After more than a decade of performing under the King Tuff moniker, Kyle Thomas hit rock bottom with a thud. Fatigued by relentless touring, burnt out on playing the same songs he’d been playing for 10 years, and feeling disconnected from the freaky rock ’n’ roll “party monster” persona he’d come to embody, Thomas experienced a major identity crisis.
“People just had this idea about me that wasn’t real,” the Vermont-born, Los Angeles-based musician explains. “I think I was maybe hanging onto a younger version of myself. Especially with Black Moon Spell, I made the record I thought people wanted me to make. Which is not really a way to make art, I don’t think.”
When Thomas returned from a year of touring with Ty Segall, he attempted to reconnect with the childlike wonder that made him love playing music in the first place. The result was The Other, an album that trades in the bombastic rock ’n’ roll anthems of 2014’s Black Moon Spell for more contemplative songs inspired by the storytelling prowess of folksinger John Prine and the freeform jazz experimentations of Sun Ra.