Tyler Ramsey, with special guest Kramies, performs at Rumba Cafe on Wednesday, February 28. Doors are at 7pm, show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $15
While Tyler Ramsey may be best known for the decade he spent playing guitar in Band of Horses (2007 – 2017), the Ashville, North Carolina resident has released five solo albums, including New Lost Ages, which came out earlier this month. Much like Band of Horses, Ramsey’s own material is delivered with delicate vocals and a warm, full-bodied musical embrace and is a delightful blend of folk, Americana and indie rock.
I recently had a chance to speak with Tyler before he headed out on tour. The full conversation can be read on BigTakeover.com. Here’s an excerpt.
Do you think the title track, “New Lost Ages,” would have been written had we not gone through the pandemic?
TYLER: I think so but the only reason I think that is because I had the time to write it. It reflects a bigger span of time than just the pandemic but that definitely set it over the top to make it something I wanted to write.
There’s a lyric that really stands out in the song. You sing, “Do you think there will be a world to live in when these kids have kids?” Our parents, and their parents, probably wondered the same thing. Do you think things are more desperate than they were for our parents and grandparents?
TYLER: That’s the thing, man. It’s so hard. It certainly feels that way and I wonder that myself. It’s tough to say when you see your kids coming into a world that you’ve lost touch with. There are things that happen that make you feel like the world’s changing in a way that doesn’t seem right. We’re being inundated with information and we’re seeing things way more easily and quickly, and we’re seeing what’s happening all over the planet. It’s that kind of information that we’re getting that leads me to spiral out about it. But, it’s real information so it’s hard to ignore.
I’ve got a nine-and-a-half-year-old daughter and a two-and-a-half-year-old son and I really think about what kind of world I’m leaving them, what we’re handing down, and how we’re unable to fix what’s becoming more and more broken. I hate to say that it doesn’t seem like everyone’s going to get together and solve the problem, but it doesn’t really seem like that’s the direction we’re headed.
In the song “Where Were You,” are you asking that in an accusatory tone or are you asking that as more of a desperate plea, like, “I needed you and you weren’t there. Where were you?”?
TYLER: Maybe the second one. That line has been around for quite a while. It had been drifting around and then it all came together. It doesn’t always happen that way. I can hold on to pieces of songs forever. For this song, I’d written the rest of the song then added the “Where were you” line because it just made sense. I think it’s more reaching out for somebody that you needed to be there a little more than they were.
Was “Flare (For Neal Casal)” already written or did you write it after hearing about his passing?
TYLER: It was written in reaction to hearing how he decided to go. I was in this condo on the coast to write songs and I’d heard the news about Neal and everything just came together. I didn’t have the song, none of it had existed prior. There might have been a guitar riff that I’d been hoping to use on something, but those events lined up.
I was sitting out on the deck of this condo and the sun was going down. I thought that I’d seen a flare out in the way and I was like, “Was that what I think it was? I should probably let someone know that I think I saw something out there.” I called some local police number and they connected me to some local fire rescue place. I was getting passed around to different people and by the time I finally talked to the right person, the sun was pretty much down. They said they’d come and check it out but they didn’t find anyone in trouble on the water.
I’ve lost a couple of friends to suicide and I’ve lost a couple of friends to overdoses. The flare that I thought I saw made me think of someone sending a signal that maybe nobody saw or the idea that somebody is reaching out for help but the recipient of that request doesn’t know what to do with that information.,That’s how that song came into place. It was looking for signs from people that may be reaching out and needing something.
I don’t know the whole story behind what Neal was dealing with and what pushed him to suicide. I don’t know if he reached out to anybody. I really didn’t know him that well. We spent five days playing shows together on tour and having fun and joking and connecting in a way that I wasn’t aware of whether or not he was in a real bad place. It seemed like he wasn’t in a bad place. He had just played some concert and went back and had some sort of downward spiral that pushed him to make the decision he made.
I’ve asked about specific songs and lyrics. I want to take a lyric out of context. On “You Should Come Over,” there’s a lyric that goes, “I guess everything reminds you of something.” I’m curious if there’s a song, album or artist that reminds you of being a teenager?
TYLER: I’m thinking about one that reminds me of skipping school to go try and buy beer when I was in high schoo. I lived outside of Nashville. I went to Brentwood High School, and we would duck out and to Nashville. I was laying in the back of my friend’s car in a parking lot while he was in a grocery store trying to get beer or something. I think it was “Too Far Down” or one of those Husker Du songs playing and I can picture that. I remember that really intense feeling that went along with it.
The first thing I thought of though was R.E.M.’s Reckoning album. When I first moved to the Nashville area, I was pretty lost. It was right before I started high school. I didn’t know anybody and it felt like the end of the world. The first friend I met was really into R.E.M. and he introduced me to them. I remember connecting with that whole album. I can remember an R.E.M. song, it might have been “7 Chinese Bros,” playing and being in a car and rain was pouring down. It’s something that has stuck with me.
When you’re writing songs, do you write on an acoustic guitar?
TYLER: A lot of times I write on piano or I write on an acoustic guitar. I’ve got some little cheap keyboards that have sounds or beats that I can put on and pace around. I use some little gadgets but mostly it’s acoustic guitar or piano.
Do you write with the idea that you’re going to have other people play instruments and back you or do you write with the idea that you can take these songs and play them anywhere by yourself, whether it be on tour or stopping at a radio station to perform on-air?
TYLER: I really try to make a song that stands on its own with an acoustic guitar. That’s what I want out of the songs I write. I’ve written a few that don’t necessarily do that right away, but I can work with them after the fact.
“You Should Come Over” was a song I was working on for these upcoming shows and realized that there’s a cool way to play it. In the form that it is on the record, I was like, “I don’t know how I’m going to do this solo. It’s not going to come across.” It’s always been important to me that the lyrics and the guitar part or the piano part stand on their own. That’s when you know you’ve got a decent song. Otherwise you’re hiding behind production tricks or sound. I like that kind of music as well but what I always want to do is have a real solid foundation that can stand on its own.
On this upcoming tour, will you have a band with you or will you be performing by yourself?
TYLER: So far I’ve got one of the guys from my band that is going to be traveling with me. We’re going to be doing some duo shows and we’re making a lot of noise. We’re trying to figure out a way to make it pretty band-like. That’s the plan so far.
