Roughly once a month, Scott Hansen, a musician and graphic artist from San Francisco who records under the name Tycho, finds himself totally lost in nature鈥攊ntentionally. Hansen and his label mate, Christopher Willits, usually set off around noon somewhere among Northern California鈥檚 dense redwoods or along its coastline. Then they hike all night, without a map or a destination, until sunrise the following morning.
鈥淚t becomes this endurance thing, really meditative,鈥 says Hansen, 39, who was a competitive runner in high school and college. 鈥淵ou feel a slight element of fear. We鈥檙e in the woods at 3 a.m., it鈥檚 pitch black, and we鈥檙e barely finding our way on this trail. By the end of it, you鈥檙e just exhausted but also exhilarated.鈥
With tongue firmly in cheek, he and Willits call these adventures 鈥渟pirit journeys.鈥 And for anyone familiar with Tycho鈥檚 music, these trips make perfect sense. Although Hansen makes music inside a dark and cramped Bay Area studio, the expansive sounds he emerges with seem made for the outdoors. He and his four-piece band鈥檚 instrumental music is variously characterized as post-rock, electronic, ambient, or chilled out. But Hansen says listeners often describe it more experientially鈥攖hat it evokes driving along the ocean, sitting in a meadow, or floating above a mountain.
Throughout Tycho鈥檚 four albums, his somewhat spare guitar and synth riffs are drenched in expansive-sounding reverb. The melodies evoke a kind of wistfulness and nostalgia, making ample use of minor chords as well as the kind of melancholic sounds produced by sixth and ninth chords鈥攖hink the ending of the Beatles鈥 鈥淗elp鈥 and Adele鈥檚 鈥淗ello,鈥 respectively. It鈥檚 often driven by throbbing, midtempo bass lines and a snappy snare drum sound. It鈥檚 far too grounded in popular music to be described as New Age, but it鈥檚 also no coincidence that Hansen plays a popular sunrise DJ set at Burning Man every year.
鈥淚n the beginning, I was truly trying to take what I felt when I was in a field or in an outdoor space and directly translate it into the music,鈥 Hansen says. 鈥淭hat was the only way I found I could do it: I was a visual artist before, but I don鈥檛 feel like my skills ever caught up with the vision.鈥
Hansen grew up on the undeveloped edges of suburbia in Sacramento, California, and lived a childhood of free rein over rolling hills, old farms, and the nearby American River. As a competitive track and cross-country runner, his workouts often took him deep into the forest. He says the mental high he got from physical exertion in nature is what he鈥檚 often attempting to convey.
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 call it psychedelic, but it was definitely one of my first experiences with feeling a disconnection from your body,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hat actual high was something I was very aware of and chasing after at a pretty young age.鈥
Today, Hansen often chooses to tackle more personal emotions as musical themes and downplays the overt nature element. But, he says, it鈥檚 always in there. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like you鈥檙e going out [in nature] and you鈥檙e collecting this experience,鈥 Hansen says. 鈥淲hether you鈥檙e consciously channeling that into the work is kind of inconsequential鈥擨 think it鈥檚 what puts you into this state, and you鈥檙e gonna hold onto elements of that, and it鈥檚 going to find its way into the music. I would just say nature is the palette and not necessarily the content.鈥
Nevertheless, the natural world exists as the main theme of his album art, tour posters, and video direction鈥攁ll of which he designs. They鈥檙e almost exclusively graphical representations of the sun, moon, water, monoliths (after all, the name Tycho is taken from 2001: A Space Odyssey), or celestial objects.
Even without any overt human aesthetic to the music, either through vocals or imagery, Tycho has enjoyed popular and critical acclaim. The band鈥檚 fourth album, Epoch, released in September, soon hit number one on Billboard鈥檚 electronic/dance albums chart and was recently in the category of best dance/electronica album. The album鈥檚 success represents an unlikely crossover for an instrumental artist.
As you might expect of a distance runner, Hansen works brutal, sleepless stretches at a desk in his studio. He is aware of the toll it can take on a body, and thanks to his athletic background, Hansen sees the relationship between physical wellness and creativity more astutely than most artists. To him, fitness means having the physical ability to put himself in a studio for weeks at a time.
鈥淚 start to get afraid that when you see artists drop off, it鈥檚 maybe because they鈥檝e lost the ability to really push themselves into this heightened state,鈥 he says. In that way, being active in nature also serves as training for his work.
鈥淪ometimes I wonder if I鈥檓 just memorializing my youth when I spent all this time outdoors,鈥 Hansen says. 鈥淚 always envisioned my adult life like I鈥檓 going to run every day and live in the woods in a cabin if I can鈥攁nd here I am living in San Francisco and working in a studio. It鈥檚 almost like I make music that makes me feel OK about the fact that I鈥檓 not out there actually experiencing nature.鈥
Hansen has been on an extended break since the release of Epoch and gets outside as often as he can ahead of a busy 2017. The band has toured extensively in Asia and Europe and is a fixture at large outdoor festivals like Coachella. Hansen is now gearing up for an Australian and Asian tour at the start of the year, which then will take him through the United States and around Europe.
But the band鈥檚 final show of 2016, a set at the Treasure Island Music Festival in San Francisco, was memorable. As they had done all weekend, the skies opened up and poured torrents of rain during Tycho鈥檚 performance. There are few bands for which this would seem more appropriate; naturally, Hansen and his fans wouldn鈥檛 have had it any other way.