How moving back to Vermont helped King Tuff revive rock ‘n’ roll roots

Before he came home to Vermont, Kyle Thomas had spent over a decade out in Los Angeles making music as King Tuff. So he felt a little disoriented when he found himself back in LA on tour this spring. “It’s definitely surreal,” Thomas said over the phone during that LA tour stop for "MOO," his new album. “I lived here 14 years. It’s like, ‘Wait, did I actually move away? Do I still live here?’" He stopped by some of his old haunts and felt almost as if he'd never moved back to the Green Mountain State last year. “I don’t really miss it. I miss the people and my family that lives out here, but when I’m here I definitely am still happy I moved back to Vermont.” Thomas is also happy to be concluding his “MOO” tour in his home state. That stretch run includes a show Tuesday, May 19, at Higher Ground in South Burlington. It ends four days later with a sold-out gig in his hometown of Brattleboro. Living ‘the art life’ a la David Lynch Thomas decided to settle down in the Northeast Kingdom when he returned to Vermont a year ago. He's enjoying the space and nature and commiserating with his elderly neighbors. “There’s my community there” in the Kingdom, Thomas said, “but also the whole state feels like a community. It feels very connected in a way that I didn’t ever feel out (in Los Angeles). It’s just really nice. It’s inspiring to be there. It weirdly feels like I can do anything there. It feels wide open.” Which helps for artistic inspiration. “The seasons really bring out different feelings in me that I never had in LA,” he said. “I feel more emotional (in Vermont) in a nice way.” "Also it just comes down to pure boredom," Thomas said, laughing. “There’s not much going on so you have to find ways to entertain yourself. There’s no distraction." In Los Angeles, he felt pressure to go out and meet people and experience the life of the city. “Now I just feel like I should go outside and take a walk in the forest. It’s just better for creativity,” he said. “In my mind I want to live, as David Lynch said, ‘the art life.’” Evoking glam-rock, Tom Petty, The Replacements Thomas applied the art life to King Tuff’s new album. He recorded “MOO” on an old tape machine he used for his first album in Vermont two decades ago. Instead of the keyboards and strings on his past couple of recordings, including the Vermont-inspired 2023 release “ Smalltown Stardust ,” his new one bellows with snarling guitars and vocals, returning Thomas to his rocking roots. The track “Stairway to Nowhere” melds classic rock and glam-rock. “Landline” has an early Tom Petty vibe, raw but tuneful. The melody of “Delusions” echoes another Petty project, the Traveling Wilburys’ song “Handle with Care,” while provoking with pop-punk hints a la The Replacements. Thomas said he’s proud of his past few albums but felt it was hard to pull off their layered sound in a live setting. For “MOO” he focused on songs that would be fun to play as a streamlined rock ‘n’ roll power trio. “I just generally wanted to make a fun record,” he said. “I wanted to you listen to it and play the whole thing again right after.” Leaving Sub Pop to start his own label Thomas left legendary indie label Sub Pop to start his own imprint, MUP. He’s distributing “MOO” with help from another indie label, Thirty Tigers. “In this day and age, being a musician is really hard,” Thomas said, noting that he’s hit midlife in his 40s. “I’ve got to figure out a way to sustain this as a career. The old models just seem to be falling apart and not working for the musicians, for the artists.” “Starting my own label,” he said, “seemed like an exciting thing to try and also a way to sustain myself if I can make this my job. It’s definitely more work for me, but I enjoy doing the work. I miss being connected to my records in that way.” The changes have revived Thomas. “It’s kind of exactly what I imagined,” he said. “It feels like a new chapter.”