Nothing Is Real | 2026.13

TMODM: You’ve described Traum as drawing from the bands that defined the psychedelic aesthetic, especially the late-'60s British side of things. What were the strongest influences on "Hector's Theme"?

Traum: One could say that if our prior output leaned more toward the British style of psychedelia, with "Hector's Theme" there might be closer ties to what we refer to as American garage rock.

We were listening to stuff like "Seven and Seven Is" by Love, for example, during the time we got turned on to that particular drum beat. There is also a different overtone in the overall atmosphere with this one. Compared to our prior stuff, it's more of a "fuck flower power" and "I feel wasted" kind of vibe.

TMODM: Your earlier releases were largely written, recorded, and mixed by Helen in Traum's own "dream studio," but "Hector's Theme" is credited to the full band and was produced and mixed by Tobias Lichter. Did the writing or recording process change for this single, and what did Tobias bring to its sound?

Traum: Helen retired, and Tobias has now completely replaced him, resulting in a different approach to the recordings.

Everything except for the vocals was performed live in a single take, still in our own little studio room, though—the aforementioned Dream Studio, a.k.a. Room 13. Mixing was also done live in just a few takes on our old trusty console, using only analog effects.

TMODM: The single presents "Hector's Theme" in both vocal and instrumental versions, which makes the arrangement itself seem especially important. Who (or what) is Hector, and did you think of the song as a character theme before the lyrics were added?

Traum: It's a song about supremacy, victory, loss, and defeat—just like the story of Hector.

This time it felt appropriate for us to also offer an opportunity to listen to the music without being distracted by the words.

We are very happy with the outcome and hope to share more of our recordings from that session with you soon!

TMODM: You've said that "Dirty Laundry" came from watching a friend go through a difficult time while rumors spread and social media amplified the situation, but you've approached the song through a '50s/'60s electric blues and gospel sound. What inspired you to pair such a contemporary issue with that classic sound, and how did Billy Rogers get involved to do the "Fillmore East freakout" sax solo at the end?

Datura4: I guess we’re trying to avoid the usual clichés that you would associate with the blues or any other form of music. The subject matter could work with any style. The idea for the song was to have a classic blues feel behind it that was rocking and a straightforward way of putting the song’s message across. As with pretty much all the Datura4 material, we like to twist it up and make it our own. Adding the gospel-sounding vocals gave the song an added power and dimension.

We also wanted to stretch things out with some saxophone on the outro. I’d worked with Billy in a previous band and wanted to get him involved. The outro jam was perfect for both Billy and Bob to improvise to. We had them track their parts together, so they were playing off each other. It’s the kind of spontaneity that we hope to capture when we’re making records.

TMODM: High on the Low Brow is your sixth album with Alive Naturalsound, and critics have noted how well it balances catchy melodies with heavy, stoner blues. How conscious is that balancing act between these elements?

Datura4: It all goes into the melting pot that’s been the key and the core of what Datura4 do. The song has to come first, and having a decent melody or riff, a cool groove, and then making it heavy comes from a lot of experimentation and jamming until we’re ready to roll the tape.

TMODM: Datura4 has always felt deeply rooted in the specific sonic landscape of Western Australia. When recording High on the Low Brow in Fremantle again, how much does the local Perth music scene continue to shape your sound?

Datura4: Our influences are wide and varied, but the fact that we live here in the West does play a part in the band’s sound and identity. I’m not sure if the local scene has a huge bearing on how we shape our sound. We pretty much do our own thing and play shows when we can at venues that are available to us. I’d like to think Datura4 are unique to the Perth scene.

TMODM: The songs on Smuggler’s Cave reportedly grew out of long improvisations during breaks between tours. Was "Rise and Fall" a track that came together quickly, or did it take a lot of shaping from the initial improvisation?

Humulus: The writing process for "Rise and Fall" was, for sure, one of the fastest on the record. We started to jam on the main riff around late December, then we recorded some improvisation on this riff and just left the song in this draft version for a few weeks while we worked on the more complex songs on the record.

