Ty with his King's X bandmates
How's the new Jelly Jam album coming along?
I'm just working on the new Jelly Jam album right now, it's called
Shall We Decsend? and it should be out in early 2011 on Molken Music. All of the recording is done, I'm just working on the mixing and mastering now. We've been working on it off and on for a while now, we started the whole process early this year.
You produce all of your solo albums yourself, would you ever consider working with a producer?
When it comes to solo stuff if I feel like using a producer I'll do it, but for now I feel like I only want to do solo music if it's truly just me doing what I want to do. I feel like the only way I can do that is to produce it by myself. I've tried working with producers and it usually ends up with me doing what they like and there being elements in the music that I don't identify with. That had bothered me in the past, so now I do it completely by myself.
Do you ever find it difficult to see your music through the eyes of a producer. Is there ever an internal struggle between what will be marketable and what you really want to do?
I think it's always [difficult] to look critically at anything dealing with yourself. It's always easier to look at anything else and see what is obviously lacking. But when it comes to yourself, because you live with these ideas that are developing every day, you're so close to it that it's impossible to hear it for the first time like someone who might have just bought the album. It's always difficult to have good perspective when you're doing things yourself. So I have two main people that I pass everything through and ask for their honest opinion, and they are brutally honest. One is my girlfriend, she's got a really good ear, she gets what I'm trying to do, and she can immediately point to something and I will immediately know she's right and that somewhere down deep I did feel that way about that part. But when you have so many aspects to a song, sometimes you let things go. Thank goodness I've got her and my buddy Wally Farkas down at Molken Music, he gives me brutal honesty also. Having those kinds of people to tell me where I'm being lazy or maybe I could rework something, that's really a blessing for me.
At what point did you realize that you loved music and that you wanted to pursue it professionally?
I've just always known since as early as I can remember that was what I wanted to do. It's largely because of being exposed to music as a baby and being exposed to the Beatles when they first hit. I heard “I Want to Hold Your Hand” when I was very young and I used to bug people to play Beatles music all the time—I just couldn't get enough of that music. I would run around the house air-guitaring. My dad played guitar, so I was always around guitars. So just being surrounded with all of that at such an early age, I just always had known that was what I wanted to do.
Do you have any advice to blooming guitarists out there?
This is going to be over simplified, but it's probably the truth: just enjoy what you're doing. If you're going to play music, then play what you want to play and play what makes you happy. Enjoy what you're doing, because if you do enjoy it you'll find that you can work hard at it and it doesn't seem like work. That's the key. You'll have to put in more hours sometimes than people who have 9-5 jobs if you're a serious musician, but if you love it, it doesn't feel like work anymore. When I get up in the morning and I have something to work on in the studio that I'm excited about, its just such a wonderful feeling to know that it's actually my job. So, do what you want to do. It might not be what everyone else wants you to do, but you're the only person who can control what you do.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
I just want throw out a big “Thank You” to all of our fans. We just had a very successful tour here this year promoting the new DVD. It's always so great to see everyone coming out to the shows and supporting us. And as long as that keeps happening, hopefully we can come back and play often. So a huge thank you goes out to all of our fans.
Ty Tabor's Gear Box
Guitars
Guilford Ty Tabor Model Guitars (With Seymour Duncan P-Rails)
Custom guitar designed by Frank LaMara and built by Gene Baker with custom-wound Motor City Pickups pickups.
Amps
Randall RT2/50 Power Amp (equipped with 6L6 tubes on one side and EL34 tubes on the other)
Gretchen Module (Lab Series L5 copy) preamp
Egnater EG5 Preamp (With Mid-Boost Mod)
Egnater Cabinets
Randall 4x12 Cabinets (with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers)
Effects
Fractal Axe-FX Ultra
Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster Pedal
Line 6 DL4
Accessories
Strings: DR Hi Beams - (.009 -.042 for standard tuning and .011 - .052 for Drop D tuning)
Cables: G&H Lava Cables
Picks: Thin plastic/rubber composite designed by Mel Day.