Ty Tabor (King's X)
April 2008
Your previous studio album Ogre Tones came out nearly three years ago. What musical challenges were you up to during this period?
Actually I've been doing a whole lot of recording. Some stuff has been released and some stuff is still in the middle of it. As a matter of fact I'm gonna be in the studio as soon as I get off the phone today. I'll be going into the studio to do some guitar work on something. I'm doing a new solo album that I almost have finished at this point. And I also did a couple of albums with Wally Farkas. We did a couple of albums together of some very experimental music called Xenuphobe. It's very very different from anything else I've done before but at the same time it's very creative and fun to be involved in. Both Wally and me, we have been fans of experimental music and ambient music for a long time. So I we did two Xenuphobe albums and I did a solo record during this time.
Would you recommend these Xenuphobe albums to the King's X fans?
I think that you have to have an open mind for Xenuphobe. I think some King's X fans would love it and some King's X fans would say, "What is this crap?" I think it just depends on the person but within the ambient community we've gotten really good feedback and response from other artists in the world of ambient music. I think if you like that kind of stuff then you would love Xenuphobe. It's a very specific kind of musical interest and not everybody is into it.
American label Molken Music has released a live King's X album last year. What should we know about that?
Molken is actually a label owned by Wally Farkas. He just had the idea of forming a new label to put out special release products. Right now King's X is working with him, I'm working as a solo artist and so is Dug. He actually has released about six releases in the last two years or so.
Why didn't you release the live album through InsideOut?
I don't know. I don't even know if InsideOut would have been interested in putting that out. We just decided to put some stuff out on the side in between doing albums for InsideOut just to keep generating things and keeping people interested in stuff. It was just intended to be a special release kind of thing. But I think it's a better album than the double live album we actually put out on Metal Blade. It is much better live album than that.
What other albums are you planning to put out on Molken Music in the near future?
Well, the next thing, I think, is gonna be a live DVD from either England or Scotland, I can't remember where the show is from. We have a live show and some footage that nobody have ever seen before that we're gonna release on a DVD.
Dug was involved in Living Colour for their European tour two years ago. How did that happen?
I think it was just a matter of... Corey couldn't do the tour because of some other obligation and we've known those guys for many years and they just called Dug and asked him if he would do it.
Did you see any of those shows?
No, they were all over in Europe and I was over here at that time.
Did Dug's involvement in Living Colour delay the new King's X record?
No, not at all. We don't usually do side stuff if it's gonna hold up King's X or stop King's X from doing whatever its schedule is. We only do other things when it doesn't affect King's X.
Did you start working on the new album right after the release of Ogre Tones?
No, not really. I started writing stuff about three months before we went into the studio. Both Dug and me, we had some time where we said, "Look, let's give ourselves some writing time like we used to and make it part of the whole project." We basically just set aside some time to write music so that we have plenty to choose from and have a body of work that maybe some of it would piece itself together into a cohesive album. Basically about three months before we went in is when I started writing and by the time we got in there we had way more than we could possibly use. And we also wrote another song in the studio together while we were there and that was Go Tell Somebody.
To me XV sounds 100% King's X but still quite different from the previous albums. How do you feel about it?
I don't think the new album is very close to anything we've done in musical direction but it might hint at some other things from the older days that we've used to do. But sonically it's probably closer to Ogre Tones than anything but it's just the songs are so different that it's really nothing like Ogre Tones. It's hard for me to say.
I would say it's like a natural progression from Ogre Tones. A step forward.
Thank you, because that's how we were feeling and we were hoping we weren't wrong. (Laughs)
Being such a diverse album this is gonna be a tough question but what do you think which song would represent XV the most?
Hmm... yeah that would be tough because the album goes so many different very extreme directions so it'd be hard to just name one. Maybe the song Move would be a good representation of the record. It sorta has some soft and heavy moments.
Maybe it's going to be the single then?
I think Alright is gonna be the first single and the first video. We're going to shoot the video very soon and we already started streaming the audio at the website.
Is it gonna be a real pressed CD single or only something you distribute through the web?
I'm sure it's gonna be both. We're gonna try and get it to radios so we'll need some real singles. I don't know if it would be sold as a CD single but at least they'll be sent to radios. The idea is to promote the song and not the whole album.
Do you think it will get a lot of airplay? After all King's X is still heavy rock...
I don't have any idea. I don't think I ever believe that anything of ours is gonna get a lot of airplay. (Laughs) And when we do get airplay I just feel lucky. I don't ever expect it. (Laughs) But I hope so because I do think that this album has several songs that would be easier for airplay than anything we've ever put out before.
Yeah. I think Julie could get a lot of success. It has some Tom Petty vibe to it and he's all over the radio. (Laughs)
Yeah, yeah. We can only hope. (Laughs)
You mentioned about the video. Is it gonna be more like a performance one?
It's gonna have some live performance and some graphical stuff. It's gonna have several things actually but it's hard to describe without actually seeing the final product, which none of us have because we haven't even shoot it yet. But the idea is we're gonna have, this has been explained to us by the producer, that is gonna be a very in your face video.
The first idea for the record's title was Go Tell Somebody. Why did you change it to XV?
