yet many thought it was. Just as the first release, and the C.S. Lewis book of the same name, their music was of another world. The lyrics within the powerful yet beautiful melodies mingled in yarns of fantasy, faith, and reality, but were quite mystifying and vague as well. Though the third release, Faith Hope Love, achieved as much success as its predecessors, it obtained more mainstream airplay, subsequently pushing the band further into the celebrity spotlight.

With twelve successful albums to their credit, released consistently, with no more than two years gap between any of them, King's X members also find time to venture into side projects. Ty Tabor's band, Platypus, comprised of himself, John Myung of Dream Theater, Derek Sherinian of Dream Theater and Planet X, and Rod Morgenstein of the Dixie Dregs and the Steve Morse Band, released two successful CDs. That band's offspring, The Jelly Jam, released two more.

Ty has had moderate success with his solo albums as well, Moonflower Lane in 1998 and Safety in 2002. He's now working on another, to be released in the spring of 2006. His first self produced solo release, Naomi's Solar Pumpkin, has been remastered and reissued. It's being sold through the Ty Tabor website in both CD form and as a download.

The new King's X CD, Ogre Tones, to be released on Sept. 27th, is being hailed as their best ever by critics as well as Ty and the band.

I spoke with Ty Tabor shortly after Hurricane Katrina went ripping through the Gulf Coast. Like many people throughout the country he hadn't yet been able to reach family and friends. Though Ty was on the coast in Houston, most of his relatives were either on the Mississippi coast or up around Jackson. Many of their homes were destroyed. We spoke of the disaster before segueing into guitar and King's X. (Unfortunately, not long afterward, Ty evacuated his own home in Texas in an effort to escape the wrath of Hurricane Rita.)

Your style of playing, Ty, and the band's sound in general, isn't what one would ordinarily expect from a band with ties to the Deep South.

Ty Tabor: Right. [Laughing] Houston is such a melting pot these days. It's got a lot of different types of music and everything, but certainly not known for heavy rock or whatever.

You have a very distinctive rhythm guitar sound with King's X. The chordal arrangements, along with the level of cadence and string attack, have what I call that 'Ty Tabor' sound.

Ty Tabor: Thanks. I've been told that a lot; and although it's a good thing, sometimes it bothers me. So many times I try to make it sound a different way and it sounds the same.

But it changes drastically in Platypus.

Ty: Right. That's because it's influenced by so many other things involved. But as far as my own playing style, it's pretty much the same.

Do you get into alternate tunings?

Ty: I've used a lot of alternate tunings in the past. These days, though, I'm not doing as many. I got sick of having to carry seven or eight guitars on the road, plus backups.

When playing live, is reproducing King's X guitar parts an intricate process?

Ty: It depends on what part of the tour we're in. In the first couple of weeks it's not easy at all. At the end of the tour it's done in our sleep. After a while we get comfortable with what we're doing, but it does take some work, and it's a lot to remember. Sometimes it's just a matter of putting some [studio] parts together that can't be done with one guitar, so that live I have to adapt it in a different way to suggest the parts. The live thing is always a bit different. We try to record albums while not worrying about how it'll sound live, and then we just figure out how we'll do it.

I'm a huge King's X fan; I'm especially fond of the 'Faith, Hope Love' album. One thing I always liked was the band's particularly clean and precise sound, pristine chordal structures and Beatle-esque harmonies, that Lennon sound.

Ty: Well, John Lennon was probably my favorite singer growing up. I was a huge, huge Beatles fan. But I didn't even realize, I guess because I grew up singing along with the Beatles, that I had learned to sing with John Lennon. Later everybody told me that I phrased like him and everything. It was never intentional. I guess it's just a matter of loving the way he sang so much and singing with him all my life that I ended up being like that, sort of. (Laughing) Which, for me, is a huge honor to be compared in any way to John Lennon.

Does the band still celebrate King's X with a birthday party every year?

Ty: Actually, we haven't celebrated a birthday for King's X in probably, I don't know, it seems like at least seven or eight years. One time we were out on the road and I remember just kind of looking over at everybody and saying, 'Hey guys, our twentieth birthday was a couple of days ago.' None of us even thought about it.

Well, that must have been about five years ago, because I think you're hitting on twenty-five this year, the silver anniversary.

Ty: Yes. It will be twenty-five this November.

You should do something for this one.

Ty: Yeah, we should. We should at least go out to eat or something. (Laughing) We'll be on the road when it happens, though.

Are you a C.S. Lewis fan?