At that point we had only written the guitar and drum parts because our bass player, Giorgio, stopped playing with us around the end of January. When we came back to finish the song, we added the final doom section and built the bass part with the new bass player, Fabio, who has been replacing Giorgio for the past year. He played on all the recordings and will be joining us on the upcoming tours. We finished his bass parts just a few days before starting the recording sessions.

TMODM: Humulus began with a more direct stoner rock sound, but your later records have moved into increasingly psychedelic territory. What has Thomas Mascheroni brought to the band’s writing process, and how has the chemistry among the current members changed the balance between heavy riffs and more expansive passages?

Humulus: For sure, Thomas's attitude toward writing songs is more influenced by garage and classic rock than the guitarist and singer we had before. So the songs are shorter, faster, and maybe a little bit easier to listen to.

On our records—including Smuggler's Cave—we still have some songs where we love to expand with instrumental parts and psychedelic vibes, but for sure less than on the previous records. Maybe we're just a little bit bored with the old method of writing songs and then playing those songs live. I think we were more focused on making the new songs have a stronger impact, especially when we perform them live.

TMODM: You have said that the music usually comes first and the lyrics are written afterward, with Smuggler's Cave providing a thematic thread for the album. What does the idea of "Rise and Fall" refer to in this song, and how does it fit into the album as a whole?

Humulus: As we never start from a "concept" for the lyrics, there's not a real thematic thread between one song and another.

Thomas always writes the lyrics as the last step of the composition process, starting from a kind of "lyrics jam" while we are playing the song. Then the words that sound best are saved, and from those he starts to build the lyrics. Sometimes, even while we're recording in the studio, we change some of the words.

And for "Rise and Fall," it was the same.

TMODM: The four of you have known one another since high school. How did that long friendship eventually turn into Korlakang, and what kinds of music first brought you together?

Korlakang: We were really just high school classmates sitting next to each other, sharing desks and talking until we became close friends. That closeness stayed with us through university as well.

Even after those years, when life took us in different directions, music was always the one thing that pulled us back into the same room. Back then, we were just fascinated by heavy rock—not the polished kind, but raw, heavy music with strange regional accents from quiet corners of the world.

TMODM: "Samong Sai" blends the sound of Thai traditional music with psychedelic rock. Which Thai musicians, instruments, or musical traditions had the strongest influence on the song?

Korlakang: To be honest, explaining sound is a bit difficult for us because we just like whatever feels simple and special. There is no specific Thai instrument we tried to copy.

It comes more from our daily lives. We grew up living close to our elders, listening to their rhythms, their quiet romance, and the atmosphere of old days. "Samong Sai" is just us tuning into those memories.

TMODM: Go Kurosawa mixed and produced the record, and Samong Sai is being released by Guruguru Brain. How did that relationship begin, and what did Go bring out in the recordings that you might not have discovered on your own?

Korlakang: We are all very big fans of Kikagaku Moyo. To us, they didn’t just make music—they opened a big, strange door connecting Asian music to the world. We were just four ordinary guys standing there, looking through that open door in amazement.

Working with Go-san felt like being drawn into a strange magnetic field. He helped us capture our true intention without any pretension.

TMODM: The Curse of Nephtar is an ambitious concept album. You've described it as an allegory for the "resource curse" theory and the tragic influence of fossil fuels, told through the story of Nephtar, a powerful black orb rising from the prehistoric Tethys Ocean. Where does "In the Company of Stars" fit into this narrative, and how did you go about translating such a real-world issue into a heavy psych composition?

Pelegrin: To tell this story, we've used a combination of lyrics, spoken word (heard on "Eons" and the closing track "Break the Omen"), as well as sound design—sounds of a tree being cut down, echoes of the Nephtar orb coming to life, and quotes by U.S. thinker Van Jones and a Venezuelan oil minister about the dangers of oil dependency.

Many listeners will miss the general message and focus on the music, which is absolutely fine.

But we've tried to create opportunities to dig deeper and create meaningful connections with the album as a whole, including the story that's being told.

For example, we've created a mini-website for the occasion.

