Tim Presley

When Tim Presley began playing guitar at the age of nine, there's likely no way he could have imagined the twisting path his musical career would take. Once the West Coast musician began playing in bands, his choices have been unpredictable, but never anything less than interesting. He started off at a young age playing in hardcore bands, most notably the Nerve Agents, who formed in 1998 and released two albums (1998's Days of the White Owl on Revelation and 2001's The Butterfly Collection on Hellcat) over the next few years. When that band split, he formed the more musically diverse Darker My Love. With influences ranging from country-rock to shoegaze, their neo-psychedelic journey played out over a series of singles and albums, mostly recorded for Dangerbird Records. The first album, Darker My Love, was released in 2006, 2 followed in 2008, and their third, Alive as You Are, arrived in 2010. Presley didn't confine himself to one band, though; in 2006 he joined the Fall when the musicians backing Mark E. Smith got fed up and left their U.S. tour. Presley and fellow Darker bandmate Rob Barbato finished the tour and appeared on the Fall's 2007 release, Reformation Post T.L.C. In 2009, he hooked up with Texas garage rockers the Strange Boys, providing backing vocals on their 2010 album for Rough Trade, Be Brave. Meanwhile, Presley had begun recording lo-fi, trippily psychedelic songs on his own using a four-track. The first evidence of his work as White Fence was a self-titled record that came out in 2010 on the Make-a-Mess label. Made up of songs put on tape between 2008 and 2009, but were never supposed to see the light of day, the record did well enough that White Fence became his main concern afterward. The next White Fence record, 2011's White Fence Is Growing Faith, followed the same woozy, garage-psych template as the first and was released more widely by Woodsist Records. Also in 2011, White Fence released a live cassette (Live in LA) on Teenage Teardrops and a single ("Harness"/"The Pool") for Afterlife Records. Presley seemingly spent all his time plugged into a four-track as he filled 2012 with records. First came a collaboration with Ty Segall on Drag City entitled Hair, then two lengthy White Fence albums, Family Perfume, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, both on Woodsist. Presley also started a record label, Birth Records, and kicked it off with a release by L.A. songwriter Jessica Pratt. The next year, White Fence jumped over to Castle Face Records for two albums, the slightly higher-fidelity Cyclops Reap and a live album, Live in San Francisco, recorded with his touring band. The pull of cleaner recordings and mid-fidelity proved too strong for Presley to resist, and the next White Fence album was recorded at Ty Segall's studio. Featuring drums by Nick Murray of the live band, For the Recently Found Innocent showed off some country-rock influences and was released by Drag City in 2014. Around that same time Presley and Cate Le Bon had become friendly, as both had recently moved to Los Angeles and were admirers of the other's work. She joined the White Fence live band as guitarist and the duo bonded, quickly deciding to work on a new project together. Under the name DRINKS, they recorded an experimental album of off-kilter psych rock called Hermits on Holiday. It was released in August of 2015 on Birth Records. He also branched off in an even more experimental direction, releasing an album of electronic music and weirdness under the name w-x in November of 2015 for Castle Face. Presley continued working with Le Bon, and she produced and arranged the first album he made under his own name. The WiNK was issued by Drag City in September of 2016 and featured Warpaint's Stella Mozgawa on drums.
© Tim Sendra /TiVo