Out of the desert: Black Hat bring their Spaghetti Western rock to El Rocko
Ty Thompson, frontman for Reverend Bro Diddley and the Hips (and former guitarist for the Hypnotics), has taken his penchant for jangly 60s inspired garage rock and applied a dusty layer of desert psychedelia and epic Ennio Morricone riffs to form the local super group, Black Hat.
Inspired by classic Spaghetti Westerns like "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly," Black Hat provides Thompson an outlet for some of his more experimental propensities in songwriting, but don’t think of it as a side project.
“I don’t think I know what a main gig is anymore,” said Thompson of his busy participation in the Savanah music scene.
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Black Hat features Thompsons’ wife, Jhovana Aguilar, and Jalen Reyes of the Hips, as well as Sophie Brochu of Fauvely, and Thomas Mole of Joshydrop.
“It’s something I’m pretty serious about,” said Thompson. “There’s a lot of opportunities to do different things with all the different musicians in Savannah. What it really is is I write different kinds of stuff and I just felt like I had some that was a bit too moody for the Hips, so I started messing around with some of that with different people.”
“I’d say it’s more experimental,” Thopmpson continued. “It’s a bit darker for sure. It’s probably a bit more emotional, as well, which seems like such a nondescript word to use to describe music. I guess the most obvious difference is I’m not singing lead on but maybe 25% of the stuff. We essentially have five lead singers in the band, and Sophie does most of the lead singing.”
Black Hat is yet another example of the community spirit in Savannah music scene where most artists play in two or three bands at a time and support each other.
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“In one sense it’s the way it absolutely should be,” said Thompson. “Due to COVID and inflation, for better or worse, and it’s mostly worse, it doesn’t make as much sense to tour as it used to, and so a lot of us are stuck more stationary than we otherwise would be. Since we are and we’re all in the same city, it’s really cool to have everyone be supportive of each other. I just think there is a lot of value in so many musicians being here in town. It’s an obvious decision—why not support them if they need some support? As a result you see a lot of us backing up Jalen if he wants to play a show, or backing up Sophie if she’s playing a Fauvely show. That said, I think Black Hat is certainly not trying to combat that, because I’m such a fan of all that.”
Thompson doesn’t see Black Hat as “another Ty Thompson project” with people helping him out. The band is a showcase for all of it’s members, who are all multi-instrumentalists and able to swap instruments during their set.
“Black Hat from it’s inception has been about putting all the members up front at different times and just getting whatever feeling we’re trying to get across in the best way possible,” said Thompson. “Sometimes that means I write a lyric I’m really attached to, but Sophie or Jalen sounds better singing it.”
As far as his Spaghetti Western obsession, Thompson finds the tropes and landscape of strange 60s Italian westerns an inspiring playground for his song writing.
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“Call it what you want — a fetish? — I don’t know. I’ve always been really drawn to that sound,” said Thompson. “It puts me in such a specific place. It almost helps me frame things. When I started writing lyrics for a lot of this material, it is just too personal and vulnerable to put it to acoustic guitar and leave it at that. I guess the idea is a story told through the lens of an old 60s/70s Spaghetti Western. Of course, we stray from that at times, but the really twangy reverbed-out guitars that make you feel like you’re in the middle of the desert and you might not make it, it just conveys a lot of what I think these songs are supposed to convey.”
Black Hat are currently finishing up their debut album. The first single, “Leave Us,” is in the process of being mixed and will be followed by a second single, “My Fantasy is a Western Apocalypse.”
“That one is long ands requires a patient listener, but it’s kind of a theme song for the group,” explained Thompson. “It’s really slow and immersive”
Black Hat’s next show is at El Rocko Lounge on Thursday with Joshydrop and Goldpark. Then next month, the band will support Smalltalk at their album release show at The Sentient Bean.
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Thompson is continuing his work with the Hips and they expect to release another album soon, but Black Hat is just hitting it’s stride.
“In the last three months, the spirit of the band has become like a sixth member,” said Thompson. “Something happens where everything clicks.”
IF YOU GO
What: Joshydrop w/ Black Hat and Goldpark
When: Thursday evening
Where: El Rocko Lounge, 117 Whitaker St.
Info: instagram.com/0__black__hat__0/
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA concerts: Black Hat, Joshydrop at El Rocko Lounge
