Although the San Francisco duo Two Gallants are known for their tales of murder and outlaws in the Wild West, Tyson Vogel and Adam Stephens have recently branched off into very different solo projects. I spoke with Tyson and his band members about his new project, the Devotionals, whose first album came out yesterday on Alive Records. Vogel teamed up with violinist Anton Patzner (who has played with Bright Eyes and Judgement Day), cellist Lewis Patzner (Judgement Day), Andrew Maguire (vibraphone player from Honeycomb), and drummer Jeff Blair. –
Interview with Tyson Vogel for The SF Deli
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Interview with Tyson for Writers On Process
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Two Gallants’ drummer Tyson Vogel shows off his skills as a guitarist with this mostly-instrumental solo debut. Unlike his group’s lo-fi electro-acoustic punk-folk, Vogel’s solo work is a great deal more meditative, shorn of Adam Stephens ragged, adrenaline-charged vocals and the crack and ringing of Vogel’s own drums and cymbals. His acoustic guitar, which suggests Will Ackerman and John Fahey, is joined by guest players on violin, cello and vibraphone, but it’s his own syncopated picking that gives the album its hypnotic core. The rare vocal of “Misericordia” arches into an anguished tone, but the words are stretched across the backing in exhaustion and listlessness. Vogel hangs the resonances of his guitar strings in the air, letting a note’s decay reveal textures not evident in the initial pluck. Lewis Patzner does something similar with his violin on “Morning Due,” drawing the bow slowly and shading each note with the friction of horsehair rubbing steel. The album finds a few moments of discordance in its second half, with wordless voices giving way to a shouted crescendo on “Your Confused Beauty Upon My Cheek,” distorted piano and electric guitar chords on “Heart: The Inevitable Music Box,” and a sense of agitation opening “Buildings of Heart” that evolves into a more optimistic theme. If you have a favorite place to sit quietly and think, even if it’s just between your headphones while reclining on the couch, this album will provide interesting accompaniment to your brain’s pondering. – No Depression
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Devotionals is the new solo project by Tyson Vogel of Two Gallants, a band that MM likes an awful lot. – Mad Mackerel
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When Devotionals, led by Tyson Vogel (Two Gallants) and Anton Patzner (Judgment Day), performed at Emily Jane White’s record release show a few months back, I was struck by how the band’s compositions channeled the players’ prodigious talents into a moving, transcendent energy. “Chest Like Expansive Wings” is from their self-titled album, out earlier this week on Alive Records, and it showcases Vogel’s fingerpicking and Patzner’s violin intertwining vibrantly. Devotionals Podcast. – The Bay Bridged
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"An unexpected master work." – Darkentries (The Netherlands)
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Autres Directions review (France)
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DEVOTIONALS is the new solo project by Tyson Vogel of TWO GALLANTS.
The Devotionals music is based around Tyson’s guitar compositions, with Anton Patzner (Judgement Day, Bright Eyes) invigorating the musical space with his violin mastery, and they are joined by various guests and collaborators. The result is a unique combination of simplicity and raw emotion that will delight new and old fans of Two Gallants, a kind of street music with nods to Rachmaninov and John Fahey. The recording is entirely analog.
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Destruction, breakdowns, heartache, heart attack, these songs and their process, born out of a darkness, are the representations of the light that is inherent in the blindest of moments. Unrequited Life has been congesting my every silent moment, every living heartbeat, every waking; it tore me apart in dreams or when at the corner store buying soap to clean the only thing that I had left – these sounds are a devotion, a meditation, to the only truly consistent pulse we can depend upon while alive… our own pregnant breathe. – Tyson Vogel