Talking To: Psychic Markers
Cinematic sound artistry: London-based band Psychic Markers (Photo credit: Jorge Stride)
As UK theatres and museums sit quietly in darkness, waiting for audiences to return, London-based band Psychic Markers prepares to release its third album. The sonic artistry of the eponymous Psychic Markers merges a well-curated blend of psychedelic, electronic, and nostalgic sounds for a cinematic-like experience.
Each of the album’s 10 tracks tells a self-contained story, from a real-life harrowing encounter with a desert sandstorm in ‘Sacred Geometry’ to an imagined tale of an aging psychic in ‘Juno Dreams’.
Bringing in an additional creative element through their use of analogue equipment, Steven Dove and Leon Dufficy wrote and produced Psychic Markers. They’re joined on the album by Luke Jarvis (bass), Alannah Ashworth (backing vocals), Lewis Baker (percussion), and Jim Wallis (percussion).
Equal parts artists and musicians, Dove and Dufficy recently spoke with The Everyday about coming together as a band, creating Psychic Markers, and their take on writing and performing music during lockdown.
Psychic Markers is a distinct name and one you’ve given to this newest album. Where does it come from?
LD: I used to work in a bookshop and one day this old hippy walked in and asked if we had any books on ‘psychic markers’. He explained that it was a point system, that when added it would show your dormant psychic abilities. Not sure if it’s a real thing, but I was sold on the possibilities, plus I thought it was a great band name and it fit perfectly with our vibe.
Scrapbook 1, Psychic Markers’ debut album, released in 2014. When did the band originally come together? Have the members remained the same throughout?
SD: At the beginning, it was more a case of who fancied jamming with us or playing a show, so the line-up was constantly switching around. That’s really why Scrapbook has its name and the ‘one’ represented the first of what we expected would be similar records—just friends making music in between other projects. It was only really when we recorded Hardly Strangers and released with Bella Union [Records] that it felt like a band in its own right.
Psychic Markers has described itself as ‘cohesive yet diverse.’ When you began the band, did you ever aim to fit into a specific musical genre?
SD: Absolutely not. The last thing I ever want is to be a genre band. I know we all lean on our influences and, of course, we’re no different, so you can hear some krautrock, psych stuff within our music. But then again, we have 50s-tinged pop songs and minimal, ambient interludes. When people ask me what music we make I never know what to say and that’s a positive thing. I really don’t see the point in starting out to fit neatly into the system—it’s mundane.
There’s a feeling of urgency, an almost pulsing of life, through several of the songs on Psychic Markers. There’s even a song called ‘Pulse’. Was this a sonic quality you were conscious of and intending to imbue the music with when making the album?
LD: For me personally when we were doing this album, I felt a little lost with the current state of music. I wanted us to try and shake things up a bit and to try and capture the feeling and excitement of our youth and what music felt like in the days before anxiety and responsibilities.
Are the songs on the album mostly a reflection of your experience with the desert sandstorm, or based also on other life experiences?
SD: ‘Sacred Geometry’ is the only song which is influenced by that directly, but ultimately anything you do is influenced in one way or another by things that happen. That’s the substance of the art. Each song on the record is a reflection of life experience, be it our own experiences or those of the characters we portray.
The album closes with the instrumental ‘Baby it’s Time’. What is the song about and was it written to be the final album track?
LD: It’s probably the oldest track on the album and was written around the time of our second album. Alannah wrote the lyrics to this one and she explained how it represents the time for change: ‘Baby, it’s time to let go’. I think we always knew it was going to be the last track of something—we just had to figure out how to write an album to go in front of it.
You used older musical gear to make the album, including a four-track machine that stopped working after you completed Psychic Markers. Did you at all feel limited with the older gear as you started making the album? Did it take your music in a different direction from your previous albums?
LD: Using analogue gear has its pros and cons. A four-track is such a simple device, but using it to record when you are used to the digital world with its ability to correct every error can be tricky. Our drum machines tended to swing in and out of time and some of our older synths had a tendency to be slightly out of tune on certain notes. We basically just followed the machines and this influenced our approach to the songs.
Has the Coronavirus lockdown impacted your approach to music writing or the type of music you listen to?
SD: We’ve used the time to write some extra material to accompany the album, a bonus cassette that you’ll get when pre-ordering the vinyl. It’s been an interesting process writing without Leon’s input and I'm sure it’s the same for him. We usually rely on one another to get ideas off the ground but for this we decided to take a side of the tape each.
I’ve been locked down in Paris and away from my records, so I’ve not been enjoying music in the same way. My favourite listening time is when I go for a walk or run: the headphone experience.
With the current limitations on live music, do you intend to perform any streaming shows with your new songs?
SD: Only if we could do something interesting with it. There’s too many people jumping on the live streaming bandwagon for my liking and 90 percent of what I've heard sounds like it’s recorded through the microphone of a laptop.
That said, I’ve a fond memory of going to Eureka! in Halifax as a kid and having the opportunity to ride the thrills of a magic carpet around the world. It seems the green screen has come on a fair bit since 1994, so, with any luck, we’ll maybe have some ‘live at the Taj Mahal’ bonus material coming your way soon.