I think mainly because after we took pictures, the vibe of the pictures was so different than the idea we had originally in our minds. We just all felt that title didn't fit anymore. It was really just that simple. The pictures gave us a different vibe. XV with Roman numerals just seemed to be more classic for a classic rock kinda album that's a modern one, if that makes any sense.
What was the biggest inspiration behind the lyrics of the songs this time?
That was a very wide field of things too. But I know that we covered subject matter about religion, about modern day politics in America, about beliefs all over the world, about relationships, about personal problems, all the normal life things that affect all of us no matter where we live. America is kinda having a bit of a... there's a little bit of a turmoil going on around America these days and that's a little bit shaky right now. People are a little scared and economy is not so good. It's been a tough couple of years and everybody just wants to be safe at home. So it's been a tough time around here so most people are just so ready for some different type of direction than where we've been going. I don't know how to explain it but it's just kind of a weird atmosphere around here these days.
And this is the year of the presidential election campaign over there. Do you think anything will change?
I have no idea, I really don't because I don't really have a lot of faith in people who make a career of winning votes because what they become is very good at deception and very good at saying whatever needs to be said to win, which is a very dishonest business as far as I'm concerned. I personally am disgusted by the politics in America and the people who are running at the moment.
So you don't see a bright future ahead of your country.
I think there's the potential of it, I just don't have any idea if it will really be or not. There is the potential of it, yeah. I hope so.
One can only hope...
Yeah, exactly!
What are your touring plans for this year? We would love to have the band over here in Europe?
We would love to come. We very much would like to. Right now we're planning on touring the summer in the States. we have something that we're working on and we'll make an announcement about it soon. But we're gonna be out in August in America and hopefully after that we can get over to Europe because it's been a long time and we really need to. So if we can work things out with promoters over there we'll try our best to come.
You talked about your upcoming solo album. Can you give us an idea about the musical direction of it?
It's really hard to explain. I always get in trouble explaining music, so I don't think I do it well. But I really do believe it's the heaviest thing I've ever done on my own ever before. It's way heavier than my last solo album. It's got some guitars on the new record that are just screaming. I just say that it's more in your face. It's heavier and definitely bigger guitars on it. But at the same time there are a couple of tunes that get real retrospective and go into some weird places. But even those songs are heavy in their own life. It's just a pretty heavy record. (Laughs)
Platypus, The Jelly Jam, Jughead... are they done and finished or any chance for future releases?
Well, I don't think Jughead will be doing anything else just because we didn't sell any records so we haven't really been offered to do any more records. (Laughs) But as far as The Jelly Jam I really hope so. I really hope that we can all figure out a way to put back it together and do more records because we really love making records together. It's a lot of fun and I'm missing it. It's been a while!
You have participated on the latest Ayreon album that was released earlier this year. How did you get involve?
Arjen called InsideOut I guess and asked them to contact me, so I just hooked up with him via email. We started talking and he just sent me the music over the Internet actually and I recorded here in my studio and sent it back to him. It was something that kinda happened in one day or so. It was a lot of fun and I was just very thankful to him for asking me to be a part of it.
And do you like the final product?
Yeah, what I heard I thought was way better than I thought it was gonna be. And I thought it was gonna sound really good. But I heard and it sounds fantastic.
All King's X members and the band have a MySpace page that became very trendy in the last couple of years. Do you see this as a promotional tool?
I think for a band there's nothing other reason than being a promotional tool. You put your stuff out there so the fans can have a place to hear your music for free. They come together as a community and talk to each other and leave comments. It's sort of like a homepage for people to hang out and to get information out there to those people. It's a really important tool for bands right now.
Do you spend a lot of time on the Internet with reading fan comments and emails?
I don't really read too much. I don't do any chatting one on one, I don't go to message boards. But I do spend a whole lot of the day on the Internet doing other things like working on websites or working on artwork. I just love the Internet. As a matter of fact I just upgraded my house this morning to triple the speed that I have at the house right now. Starting on Monday I'm gonna have triple the speed I have right now. That's gonna be cool.
Despite of the many great albums King's X never became really famous other than the underground community. What do you think could be the reason for this?
I think that if we actually knew the reason we'd had a big selling record. Because we really don't know other than people just didn't like it enough to buy it. That's ultimately what it comes down to: not enough people liked it. I can't blame anyone other than ourselves and we just have to keep trying our best to make the best music we can because people buy stuff if they like it, so we just haven't struck that chord with the masses yet and that's our own fault I guess.
Do you think if you lived in Europe it would have been a different?
I think it would be more productive creatively for us if we were living in Europe because the atmosphere seems to be more creative and less controlled by Big Brother as far as music is concerned. In America there's no musical freedom. It's owned by Clear Channel Radio pretty much, which is the Music God that has bought up all the stations, the news, the promoters and everything in the country. There no longer is any real competition. There no longer is any real freedom and creative environment that spawns creativity. It's been killed by corporate BS in America. But it hasn't done that yet in all over Europe as far as I am aware of yet. And I think that is such a blessing because it allows an open mind for musical expression and freedom. And over here there just isn't very much of an open mind for it and it's not Americans' fault, it's what they've been programmed by Big Brother. It’s terrible, man. That’s a really bad thing because you could just watch creativity die in the artistic community.