Ty: Absolutely.

It's noticeable in a few different areas. On another note, is King's X a Christian band?

Ty: No. Not at all.

Christian influenced?

Ty: I would say there's some of that in there. See, the thing people don't realize is that all three of us, in my opinion, have completely different beliefs. I know a lot of people assume our band is something it's not, and it's always kind of frustrating, but our beliefs and influences are so varied from each other that I don't even think they're similar.

Lyricists such as Lennon and Dylan have said over the years that their writings take on meanings of their own. In other words, insignificant rhymes sometimes end up having unique and profound meaning to the listener. Have you found that to be the case with your own lyrics at times?

Ty: Yeah. Sometimes I feel that way, and then sometimes I'm really, intently trying to put a feeling into words, which is very difficult. A lot of times for me, it ranges from both ends of the spectrum I think.

Talk a bit about the guitar clinic you did in Asia.

Ty: Yeah, I went all over Asia doing a whole lot of clinics. It was really awesome; I enjoyed it. Yamaha sponsored it. We had a Ty Tabor signature guitar we were promoting at the time, so I went over and did a bunch of shows. We went everywhere. We even did a couple of shows in Viet Nam, which was just amazing. I mean, talk about an eye opener. It definitely changed my way of thinking about the world. I was always told that it would, if I ever got time to spend over there, and I was only there for a couple of weeks or so.

The truth is, that if you were an alien looking at the world from afar, the US would be an insignificant speck, as far as populace and humanity. When you look down at the earth from afar, you see that all of the world's populace is basically in Asia. We, over in the US, are so pompous as to that. But when I was over there, I realized how America had nothing to do with anything, nor did they care. They were the mass population of the world. It was an eye opener. And another thing amazing about it was that we really don't have any big cities compared to over there. Even New York looks like nothing compared to Tokyo or any number of cities over there that go on for miles and miles. As far as the eye can see, nothing but buildings. In Singapore I was fifteen miles from downtown and it looked like I was in downtown New York City. And it was like that in a whole lot of places I went. I took a train from Tokyo to Osaka, which is something like four hundred miles or so, and we were hardly ever out of the big city. It was just beyond words.

We have a tendency to think everything revolves around us. Even in Europe we still think it revolves around us, because they talk about America every day, all day, in their press and everything. But when you get over to the part of the world that's densely populated, then you don't even see anything about the US. It's just so much more populated over there, with their own problems, cities, and whatever, that we're just a brief mention.

'Moonflower Lane', which is actually your second solo release, as it followed the Ty Tabor self released 'Naomi's Solar Pumpkin', was highly acclaimed on melody and vocals though guitar took a back seat.

Ty: Well, it was sort of a real representation of who I am. A lot of people call me a guitarist, but I personally have never called myself a guitarist. (Laughs) I've never even attempted to be in that guitar-playing group of people, you know, who people look at as being guitarists. The only thing I ever concerned myself with was writing songs. And that's still really my only concern. I just want to have good songs, because without a good song there's no reason to listen. You get tired of hearing licks. You know what I mean? I've been at home for a year now, after taking a year off for the first time in a long time, probably ten years. And the only time I've touched a guitar is when I literally went in to lay down a track on my solo album, which usually takes a few minutes and that's that. I don't even have calluses on my fingers right now. I haven't been playing at all. But I'll have to get it back together pretty soon because we're hitting the road. (Laughs) But I feel fortunate, personally, that I'm still able to make records and play live; I'm thrilled that anyone even cares at all. I'm just tickled that I still get to do it.

You better get those calluses going again.

Ty: Yeah, but I like doing that. I like getting away from it, because when I do get back into it I enjoy it and I have fun. When I'm playing all the time, nonstop, you hit a wall after a while, creatively and everything. You sometimes get stuck and tired of it.

Has mainstream success evaded King's X?

Ty: I don't even speculate on stuff like that. I mean, I understand fully how the industry works, from being in it for so long, and seeing so many friends have success. I know that there are about twenty things in the cog of the wheel that all have to work together, and no one thing will do it. It has to be all of those things working together. It's tough to have success, and everyone knows that, and everyone's trying to do that, and it's way worse than a mere thirty teams in a sports league; it's thousands going for those few slots. The competition is ridiculous. So, I personally don't even concern myself with that. The only thing I can do is try to make the best music I can and then get out and support it.

