Though he made plans to “slow down” in 2013, California’s ever-prolific garage-rock son Ty Segall has already released his second album of the year—this time, with his new outfit Fuzz. Segall has largely existed as a solo artist for the past several years, writing and recording the bulk of his music on his own, including this year’s acoustic Sleeper LP. But with Fuzz, a project formed with high school friend and Ty Segall Band guitarist Charles Moothart, it seems like the lone wolf has finally found a pack to roam with.

“One of the downsides of having a solo band is that it’s people playing your songs, and I always want it to be more of a collaborative thing,” says Segall. “For people to collaborate or help each other finish songs, there’s always a side of the coin where the other person goes somewhere you wouldn’t think of going. It’s always a very unique finishing point.” With a shared love for classic heavy-psych bands, Segall and Moothart tossed around the idea for Fuzz about two years ago but due to their hectic touring schedules, the pair had little time to bring it to life.

“We wanted to make sure we had the time to sit down and do it right,” Moothart says. “We’d been jamming on stuff for a while, and we’d written a few songs and were kind of figuring our sound out. From the beginning, we knew we were going for heavy, classic shit. But the name came much later when Ty just threw it out there.”

Segall and Moothart started work on Fuzz’s self-titled debut album with producer Chris Woodhouse (Thee Oh Sees, The Intelligence) late last year. With Moothart on guitar and Segall assuming drum duties, the pair channeled hard-edged psychedelic wizards like Japan’s Flower Travellin’ Band, Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath into an album of riff-heavy burners that sends Segall’s identifiable melodies into deep-space. (The group recently added Roland Cosio on bass for live shows.)“For me, it’s really fun to use a different side of my brain. On the drums, I don’t get to exercise that side of my mind live or jamming with someone besides this experience, so it’s super fulfilling for me in that way,” says Segall. “I would be disappointed if we didn’t put out at least a couple more records. I don’t want this to be a onerecord thing. I want to do this forever and I know Charlie feels the same way.”