Possession is billed as Ty Segall’s sixteenth album, but that feels about as underreported as the tip jar at an anarchist cafe. You have to factor in the slew of side projects as well, like Fuzz, GØGGS, and Freckle, the last of which being a new band with Color Green’s Corey Madden, which put out an unreasonably slept-on self-titled debut just a few months ago. It’s an old cliche at this point that Segall never slows down, but part of why it’s been easy to keep up is because he insists on slicing through fresh terrain, often with new people holding on for dear life alongside him.

All things considered, then, Possession, out this Friday, may seem like a somewhat straightforward Segall record — but the idea was actually to be straightforward in a subversive way. Think of it this way: When you’re the type to push yourself to always come up with novel and strange ways to write an album — like making one entirely without guitars, for example — at a certain point the most out-there choice you can make is to avoid any tricks altogether. “Less flash, more substance, maybe,” Segall tells me on a video call, wearing a paisley shirt on the porch of the South Pasadena home he shares with his wife and artistic collaborator, Denée Segall.

Still, this is a Ty Segall record we’re talking about, so the idea of what constitutes “straightforward” is pretty relative. And Possession is quietly another experimental collaboration as well, given that Segall wrote the lyrics with filmmaker Matt Yoka. The two old friends didn’t set out with any specific path, but Segall wanted to use Yoka’s cinematic instincts to write storytelling songs — like “Possession,” which is about the Salem Witch Trials, and “Fantastic Tomb,” which is about some kind of heist gone very wrong. (I think.)

“Probably by the third song,” Segall says, “we were like, ‘I think these are kind of American stories.’ This is a bit of our version of writing about the American experience.”

Because America is “very complicated and fucked up and beautiful and terrible,” as Segall puts it, various forms of possessions — as in being possessed by something, Exorcist style — pervade throughout. But the other forms of possessions — as in the stuff you definitely need to keep buying and buying — are also as American as apple pie. (Just looked it up: Apple pie actually originated in England.)

Below, Segall walks through some of the possessions and inspirations that made album number 16, or whatever number you want to give it.

Getting A Piano

TY SEGALL: I bought a piano and took lessons, and actually made it a goal that I had to write songs on the piano. And musically, there’s so many influences there. For me, it’s Brian Wilson’s stuff — Smiley Smile. The deeper kind of Beach Boys piano stuff is fantastic. And there’s so many classic things, like Neil [Young]’s piano songs.

What kind of piano is it?

SEGALL: It’s an apartment piano. So it’s the smallest real piano, with the shortest scale, but it’s still a legitimate piano. I think it’s only four feet wide.

Save on moving fees that way.

SEGALL: Yeah, still expensive to move, but it sounds great. It’s the piano on the record.

Did your teacher know that you’re a professional musician?

SEGALL: Oh, yeah, he’s an old friend of mine. I actually learned a lot of music theory by learning a bit of the piano. It’s cool to learn the relationships of notes in a real way. I’ve never taken lessons for anything before. It’s kind of how I operate with recording and everything, so it’s nice to actually do that and know the proper way of how notes have a relationship, because they do. And it’s nice to broaden my musical language too, to be like, “Oh, I know where the middle C is.” [Laughs.]

Arthur Lee And Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire)

SEGALL: It’s hard to pinpoint one storytelling album, but for me, something like Desire, the Dylan record, or [Love’s] Forever Changes, just in a musical sense. I think in my mind I wanted to keep a surrealistic filter. I didn’t want to remove that from the storytelling. So it’s like [Love’s] Arthur Lee and Pretty Things, or these kind of touchstones of psychedelic stuff that I love. But Arthur Lee is a great example, because there’s definitely some social commentary in his lyrics. And then I wanted to combine that with more cinematic storytelling.

My instinct from how Possession compares to your general discography is that there’s bigger structures — like big, bombastic outros that take the songs in a different direction. And that fits with Forever Changes, where it’s Arthur Lee having it go where you’re not even really expecting at the end, or having a pre-chorus that’s really built up and that kind of thing.

SEGALL: Yeah, and I think that record is my biggest reference for strings and horns — and some Kinks stuff and some Beach Boys stuff. I think we’re still talking about the musical influence here, but I want to bring up Mikal Cronin, who did the strings and the horns. Mikal did such a great job.