This time around, we actually have a lot more pieces of the wheel working; let me put it that way. We have a new label, two videos shot for MTV. We've got a radio campaign that's going to happen for the first time in many years. We're doing tons of press, as you know. This is one of several mega press days going on right now. We haven't done that kind of work to support a record in a long time. This is probably the best shot we've had in quite some time to actually sell a record or two again. But in general, we just make records and go out and play live. Thank God, people still show up, and always have. The live part of our band has never suffered. We've never had a losing money tour and it's just a miracle.

What's your favorite King's X album, and why?

Ty: Well, it's very predictable probably, but right now it's the new one. The reason being, it's the first record in like ten years we've had an external producer come in and take the load off of us personally, to where we can just be the band and just write the music, just play the music, just focus on it, and then go home at the end of the day when everybody else has to do the technical crap. That used to be part of it for us, too. For me, that's such a huge, huge relief, that the creative process just exploded because of it, for all of us. It's alternately for other people to say, but as far as we're concerned, it's the best record we've done in ten years.

Platypus, two releases, 1998's 'When Pus Comes to Shove' and 2000's 'Ice Cycles', 'Blue Plate Special' is a cool track.

Ty: Yeah. Thanks.

Is anything else going to happen with that band?

Ty: Well, basically, that band kept making records; we just changed the name. Keyboardist, Derek Sherinian left the band (Alice Cooper, Kiss, Dream Theater, Planet X) after two records. He's really busy with Planet X and the stuff he's doing. We actually did another record separate from Platypus called 'Jughead'. That's the last time I got to work with Derek, whom I love working with. Derek is just Derek, and he's awesome to work with. He's a real pro, and he keeps you laughing the whole time. But after he left the band we did two more records under the name The Jelly Jam, which was basically the same band. We have four albums actually, two with Platypus and two with The Jelly Jam. I certainly hope we'll do more. But right now we're taking a break from The Jelly Jam because everybody's bands are so busy and everything.

You've been doing a lot of studio work lately, and working on another solo album?

Ty: Yeah, I've been producing as well, and yes, I've been busy doing another solo album. I'm just taking my time to do it right. I haven't started pushing it yet because it's not going to be out until April next year. But I've really enjoyed having a year to do it. It's been awesome. I'm loving it so far. It's going to be the most rocking record I've ever done, solo wise. It's just so much fun to finally do the album I always wish the first one would've been.

Who have been your main influences over the years?

Ty: It varies. Some of the majors have been the Beatles. The original Alice Cooper band was a huge influence, early Bowie, early Trower, and basically a lot of the rock and roll that happened up to about '73 or '74. It was just so individual and different. There were still artists out there and it wasn't a cookie cutter thing yet. As the music industry, as far as creatively, started dying, toward the late seventies, then it all became corporate and play list nationally, and a bunch of crap that everybody who's a musician hates. Money always gets in the way somewhere and screws things up.

You've run into some record company obstacles over the years.

Ty: A couple. [Laughter] But in general we've been lucky, and blessed. We've had some record company people who've believed in us and took some chances with us. We don't blame any of them for our, in some people's view, lack of success. As far as we're concerned we're very successful, because we still get to do sold out tours after twenty something years. On our end we're doing okay, and we're not playing the game too much, as far as paying a million dollars to be on the air and stuff. Instead, we're keeping our money.

Do you have any advice for the young, burgeoning guitarists coming along these days, maybe about the music industry in general?

Ty: I really don't know what to say to people starting out in music, mainly because it depends on the individual, and to whether or not it's worth their time to be doing it. It's hard to explain that to somebody, but I basically tell people that if you're driven by the passion to play, and you feel as though you just have to play, then just keep doing it. Just try to be true to yourself. If you're just doing what someone else is already doing, then there's no reason for anybody to care.

Talk about the new King's X album, 'Ogre Tones'.

Ty: Michael Wagener produced it. And like I had already said, it was the first time we brought in an external producer in a very long time. Working with Michael was the best thing for us. We all feel it's the best work we've done in a long time. We haven't had the type of response we're getting on the album from the few people who've heard it since 'Dogman', so it's very good so far. If anyone wants to preview it, they can go to www.myspace.com/tytabor. I have it streaming for free there. Inside Out Music has the song 'Alone', the first song and the first video streaming. That way, people can check it out for free. But if you've liked any King's X album in the past, this is the one to get. I'm proud of this one, very proud. I think it's very strong, from the first song to the end, and as I've said, it's our best work in many, many years.

Any thoughts about King's X releasing a live DVD?

