To celebrate today’s digital release of composer Ty Segall’s soundtrack for Whirlybird, we sat down with Ty and director Matt Yoka to talk about their long-running creative partnership.
WOW: This is your first feature-length soundtrack, right Ty?
Ty: I’ve done little bits of TV work before but never a full score or soundtrack to a feature. So I’m very excited.
Below: Segall’s “Goodbye Bread,” directed by Yoka.
WOW: How did you and Matt meet?
Ty: Well, I’ll say this. I met Matt after a long night of hanging and drinking and various things. It was the morning after, and I had a black eye, and–
Matt: I was going to say– I have that memory as well, but I wasn’t sure if I was just putting that in to add to the spectacle. But yeah, I can confirm Ty had a black eye. We were both getting our mail in the dorms. We just looked at each other and we’re like, “Yeah, let’s hang out.”
Segall’s “Thank God for Sinners,” directed by Yoka.
WOW: Tell us about your work before this soundtrack to collaborate creatively.
Ty: Matt and I have done a lot of music videos together for my music, and a short film for a record I made called Emotional Mugger, and just years of scheming and working on various things for sure.
A playthrough of Yoka’s video for Segall’s “Manipulator.”
WOW: What are some of the creative challenges that you ran into when doing a full feature that surprised you?
Ty: Working with Matt is so easy and we kind of have a weird hive mind when it comes what we’re trying to do. He was so hands-on. I’ve never worked with anyone that came to the studio and sat there and we made stuff together. It was pretty amazing. If that didn’t happen, then there would have been many more challenges, because it is hard to create all here without knowing what you want, and so I have worked with Matt a lot. It was just fun. The only challenges were trying to make it as good as it could be. It was cool to have that be the main challenge. It’s a good challenge.
WOW: Matt, were you cutting to Ty’s music or were you cutting to scratch tracks? How were you going about putting together things like the montages?
Matt: Going back to your question to Ty, one of the hardest things probably just how much music there was. It’s really packed full of of music, and the music serves a particular emotional purpose because the the subject matter is so nuanced and complicated that you need an additional emotional cue to know generally what space we’re trying to put you in without trying to spoon-feed you an emotional feeling.
We had temp music in. Some of it was working great, but I knew the whole time, from before I even started making the movie, Ty and I had already talked about collaborating on this. We talked about making movies and music to movies for years. There was really no question that we were going to work together on it. That was always on my mind even as I was picking temp music. So when the time came to have him score it, when we were picture locked, I stripped all of the music out. The first time he saw anything from the movie, it was basically picture locked but without any music. So he didn’t have any music reference. He just had image and the rhythm of the editing to respond to. Then we kind of went back and forth. Some parts had to be a little bit more particular as far as the timing and other parts I was kind of nudging the picture to line up with the new music that Ty made. Eventually it really elevated way beyond what the temp music was. To experience it in real time was really awesome… magical.
Yoka’s video for Segall’s “The Singer“:
WOW: What were some of the things that you played as examples?
Matt: It wasn’t so much like I was like I sent him a ton of sample tracks. We talked more about the era. We’re referencing a little bit of 80s scores. It was just a mood that we were starting out with. I kept thinking about that lonely horn music that you think of with film noir and blending that with synth and then just embracing what music Ty makes.
Ty: Yeah, it was just vibes. We were just talking about general themes and vibes and feelings and having it be very Los Angeles-centric and of the era when the film was taking place. So there were not a lot of soundtracks to films being thrown around, just feeling really. I don’t think there was a specific “We’ve got to channel this thing” or that thing. It was more like, “Yeah, this vibes a bit more like Sunset Strip.” You know, that kind of a thing.
Matt: It was almost like synesthesia. I’d say, “It should sound like a cigarette being smoked.” I don’t speak music at all. My musical experience is almost entirely making music videos for Ty. I’ve never made my own music or anything, and I wouldn’t even know how to go about collaborating in that kind of way. I just occasionally had an instrument that I thought might feel the way we want it to. But a lot of it was just describing “smog” or “it should feel like a drug addict getting their fix at this moment.”
Below is Segall’s track “Story of the Century,” from the Whirlybird score. Video edited by Yoka from archival helicopter footage captured by Zoey Tur and Marika Gerrard.
