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Time and place are a great shaper of music; when we last interviewed William Tyler in 2019, his album at the time, Goes West, was marked by optimism, or, as Glenn Kimpton explained, it was “like the light to Modern Country‘s shade, with the ten tunes building around strong acoustic guitar cores, instead of the lightly reverbed electric that permeated through the latter.”
Glenn went on to interview Tyler, and they talked about place and its influence on the mood of Tyler’s music. Tyler said, “I guess there is an expansiveness to California and the West Coast, like a speculative optimism or reinvention. There’s a reason why so many things that are important to American and international culture, from the psychedelic movement to the Internet, started in California; there’s something about the fact that you can’t go any further west, or you’ll hit the ocean. I think there’s an exploratory nature to the people who end up out here, especially now. I’m not sure if it’s restlessness or optimism in people or a combination of things.”
With this announcement of his new single “Flight Final”, out now Psychic Hotline, while reinvention is very clearly present, we also find Tyler in a new home again, swapping Los Angeles for Nashville, where, in the confused hurry of early 2020, he left behind most of his recording rig; Tyler rendered new musical sketches with an iPhone and an old tape machine he found while cleaning out his late grandfather’s Mississippi office. He leaned into this admixture of distortions, new and old, welding guitar and electronics to connect past echoes to the present.
There’s a beautiful ambience to this track, leaning into exploratory cosmic country. It’s described as a soundtrack to realising that moving forward never entirely means escaping what is behind you. We are promised more music from Tyler exploring these same deep veins in 2025.
William Tyler kicks off his UK and European tour in September; see dates below.
William Tyler Tour Dates
Sat. Sept. 7 – Oxford, UK @ Septembersong
Sun. Sept. 8 – London, UK @ TBD
Mon. Sept. 9 – Bournemouth, UK @ ICA
Wed. Sept. 11 – Bristol, UK @ The Lantern
Thu. Sept. 12 – Falmouth, UK @ The Cornish Bank
Sat. Sept. 14 – Birkenhead, UK @ Future Yard
Sun. Sept. 15 – Todmorden, UK @ The Golden Lion (early show)
Mon. Sept. 16 – Newcastle, UK @ Cluny 2
Tue. Sept. 17 – Glasgow, UK @ The Glad Cafe
Thu. Sept. 19 – Lyon, FR @ Sonic
Fri. Sept. 20 – Paris, FR @ Chair de Poule
Tue. Sept. 24 – Middelburg, NL @ De Spot
Wed. Sept. 25 – Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat
Thu. Sept. 26 – Zwolle, NL @ Hedon
Sat. Sept. 28 – Barcelona, ES @ Casa Montjuic
Sun. Sept. 29 – Valencia, ES @ Centro Excursionista
Wed. Oct. 2 – Lisboa, PT @ Bota
Fri. Oct. 4 – Braga, PT @ Generation
Sun. Oct. 6 – San Sebastian, ES @ dabadabass
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