Eight questions, one gallant

After an extended hiatus, the duo Two Gallants released their first album in five years called The Bloom and The Blight. Drummer and vocalist Tyson Vogel spoke with MUSE writer Chelsea Feinstein about the new album, the tour and what’s up next for the pair.

Chelsea Feinstein: So what city are you guys in right now? How’s the tour been going so far?

Tyson Vogel: Well, we left Cleveland an hour and a half ago, and we’re heading to Buffalo tonight for a show. It’s been positive. We left San Fran and took this other route [through the South], and traveling through that part of the country to start up is very eye opening. It’s been a good start to the whole process.

CF: So let’s talk about the new album. It’s your first in five years — what was the process of recording this album like compared to previous ones? Did a lot change over five years or was it easy to get back into the groove of recording together?

TV: To be candid, we didn’t really have a plan. After taking a break and going off and doing our own things, we had been discussing getting together and making music again, cause we didn’t do that at all for the first couple years. It was a very natural, kind of organic process. We both just needed a chance to live life in a different way because most of our adult life has played out in a way where we were touring constantly. The time off gave us a chance to experiment and expand on our own roads musically.

We had no plan, just to get together and see how it sounded, and the album blindly and naturally came out of that whole process. It didn’t take very much. There’s an alchemy in that process that I think has a mind of its own. The technical process has been more painful than the creative process, where everything just kind of started to flow.

CF: Did this album have any particular influences? What were you listening to when you were recording it?

TV: There wasn’t really anything specific. When we were approaching recording these songs we had a very clear vision of a direction in which we wanted to go. The songs themselves were defining of a certain sound. Every recording we have done has been sort of a learning process. We were trying to achieve a sound that reflects the mood and feeling of our live shows. I think that what we achieved represents the band correctly. It’s almost like an effigy of yourself in some form. We knew what we didn’t want was to repeat our earlier younger days.

CF: Speaking of your live show, what can we expect to see at the show Thursday?

TV: Two guys sweating a lot, screaming a lot, who both have a bit of a bleeding heart syndrome.

CF: I also saw that you guys switched record labels for this album. What inspired the move from Saddle Creek to ATO?

TV: We just wanted sort of a fresh perspective. We sort of set a rule that we wanted to do things really differently, not to repeat what went on before and to just move forward. When we started to break a few years ago we were both feeling hemmed in, like our hands were tied a little bit. We wanted to try something new. So we put some feelers out to see if other labels had a different approach. We respect Saddle Creek a lot but wanted a fresh start. We’re really happy with ATO. They are great people, and it’s nice to be a part of their roster.

CF: Do you have any plans for after this tour yet?

TV: We have this tour, and then we’re touring in Europe until the end of the year. There’s some more hinting of another tour pretty quickly after that, maybe Australia. And then when we have an opportunity we are starting to think about recording another record. The Bloom and The Blight took a bit of time to be born – the midwife took her time on this one, so we’ve been creatively ready to try to move on and work on new material. We already have some material waiting to be focused on, and we’ll be getting right back to the creative process.

CF: I noticed that you guys have been pretty active on Facebook and Instagram in the last few months. What’s the rationale behind that? Do you see that as a new way of connecting with your audience?

TV: The way that I approach these things is I have my own personal discomforts with them, but it is another tool, another opportunity to put forward information. We’ve never wanted to be frivolous about any of that, but it’s a way of putting creativity into it. It gives us all this opportunity to get another perspective of another side of the band. It’s just a part of society at this point, and we’re trying to do it as honestly and creatively as possible. It allows everyone to be involved in some form, so artists aren’t on as much of a pedestal.

CF: What albums have you guys been listening to lately?

TV: We’re always listening to a lot of different stuff on the road. Waylon Jennings. Elvis Perkins, Don Caballero, Hank Williams, ZZ Top [laughs], Thin Lizzy, Blind Willie McTell.

Two Gallants will be playing Brighton Music Hall on Sept. 27.