WOW: “Story of the Century” is the first track you released from the soundtrack. Why did you choose to release that one first?
Ty: All of these songs are Matt feeding me energy and what the emotion is supposed to be. There was never a point where I had the idea, I just want to say that. I’m giving Matt credit to all the foundational ideas for all these tunes. This track is for the O.J. sequence and it just really just needed to be propulsive and energetic and intense. Drums just make scenes move and make them feel intense. We just both felt like a crazy rhythm track would fit the best.
I really do love “Story of the Century” because it’s been a dream of mine to have a drum battle in a film. It’s a bucket-list moment for me, so I feel very happy with that one. I also love the sad emotional drone parts of the film. It was really amazing to get a synth Blade Runner style. I don’t think I could stay which one’s my favorite. I really did enjoy making all of it, but it was really fun to have such dynamics dtuff going on. I don’t know if I could say what my favorite was.
WOW: Matt, what are a couple of moments where you really appreciate the soundtrack?
Matt: Just to touch on a little bit of what it’s like to work with Ty: he can play everything. So it was an incredible resource and we ever so much versatility that could be utilized just with being in the room with Ty. He’s as amazing on drums as he is on the guitar. People who follow his music know that, but it felt like because the film bands such a vast energy and emotion. The energy of the film goes from the highest highs to the lowest lows and Ty’s musical ability can respond to that. As much as he might give me credit for starting him out and where to take it, he really does take it there. “The last flight,” as we refer to in the film, the last flight that Zoey and Marika take before the company comes to an end and their relationship comes to an end. Ty’s using a Wurlitzer and a synthesizer and I don’t know what synth you were using–
Ty: I think it was a mini Moog.
Matt: I remember the actual Wurlitzer was literally dying. You turned to me and said, “This might have to be the last take, man. She’s not going to live any longer.” So there’s the sound Ty created there, and then her brought in somebody he collaborates with a lot Mikal Cronin to play the saxophone to accompany those sounds. And it’s just so heartbreaking and moody, but not sentimental or heavy-handed. That’s the one at this moment that’s coming to mind, but I think there’s a ton of examples throughout the film. I really love “Getting the Story,” I think we call it. It’s when they’re chasing in the car with Katy in the back trying to get to the story before they buy the helicopter. And Ty channeled this crazy fiendish energy that I just thought was like so cool and grimy. I felt like he really matched the city there.
WOW: Do you plan to do any other visual releases related to the soundtrack?
Ty: We do plan on doing another visualizer or video or segment or something. Matt and I are figuring that out at the at the moment. And hopefully I can try to do a performance of some kind. I’m trying to figure out exactly what that would entail and when and where and how. But that would be pretty cool. I’m trying to make that happen.
WOW: You’re thinking like a live performance of the soundtrack against the film?
Ty: That would be the best version of it, I think. I could get a bunch of people together and we could live score the film.
WOW: What happens after today’s digital release?
Ty: The vinyl is to follow as soon as it’s done and we don’t have a firm date.
Matt: All I know is summer.
WOW: Thanks for sharing some great behind-the-scenes info about the Whirlybird soundtrack!
Matt: I’m always really thankful for it, and I do think it’ll be fun to bring the music out to the forefront.
FYI, the fine folks at Drag City tell me the vinyl release is tentatively June 24th, 2022.
Track list:
- Whirlybird 2:43
- First Date 1:47
- Los Angeles News Service 2:38
- Getting the Story 2:28
- Sky Duo 2:48
- Lawrence Welk III 4:41
- First Pursuit 2:16
- 1992 1:02
- High 1:35
- News Junkies 3:50
- Story of the Century 5:55
- Whirly Suite 2:02
- Last Flight 2:30
Ty has a bunch of tour dates coming up in March, too:
- 3/2/22 Santa Fe, NM
- 3/4/22 Oklahoma City, OK
- 3/5/22 Kansas City, MO
- 3/6/22 St. Louis, MO
- 3/7/22 Louisville, KY
- 3/9/22 Nashville, TN
- 3/11/22 Birmingham, AL
- 3/12/22 Baton Rouge, LA
- 3/15/22 Phoenix, AZ
Images: Chris Greer and Denée Segall via Drag City
