Podcast 2021.08 The Day After Bicycle Day

I corresponded with Per Olle Erik Ekström of Mantras
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
POEE: Our influences are probably old surf music like the Surfaris and Ventures, and also new stuff like Holy Wave and Heaters.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
POEE: We are currently writing new material for some singles, which are going to be more organic i feel Than our first release.
TMODM: I’m curious about your sense of the future. Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
POEE: I think we should be optimistic as much as possible. It can get pretty dark, but there is most of the times something that can make you happy.

TMODM: Who are your main influences?
C: We’re deeply inspired by everything coming out from psychedelic, shoegaze, post-punk, kraut, space-rock, dreampop: easy to say that our main references are bands like The Velvet Underground, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Black Angels,The Jesus And Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, A Place To Bury Streangers, Follakzoid … we could go on for days!
TMODM: What’s next for you?
C: It’s a very exciting time for us, our 3rd album “Avalanche” will be released on May 20th by a joint effort between Icy Cold Records (FR) and Little Cloud Records (US), two labels that don’t need any introduction for space rock and psych lovers. We already launched two singles from it, “Desert Daze” and “All Your Pain”, and the reaction was really overwhelming: now can’t wait to let everyone listen to the album in full. The mix and mastering have been in charge of James Aparicio, a real scene’s guru, thanks to his work for Mogwai, Spiritualized, Depeche Mode, Throw Down Bones, The Cult Of Dom Keller, Rev Rev Rev and many others. The cover artwork is a painting by Marco Baldassari, also founder of psych heavyweights Sonic Jesus. Pre-orders for “Avalanche” are already live on our bandcamp and on both labels’ websites.
TMODM: I’m curious about your sense of the future. Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
C: Despite the very difficult time we are leaving, especially for all people involved in music, we strongly believe that we all come back to the things we love. We’re still struggling with the pandemic but when we’ll be out of this storm maybe we’ll have a higher consideration of simple things like gigs, hugs, sharing moments with other people. We want to think positive.

I corresponded with David and Guillaume of CAAPI
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
Guillaume: Psychedelic music in general, free jazz/improvisation, noise music, anything jagged but still strikingly beautiful, the cosmos.
David: My influences are pretty varied and there’s not a lot of music I don’t like to listen to but this project is like Guillaume said, a little more into the psychedelic/free improv realm.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Guillaume: More sonic explorations, probably with a special guest.
David: Indeed, when we’ll be able to play together in our space again, I’d like to record our next album with a certain bass player. Hopefully, he will be thrilled and available.
TMODM: I’m curious about your sense of the future. Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
Guillaume: History comes in cycles, so I guess we’ll hit rock bottom soon, and have probably more cause for optimism around the 2060s. Like 20th century, but with different things at stake. We’ll be playing music, in the meantime.
David: I don’t think I’m as fatalist as Guillaume is in his answer. I’m more of an optimist and I hope we will actually learn from our bad experiences and grow because of them. I think we’re already learning but as change goes slowly, we might have a hard time seeing the good in all of it.

Double Suede – Abstraction of a Song [from Banana Split, released March 12, 2021]

I corresponded with Cristian Barraza of Sun Dream
TMODM: Tell me about “Nowhere Left To Hide” and what you have planned for the future
CB: I’m glad you enjoyed that, to be 100% honest it is a blatant love letter to beach house and the dream pop/noise scene. I don’t think it turns up much in my work but I do consider myself pretty influenced by king gizzard, Beach House maybe some old 70s disco jazz and psychedelic stuff. Glass Beach is a new one. I really do just like to play around with noises and distortion and see how cool I can make something sound by totally destroying it. For the past couple years I’ve been working 100% on solo stuff but lately I have been looking to scratch that itch of being in a more cohesive band or project with other collaborative artists and I would really like to hone in on some song ideas I’ve had for years and see if we can make them bear fruit. Once I am back at my new apartment I would like to find some other artists in my city and see if we can come together and release a little EP that is well put together and not some thing I crapped out from my voice memos. Ideal timeline is about six months possibly till the end of the year.

I corresponded with Josh Ovbey, who also played in oz.
TMODM: Tell me about “Utsuro-bune Nos”
JO: The track you selected is really an outake from our newest record (for now, we are titling and preparing our next two albums as I type). Let me start by thanking you and I’ll try to answer your questions. The first how have we fared thru the pandemic. Su Evets is a weird project. Except for a couple of our albums(the Devil’s Night and 10/15/2015) everything has been made be each of us remotely. Steve lives in WV and I’m in Georgia so we share tracks thru gdrive and put the music together that way. Usually Steve will send me a drum track and I’ll do the synths, bass, gtrs and whatever other sounds fit. The pandemic really didn’t slow us down that much, honestly it gave me time to focus on getting stuff shared thru Spotify and other online platforms. We weren’t in the same room that much to begin with so if anything our process was preparing us to continue working without having to expose ourselves to covid19.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
JO: We have two albums that are basically recorded already and we are just finishing the art direction and track listings etc. I got a new synth(Jupiter X) and having that with the time off from my day job gave me a little of time to put the next stuff together. It’s next level and I’m really excited to get it out to folks this year. We will probably release the first album in the summer and then hold the next for a Halloween surprise. Last year for Encounters we put together a video release for the entire album that we streamed Halloween night and we’re hoping to top that this year.
TMODM: I’m curious about your sense of the future. Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
JO: I can’t speak for Steve about the future but I know for me, even with all the deaths and sickness I still hold out hope for humanity. We are going to come together at some point and our greed and anger will have to fuel some serious change. We have seen that society can evolve- that we can make changes within our own individual lives that can serve the greater good for everyone. Living is easy with eyes closed and all but Covid pulled our heads out of our asses, or at least I hope it has. People will recognize that if you want a future that you have to pay attention to what’s happening in the present.

