Tyler Ramsey was already a respected songwriter and solo artist when Ben Bridwell asked him to join Band of Horses in 2007. The Asheville, NC-based songwriter quickly blossomed into an integral part of the Band of Horses family, not only playing guitar and singing harmony but also writing a third of the band’s 2010 release Infinite Arms and pulling double duty and opening for the band as a solo act. So it makes sense that when Ramsey started to work on his next solo album, The Valley Wind ,the project immediately felt more like an extension of Band of Horses than a quick side project. Produced by Band of Horses bassist Bill Reynolds and featuring contributions from indie-folk multi-instrumentalist Seth Kauffman, The Valley Wind is the result of numerous writing sessions between Band of Horses shows.
As he prepared for the album’s release, Ramsey discussed his dual identity, most recent batch of songs and how giving a friend a ride changed his life forever.
You’ve had quite a busy few years between your solo career and work with Band of Horses. I heard you took a step away and wrote your new album ¬The Valley Wind while locked in a North Carolina cabin. Is that true and, if so, how far along were these song ideas before you hibernated to write?
That was where I started working on the album, and I think the first song that came around was “The Nightbird.” I had started working on the song idea earlier but ended up really writing it in that atmosphere—a cabin in North Carolina. That’s something I do whenever I get the chance: kind of go by myself to stay at a place for a few days and bring the minimal amount of toys to play with musically to just kind of focus in. That seems like the most productive way for me to do write. Also, a lot of the things got written on the road which is something I’m learning to do more and more. I am trying to take advantage of these little bits of downtime and write while Band of Horses is on tour.
So I had just one idea when I went into the cabin: one line or something for that song in particular. I just ended up going with it. I need a certain feeling to be able to write something that gives enough words to me and something that means something to me. It just ended up happening there. I think even a couple of songs started that same night. And then the songs I wrote on the road. Some of them came in parts and then got finished up at home.
It’s weird: it’s a new thing for me because I used to have free time galore, and now I don’t have it. So it feels like the focus on my writing process is shifting, and now I’m learning to go back and pay attention to even pieces of the songs that I’ve kept around, whereas before I would sit down and write the whole song all at once.
Now, it’s a little bit of both worlds: maybe a whole song will come about in a day like that “1000 Black Birds” song, which I started one night and finished the next morning. And then there are some songs where I’ve got a chorus idea and then, all of a sudden, everything else falls into place a couple weeks down the road.
You had two steady collaborators on ¬The Valley Wind. One was Band of Horses’ Bill Reynolds, who produced and played bass on the album, and the other was Seth Kauffman. At what point did Bill get involved in the project?
I’ve been friends with Bill for a really long time. He was living in Asheville when I met him a long time ago, and he was running his own studio. I’ve just seen him become this amazing producer and engineer over the past couple of years. I was thinking about people to bring along to the studio to work on ¬The Valley Wind, and the two of us had done so much together in the past, and it just seemed perfect. He’s really spontaneous and comes up with great ideas and that was the approach I wanted to take.
By the time we decided to go into the studio, the songs were pretty much finished. There were one or two that I wasn’t sure of, but it turned out that they were pretty much done by the time we got in there. I wanted to go in a little bit blind, not knowing what the arrangements would be or maybe what instruments were going to be played—and also not having rehearsed with the other musicians on the album. I just wanted to see what we could come up with and how we could capture that feeling more: That first idea is always kind of exciting.
Really, when you start playing and doing a draft on a song, those first ideas are usually the best ones for me. If you rehearse too much, then it starts to get watered down a bit. I know a lot of jazz musicians kind of felt that way. They do one or two takes and then they would just stop—if they didn’t get it right they’d accept that there were some mistakes, and I think that really makes a recording more interesting to listen to. Those are the moments on this record I really enjoy hearing over and over again.
You and Bill spent some considerable time on the road together with Band of Horses this year. Were you able to work on the album on tour?
We pretty much separated recording from touring. I mean, he had heard me play some of the songs live or on tour but we really didn’t talk too much about what was going to happen when we went in the studio. It was just better for us to just try to capture the first ideas rather than really thinking everything out too much. As it turns out, I did a lot of demoing in my house on my laptop, and a lot of those ideas were what really developed into what we did in the studio. We [cleaned up] some of the sounds I made on the computer in the studio but we tried to keep ourselves from too many overdubs or over thinking everything.
I heard Bill actually brought you into the Band of Horses family. Is it true that you joined the band after you gave him a ride?
Bill and I met each other about 18 years ago—we met here in Asheville. He used to be in a band called The Blue Rags which was signed to Sub Pop. When I moved to town, they just seemed like people that I wanted to get to meet because they were just really cool. I would be jamming, and I admired what they were doing. I think I was just playing on the street at some point, and he was playing at some club down the road and just walked by and said hello. We ended up talking, and shortly after that I think he came over to my house and brought an upright bass. We just sat in the living room and played, and we were cracking each other up because we were just playing really well together from the start. We were in-sync from the first time we ever sat together, and we didn’t really know each other.
What year was that?
It was ‘92 or something like that. Then a few years ago [in 2007], Bill needed a ride to Charleston, SC to rehearse with Band of Horses. I cancelled a gig to give him the ride. I ended up driving him down there and getting to meet all of the band. We hung out all night, and then Ben asked me to open up for them on tour. He asked over some shots of tequila—just insane.
Bill and I have had various projects here in Asheville and he played with me when I put out my last record for one or two shows, but now he’s living out in California so it’s hard to have him play during my solo shows. But I would love it if he could—he’s always the best to have around.
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