... Manipulator... Iron Man...Paranoid ...Sabotage ...Manipulator ...
Before starting work on his new album, Manipulator, Ty Segall had accumulated a bulldozer’s worth of distorted rock ‘n’ roll riffs, amassing ideas while sweating the proverbial 10,000 hours required of an expert craftsman.
Segall spent about a year in Northeast L.A. writing and refining its 17 songs, then locked them into place over a straight month living and recording at the Dock, a Sacramento studio run by producer-engineer Chris Woodhouse. “The idea was to focus more on one thing for a long period of time,” said Segall. “Usually I’ll spend six months writing a record and then I’ll record it. This record I wanted it to be the opposite,”
He explained, then tossed out one of many rock references from his encyclopedic knowledge of guitar music to David Bowie’s…longtime producer. “A Tony Visconti kind of record.”
Living in the studio’s apartment and aside from a few days’ respite, he devoted himself to the process. Segall played most notes and drumbeats on “Manipulator,” a method he’s used on other records. (His band backed him on one song.)
