‘Let the songs do the work’

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"I DON’T know if it’s healthy to write so much. I definitely compromise a lot of relationships with people because of it. I believe they call it being a recluse or hermit.”

Tim Presley, aka White Fence, came to wider public notice when he released a split album with garage rocker and critics’ darling Ty Segall in 2012.

But Presley already had four self-recorded albums to his credit, followed up by 2013’s Cyclops Reap which like its predecessors was recorded in his bedroom.

With last year’s For The Recently Found Innocent, Presley decided to change the formula and went back to work with former collaborator Segall using his eight-track studio.

The result is an album of great songs referencing the 1960s psychedelic scene and British invasion. Critical comparisons to lost geniuses like Syd Barrett have abounded, underscored by a lo-fi aesthetic and Presley’s ear for a pop hook on tracks such as Like That and Afraid Of What It’s Worth.

“For this album I went more stripped down and simplified,” says Presley from his Californian home.

“At home I tended to bounce stuff into the computer to open up more tracks, with Ty I wanted to capture a live feel. I wanted to let the songs do the work, instead of the production.”

He admits the new record has lent itself to live performance, with band drummer Nick Murray appearing on about 70 per cent of the album.

“I never think about playing the songs live when I’m writing,” he says. “I worry about that later. Records are forever, while live shows are fleeting moments.”

He leaves room for improvising in his live shows to keep the boredom at bay.

“I could never be in one of those big bands which does a rehearsed perfect show every night,” he says. “I would kill myself, or get an honest job.

“It would take all the creativity out of it.”

That desire to be creative explains why he has such a back catalogue of unreleased songs – indeed Cyclops Reap was initially supposed to collect some of those old ideas together, but instead morphed into a collection of 12 new songs.

“I like to get things down as quickly as possible,” he says.

“I think Ty and I come from a similar ethos and aesthetic musically.

“If you had to boil it down it would be being into punk and stuff early on. I saw Penelope Spheeris’s The Decline Of Western Civilisation [the gonzo documentary about the LA punk scene of the early 1980s] at the right time. It changed my life.

“It was all these people about my age group just taking control of their own aspirations instead of going through the showbiz wringer. It stuck with me. There’s a poster of [Germs frontman and star of the film] Darby Crash in my room now.”

Another musical legend Presley has worked closely with is Mark E Smith, founder and sole permanent member of The Fall.

The pair first crossed paths in 2006 when the existing Fall line-up walked out on Smith midway through a US tour. Presley and bassist Rob Barbato were recruited from their punk band Darker My Love and played with The Fall until 2007.

Having appeared on the 2007 Fall album Reformation Post TLC, Presley provided two songs for both 2013’s Re-Mit album, and four for the band’s forthcoming 31st LP.

“I had these songs at home which every time I tried to sing them ended up ripping off Mark E Smith,” says Presley. “According to The Fall bible you don’t rip off Mark!

“People always talk about the bad blood between ex-members but I never fortunately felt that. He sends me Christmas cards and s***!”

Support from Ultimate Painting.

Duncan Hall