Ty: Yeah. We've been talking about it forever. So we're definitely planning on filming something during the next tour for a DVD release. We may film in Europe because we seem to get, there's no comparison actually, the type of crowd needed. The crowds in Europe are just unbelievable. The pressure to put a DVD out has been great, so I'm sure we'll need to do it.

Let's talk about gear.

Ty: Okay. I'm actually using some gear these days that I'm extremely happy about. I used them on the entire last tour actually, and I got the kind of comments I used to get in the old days for the first time in many years. I've been using, believe it or not, some tube Randall gear, the MTS series, designed by Bruce Egnater. They're just tremendous amps. I can't explain how awesome these amps are. It's been a long time since I just plugged into something and found home. They're all tube, all real sounding, and you just slip modules in and out of the front of the amp, tubes and all. In other words, it's like having several major, expensive tube amps all in one. I've got every kind of Marshall; I've got top boost AC-30s, Fenders, everything you can imagine. And the fact is, I have several of the actual Marshalls and Boogies to compare them against. The Egnater versions are better than all of the real amps. That's why I'm freaking out.

I was waiting for you to say that they were comparable.

Ty: No. I can A/B between the amps, and not in one case do I use the real amp. I just use the MTS. They're totally awesome. And what's also so awesome about them is that the power amps have 6L6s on one side and EL34s on the other. So you can combine the two in different configurations. You can adjust the warmth or coolness of the biased of the tubes by how hard you hit them directly from the front of the amp, and anybody can do it with a standard meter. That kind of flexibility has never existed within the tube world, and it just opens up the whole thing. It's a huge leap forward in guitar technology.

Another thing that's awesome about them is the Randall cabs. I no longer even mic live; I run right out of the back of the cabs direct, and like I said, I haven't had those comments about my guitar tone in a very long time. Plus it isolates guitar tone; you don't have drums and all busting through the mic. And on the back you can choose different kinds of mic sounds you want to come out of the cab. I'm recording my whole solo album direct from the back of the cab without a single mic. I'm using the vintage 30s, just like the old Marshalls. I do have one cabinet with 75s just in case I need it in a situation, but in general I use the vintage 30s; they're my fave. I also had my cabinets beefed up quite a bit with more packing and everything put in, just to add a little more stomp to them. Anybody can do it to their own cabinets.

Guitar wise, over the last year or so, I've pretty much quit playing my own signature model. I now play the Yamaha AES and it's the best guitar I've played or owned in a very long time.

Will it be a Ty signature model eventually?

Ty: I don't know. The truth is, the guitar is catching on so strong. I can't tell you how many people have switched to those guitars from Les Pauls, including myself. I have Les Pauls. When I plugged in with the AES I just freaked out. It's hard to explain. Especially the 920s, the really good ones, the high-end version. They're so warm, thick, and responsive; they're just beautiful. I'm floored by them. It's based loosely on a Les Paul with a slightly different shape. It's probably the best guitar Yamaha has ever made, in my opinion. They've come out with an awesome guitar.

I use DR strings, and have for a long time. They're handmade and have been around for awhile. I used to use a different string. We had actually just shot photos for a national ad to promote the strings when somebody from DR showed up at a show and gave us some free sets. They said they knew we used so and so's strings but just wanted to give us some of theirs to try. I told my guitar tech to throw them on my backup and I'll try them during sound check. Doug did the same with his backup bass. I reached over and picked up my backup guitar, and for the first time ever, it sounded better than my first. I said to Doug that this may be a fluke but these strings sound completely ridiculous. He grabbed his backup and it was the same thing. It was like, Wow! These things sound amazing. I've never had anything else on my guitars ever since. I had to call the other company and ask them to stop the ad before it went out, because I was going to stop using their strings. [Laughter]

How'd they take that?

Ty: They were cool about it, and they totally understood. They knew I had to use what I was comfortable with.

I don't use a lot of effects, but what I do use is pretty standard stuff. Lately I've been using Line 6 rack mount effects units, like the delay unit and the mod unit for flange, chorus, all those types of things, and Leslie cabinet sounds and stuff. Along with a standard Crybaby wah pedal, those two units are basically the only things I use for effects.

Is there anything you'd like to say about the upcoming tour?

Ty: Just that I hope to see everybody, and that I'd like to thank everybody who has always been there. It means more to us than we could ever say.
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Related links
Brian D. Holland's review of Ogre Tones
Ty Tabor's website
King's X Online
Ogre Tones on Amazon.com

All photos courtesy of David (DavidsEgo@aol.com) at www.kingsx.net.