Tycho Explains Entering a "New Era" on Latest Album Before Denver Show

Rarely is Scott Hansen stumped regarding inspiration or what to do next with Tycho, his longtime EDM project.

But that’s exactly what happened to him, albeit briefly, after he released his sixth album, Simulcast, in 2020. He's been granted a lot of unexpected downtime over the past four years. “I had the benefit of time and space to reflect on the music and come to understand it a little better,” says the San Francisco-based producer and musician.

The result is a new record, Infinite Health, which was released on August 30. Hansen says it marks a “new era” for Tycho, which now includes guitarist Zac Brown, drummer Rory O'Connor and vocalist Hannah Cottrell (Billy Kim, on bass and keyboards/synth, is a touring member, too).

It wasn't Hansen's intention to start a new period for himself and his band, but as Tycho has continuously evolved since he started it as a solo endeavor back in 2001, he knows to accept whatever the natural next steps are.

“It just is. It doesn’t matter what my intentions were, it just is,” he muses. “There’s the earlier stuff that’s just me messing around in my spare time — that was up until 2010. Then we got the band together and started touring off of Dive (2011). Then the three albums — Dive, Awake (2014) and Epoch (2016) — was certainly an era. Once that wrapped up, I felt I wanted to do something pretty different and did the vocal album with Weather (2019).”

He can dissect it in a more digestible way looking back, but none of it was necessarily planned, he notes. “Then COVID hit, and that was my cue to be like, 'It’s time for a break.' I took a lot of time off,” Hansen admits, explaining that the reprieve allowed him to become more of a family man.

Of course, he still worked on music, which is as natural to him as brushing his teeth at this point. But without the pressure of rolling deadlines and criss-cross tour runs, Hansen really ruminated on what he wanted Tycho to be moving forward, which was easier said than done.

“It felt like I didn’t know where to go with it,” he admits. “I think my intention was to go back to where I started, but with a new perspective on it and new tools and outlook and see where that led me.”

As a result, Infinite Health — which is an instrumental album, like most of Tycho’s releases — was “very reflected upon and thought out,” he says.
“I wrote just so much material. I got into a rhythm of writing at least just an idea every day. Whether or not it became a full-fledged composition depended on the song and the day,” Hansen continues.

With the nine new tracks in tow, Tycho is back on the road. The group will play Denver on Wednesday, September 25, at Mission Ballroom. NASAYA is also on the bill.

In a perfect world, Hansen prefers to live with his songs as long as possible, or at least until he believes they are fully formed and, ultimately, finished. “When you’re developing them like that, you react to the previous song from the previous day, like, ‘Okay, that was a cool sound. What if I use it this way?’ It just all compounds, so by the time you have the final set of songs, they’re a little bit more thought out and reflect the maturity of the ideas,” he explains of writing Infinite Health.

“Whereas with other albums, particularly Awake and Epoch, there was such compressed time schedules, you didn’t really have any time to react or second-guess,” he continues. “I think there’s a beauty to that, too. That definitely results in a different kind of outcome, and that can be compelling in its own way.”

Pretty much everything Tycho puts out is compelling. The group has been nominated for a Grammy twice, including most recently for Best Dance/Electronic Album in 2020. Infinite Health, featuring Brown and O’Connor’s playing, is no different in offering a breadth of emotionally charged songs that bounce between EDM, chillwave and ambient.

The title track, featuring Cautious Clay, and “Phantom” are more straightforward, energetic EDM ragers, while “DX Odyssey” and “Green” would be better enjoyed while meditating. Showcasing such a variety on the record wasn’t the initial vision, but Hansen is always awestruck by the fact that instrumental music is its own language and can say so much.

“To think that it’s conjuring the same imagery, ideas or emotions as I was thinking of or build into the music, that’s always crazy and fascinating to think that without language, music has this ability to translate pretty specific emotions without any context,” he says.

“I just put emotion into it and hope that some sort of emotion translates and the other person gets some meaning out of it,” Hansen concludes. “The process of making music has always been a therapy for me.”

Tycho, with NASAYA, 7 p.m. Wednesday, September 25, Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street. Tickets are $62.