Which Kinks album were you thinking of?

SEGALL: Arthur. There’s a specific moment on “Skirts Of Heaven” where, I forget the term, but it’s a build that goes like, da-da-doo da-da-doooo. I was like, “There’s a Kinks song where they do that. We gotta do that.”

The Glyn Johns Method

SEGALL: To get into some technical inspiration — technical ecstasy, if you will — I’m going to just throw in [legendary recording engineer] Glyn Johns for the drums. I’ve always wanted to get two Neumann U 67s and do a proper Glyn Johns drum recording, and I got to do it on this one, which was cool. So I’ve done it! Now I can say I’ve done it, and I really like it. It’s not for everything, but it’s perfect for this record.

To give backstory on why this matters to me: I’m a total nerd and I’m an obsessive person when it comes to details of how to make something that I’m into. I don’t care about everything, but one thing I really care about is drum sound. I’m kind of obsessed with how the drums sound on specific recordings, like, “Why does it sound like this on these few records?” And then you realize, oh, it’s this drum miking technique [created by Johns] that’s on all these records — on this Who record, on this Zeppelin record, on this Small Faces record, on this record, on that record. So I did it with the same mics. I actually nerded out and got to do it that way, which, no one cares but me.

Drums were your first instrument, right? In the OC days, that was sort of your entry point into garage rock?

SEGALL: Well, just entry point into playing music. I played drums in my first band that actually was more of a no wave band. We were into James Chance and ESG, and we had all gotten the No New York comp. We were 16, and I didn’t get into the garage-y thing until I played guitar. But yes, drums were my first instrument. I got a drum set when I was two.

That’s definitely the first then. Before your hands can even hold a guitar, you can bang on shit.

SEGALL: Yep. I’ve always been the loud kid. I’ve always been the loud neighbor.

It’s funny, people think of you as a guitar guy. But I like the idea that, deep down, you’re really a drummer.

SEGALL: Well, I’ve tricked everybody. I’m not a real guitar player. I just play one on TV.

Walking A Straight Line

SEGALL: I have no idea if this will ever be read as a classic pop record, but I think I let myself get out of the way — maybe take my pop influences and put them out there. It’s the aspiration to make a pop album — this is my version of a pop album. I’d say for other records, it’s the influence of expanding the sound and expanding the weirdness and the palette. And I think the influence [with Possession] is to strip that down and make it more of a musically straightforward album.

I’d probably say that my previous records influenced my decision to go straightforward with this one. So that’s a weird thing to say — “my previous records influenced this” — but I guess it would be influenced by the decision to go straightforward.

The C.I.A, Fanny, And The Extended Segall Family Band

SEGALL: My family and friends and my experience living life is the greatest influence. I felt that a lot when COVID was happening, and you’re just kind of alone, by yourself. It’s a harder place to be creative because you don’t have much experience but staring at the wall. So I think the greatest influence on me is living life and experiencing life. I know that’s like, “Ah, whatever, man. Boring!” But it’s true. I really feel like living life, traveling, playing music, and being around my family and friends very much influences what I make. So that is the greatest one. I’m a simple guy.

Well, your family is also so integrated into what you’re doing. You and Deneé have the C.I.A. project, you write songs about your dog, Fanny — and I mean, Deneé took the Possession cover photo of the car, right? None of this is separate, artistically.

SEGALL: Yeah, Deneé is my most important partner in crime. It’s got to pass the Deneé Test or it doesn’t go on the record.

What’s the story with that car?

SEGALL: That car is on a hiking trail in Laguna Beach, where I mostly grew up. I’ve known about that car for a while. It’s a bit of the idea of man versus nature — this whole insane thing of man trying to conquer nature. That’s just one little slice of the American thing, but it felt pretty appropriate to have this busted car that at one point was probably the height of technology, and now it’s being engulfed by nature. And I feel like there’s something about that that resonates with me about the whole American story.

We all put our heads down every day and pretend like we’re not looking down the barrel of ultimately getting swallowed up by dirt, but it’s going to happen. You can ignore it all you want, but that’s where we’re all going.

SEGALL: I’m on the side of nature, I’ll tell you that much.

Possession is out 5/30 via Drag City.