I corresponded with Michael Hoyt of Keepers of the Earth Peace Revolution
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
MH: Our main influences are Hawkwind, Boris, Earth, Early Pink Floyd, Swans, Neurosis, Sleep and a whole cosmic soup of psychedelic stoner doom bands. Some of our band members are also heavily into Blues and Jazz. I personally bring in my noise rock and doom influences. We are a cosmic soup of styles lol.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
MH: We will always be releasing new music and evolving our sound. Our newest material delves a little deeper into the dynamics of our psychedelic rock sound. This band was meant to be a constantly evolving project with an open door and respect for collaborators to come and go. A bit like a hippie jam band. As the original founder of this band I have promised myself to keep making music for life. I will always be learning, growing and expressing myself through music. Either through this project or multiple bands.
TMODM: Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
MH: I think the whole history of humanity has been fraught with both good and terrible things happening through all time. The modern age has made life easier but not without its own consequences. Dark times is when people’s true colors show. This pandemic has sparked some institutions to care more about humanity and the earth. Which I think is a very good thing even if it’s obvious thinking.
We are all consciousness experiencing itself and I don’t think it’s all the way there. As humanity we need to realize all we have only means something to us, and learn to breathe and exist together despite all of our differences. Because the earth and the universe will keep going on without us. Maybe we’ll all be enlightened by a giant cosmic ray someday lol.

I corresponded with Alexander Gallagher of Shem
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
AG: We each have a plethora of music that has influenced us over time, some of which definitely shines through on the recordings we make – but we usually don’t reflect a great deal on these influences to be honest. Although they permeate our minds subconsciously and find their way into our music, they are not a driving force but rather a means to an end: reaching a telepathic state and celebrating a rite of sonic alchemy.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
AG: We’re currently mixing the tracks for our next release. We will probably record some new ones as well. We might even play a show or two. Time will tell.
TMODM: I’m curious about your sense of the future. Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
AG: There could be a lot to say about this, but the answer to that question lies within the perspective and outlook you have on the world. Even if we might be in the midst of a sacrificial dance during the last days of humanity – as long as the VFB reaches the relegation each season, everything is fine with us.

I corresponded with Guillaume Cazalet of CZLT
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
CZLT: My main influences begin with the work of Stephen O’Malley since 15years. Then Phurpa, Eliane Radigue, Oren Ambarchi, Ligeti, Mike Vest from Bong. Finally, I fall in love with indian music like Ustad Asad Ali Khan, pandit Malikajun Mansur / Parveen Sultana / Kaushiki Chakrabarty as well as the sarod of Ali Akbar Khan, or the sitar of Ustad Irshad Khan and Ustad Nishat Khan, Ustad Saami as well as the discovery of Indonesian Gamelan music of Dewa Alit for example or the french ensemble Nist Nah.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
CZLT: Some releases of my other projects : Neptunian Maximalism, Sol Kia, Ôros Kaù, Zaäar, Oath Okrana, all for 2021. For CZLT I’m actually going deeper into indian/muslim and indonesian music. I plan to use vocals more and explore more different ragas and combine some of those ragas and instruments in an experimental way.
TMODM: I’m curious about your sense of the future. Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
CZLT: We can be optimistic because this world will fall, patience. What happens to us is a good thing and that is the sign of it! I usually say that chrysalis is the state of crisis necessary for the caterpillar to become a butterfly. Solve & Coagula. Crisis (and even depression) is the symptom of something going on. The crisis is good, the crisis is essential! Our medicine: art. Art must be about healing again. BUT, is not for now. We have to spend almost 150 under the Pisces era, that means 150 years of crisis, transition, deconstruction, etc.
“Pisces is a water sign and a mutable sign. They are governed by Jupiter, guarantor of social cohesion, and mainly by Neptune, principle of mysticism. Closing the zodiac, they announce the end of time. Concerned about charity, they aspire to universal love and open up to the infinite. In bad part, their idealism and their refusal of limits lead to confusion and dissolution. The Age of Pisces is marked by collective faith, both religious and political. Pisces is a double sign. Placed one at the top and the other at the bottom, they swim in the opposite direction but a wire connects them. This association of contradictory aspirations reflects a multiplicity of ideologies. It also involves a risk of confusion, or even inversion of values linked to fundamentalism. Marked by the industrial revolution, the end of the Age of Pisces saw a worrying pollution of the environment which threatened even their natural element, the water of the seabed.” (The era of Aquarius which will follow in around 150 years will bring us the following changes: It is ruled by Saturn, which encourages introspection and demand, and by Uranus, which brings the unforeseen but also upheavals and revolution. Symbolized by a human figure, it is fundamentally individualistic but advocates solidarity. On the negative side, its thirst for freedom and its disdain for conventions induce anarchy and utopia. Despite its optimism, the Uranian process is often violent: the experiences sorcerer’s apprenticeship do not have all good surprises in store.)