You can see the story unfolding, read the lyrics, find out about the underlying real-world facts, and of course eventually hear the music, though currently only two singles can be heard.

https://curseofnephtar.my.canva.site/pelegrin

In short, "In the Company of Stars" depicts the rise of Nephtar from the deep ocean to the surface. It finds itself stuck in desolate lands, with the sun and stars as its sole companions. This depicts the real, historical process of oil moving to the surface through porous rock over millions of years.

We imagine the desire of oil to reach the surface, and its bitter loneliness when it ends up stranded in the desert.

TMODM: For your first few years, Pelegrin operated largely as a studio project, but you've recently emerged as a powerful live act, sharing stages with bands like Naxatras and Ufomammut. With Jason Recoing handling the studio bass and Nacim Virieux taking over live duties, how has this transition to the stage changed your approach to writing and performing layered, atmospheric tracks like "In the Company of Stars"?

Pelegrin: Over the last couple of years, as we've started to emerge as a live act, we realized that our setlist lacked some power and speed.

Our first two albums have lots of dynamics, atmospheres, and fragile, quiet moments, which are great on record, but it's harder to maintain a crowd's energy with them. This has encouraged us to strive for more direct, faster, heavier songwriting—on our scale, of course, which is still quite proggy and psychedelic. We haven't turned into Conan overnight!

Still, overall, we see studio work and live work as quite separate.

Meaning that we don't shy away from elaborate arrangements on record just because we won't be able to play all of them live. We don't feel an obligation to provide the exact same experience in both settings. Actually, that would be boring and predictable, no?

"In the Company of Stars" is a good example of that. We let our imagination run wild with acoustic guitar, percussion, intricate sound design, and of course the fantastic guest vocals of Halima Joyy. No limitations whatsoever.

Now we'll have to adapt it for live performances, but we've rehearsed it quite a lot already, and it sounds great live as well!

TMODM: Your first two albums, Al-Mahruqa and Ways of Avicenna, were self-released. How has working with a label like Ripple influenced your approach to the music?

Pelegrin: There is no direct influence on the creative process—Ripple is very hands-off in that regard. They let artists work their magic. They're not here to make decisions for us or push us in one direction or another.

Ripple simply does a great job of making sure our music is seen and heard, with great PR, fantastic physical products, and worldwide distribution.

So, again, there was no pressure from Todd and his team whatsoever. We could feel their absolute trust.

That being said, we definitely put more pressure on ourselves after joining the label. Because when your music is in the same catalog as 1000Mods, Yawning Man, Wo Fat, The Obsessed, and so many other legends, it pushes you to give your absolute best—and we have.

First time in a professional studio, first guest musicians, more elaborate storytelling, refined songwriting, better musicianship... We really tried to take things to the next level, and we hope that listeners will feel it!

TMODM: You’ve described Light and Shadow as an album about duality. Why did "Self Told Lies" feel like the right song to introduce that concept to listeners before the full record was released?

Saturna: It was mainly a decision to present a short and direct song that already had the essence of the band's sound while at the same time showing the evolution the album contains. Now that you point out how it reflects the album's concept lyrically, I guess "Self Told Lies" reflects the theme of duality on a very human, relationship-based scale, regarding the contradictions that arise when you believe in somebody and then get disappointed by that person.

TMODM: On this album you collaborated with musicians like Lucas Herrera (Rhodes and Hammond), Mariano Rupil (classical guitar), and John Mann (words and voice). How have these collaborations shaped Light and Shadow, and in what ways do you feel Saturna’s sound has evolved since your earlier work like Atlantis or The Reset?

Saturna: These are very talented friends who helped by playing instruments we don't normally play live or master ourselves.

So it gives the album the opportunity to have different skits, instrumental soft moments, and additional production layers throughout the songs.

We used these kinds of layers and arrangements in songs before, but never had instrumental tracks with a couple of themes that give this "soundtrack" vibe to the album. Light and Shadow isn't a heavily produced and arranged album, because we wanted to keep it fresh and real and be able to play it live with just the four of us. So that would be one difference compared with the production and mix on The Reset, which is a little more overproduced (in the good sense of the word).

We always try to evolve and become better writers, arrangers, and producers, so yeah, I think it's always a step beyond. 🙂

TMODM: You’ve built a reputation in the Barcelona underground since 2010 for your live chemistry. How much of that unfiltered live energy influenced the production of Light and Shadow, and how does it push your sound forward from 2023's The Reset?

Saturna: That's what we wanted to capture a little bit more on this album—making it more raw and making sure we can play it live without adding anything.

We recorded the live session at 7 Barbas, and there you can see that there's not much difference when you're just listening to the four of us.

TMODM: Akvoturo explores the role of water in human civilizations, but the title's use of Esperanto is also a nod to the ESP label. How did the philosophy of ESP's revolutionary free jazz and outsider psych influence your improvisational framework when building a sonic concept around water?

Kohoutek: First, I have to state that we did not set out to make a concept album. It's all very abstract, as improvisational music is sonic magic, where surprising results occur. That's really the driving spirit of Kohoutek. We are an improv band, and all of our records and live shows are almost completely improvised (except for the handful of covers that we've tackled). If what you hear sounds like a composition—something that we rehearsed—that's a compliment of the highest order. Improvisations are spontaneous compositions, and the ultimate goal is to create pieces that sound cohesive and structured while maintaining their unpredictability.

How did I end up making the album about water and civilization? One night while I was listening to the final mixes and trying to figure out song and album titles, it struck me that each piece possessed a watery quality, and my brain concocted this loose concept of how water created life and how civilizations evolved with it. Hallucinogenic drugs may or may not have played a role in this. It's instrumental music, so each person who listens to it will hear and see different things in it. I tend to think a lot of our music relates to space travel, and this one seems more earthy.

Titling it in Esperanto is clearly a nod to the label that has long been a major inspiration to me. Esperanto was invented to be universal, and music is universal; music and language are elemental ways for humans to communicate. Obviously, Kohoutek doesn't sound specifically like anything on ESP, but all the free jazz—especially Sun Ra, Milford Graves, and Albert Ayler—and outsider psych/folk like Pearls Before Swine, The Fugs, and The Godz inform the band with their highly idiosyncratic and anything-goes approach.

TMODM: "Inundo" begins with a slow pulse before accelerating into heavier, fuzz-driven territory. How much is carefully planned and how much emerges from improvisation in the moment?

Kohoutek: None of this was planned at all!

The first piece, "Pluvarbaro," was edited from a completely different improvisation than "Inundo." I thought they sounded great with a segue, like a calm rainforest slowly turning into a flood.

Sometimes, when we play live, we will have a loose framework to follow, whether it be exploring something in a certain key or mood, or a dynamic (start quiet, peak loud, come back down, etc.). Akvoturo came from a session where we recorded four hours of wildly varying improvisations.

In the studio, we're very much influenced by Miles Davis/Teo Macero and Can, editing and mixing and splicing improvisations to make something coherent. We had zero idea that "Inundo" was going to be a weird sludge-doom jam that morphed into some surfy math rock.

TMODM: The album is a more experimental take on your psych and space-rock sound while still containing what the notes call a "traditional sounding American psych jammer" in "Inundo." How do you decide when to push beyond genre expectations and when to embrace them?

Kohoutek: IMHO, I don't think this album is any more experimental than our first four. We've always been experimental. That was just something to put on a press release.

What was a little different was me playing marimba on the first track. All of the elements of Akvoturo exist on the other albums; they're just put together in a different way. Also, this is the first Kohoutek studio album as a sextet, so it is considerably more dense than the recordings made as a quartet or quintet. "Tidal Disruption" from our previous album, Jurad, is every bit as experimental and unique as anything we've put on wax.

To close, I have to stress that, because of our improvisational nature, Kohoutek is truly a live band. You can see us 50 times and no two sets will be the same. This is why I have released many live recordings on my Clavius Productions Bandcamp page.

In recent years, I've taken Kohoutek into more of a drone/acoustic direction, somewhere in the realm of Third Ear Band, Taj Mahal Travellers, and Popol Vuh. There will be a studio album with this vibe at some point.