The Psychs seemingly appeared from nowhere in August last year and quickly rose to the top of the Auckland gigging circuit. Having had singles “Gee, I” and “Roaches” charting on the bFM top 10 as well as a spot on the Summer Series lineup, they’ve already done more than many other local bands. Of course, they have ex-Electric Confectionaire Jaisi Sheehan as their frontman, but some hard work by fellow member Simon Davenport has also helped them already get as far as their debut EP, Roaches. Here’s UTR talking to lead singer Jaisi.
How’s it all going?
Sweet.
How long have you been working on the EP for?
We recorded it over a day then mixed and mastered it in about 3 days. The songs are between 1 and 3 years old.
How’d you record it?
We just set up about 4-6 microphones in a small hot room then played the tracks over and over again for a few hours, then over-dubbed the vocals going through my Orange AD30.
Has it turned out the way you expected?
Yeah pretty much, I think for the next single or EP we'll probably use less microphones.
And who’s releasing/distributing it?
At the moment just us.
You’ve played a lot of gigs since you got together last year – did much of this come easily?
For me yeah, ‘cos I didn't do anything… but I think hussling gigs is sort of Simon’s thing.
Are you trying to represent yourselves as a ‘live band’ with this EP? Or are you open to more creativity within the studio?
I think we're just trying to avoid relying on pro-tools too much, we didn't do much to the tracks after we finished recording them and there's pretty much no overdubs, just the solos.
Would you say you’re now at a comfortable point with yourselves, musically? Do you aim to reach a definitive stylistic point, or do you prefer to let your music constantly change and develop?
There's definitely not any one sound we're going for, it's more like a whole lot of sounds at the same time. The fun of it for me is trying to make a sound that's different and new so I don't get bored with what I'm doing or figuring out what I'm doing, I like not knowing.
It took only a short amount of time since you formed for you to top the bFM charts and play Summer Series... how’d you pick up so much steam over such a short amount of time?
I guess because we'd all been playing in bands for the last 5 years or so, we missed out on the part where we were really bad and had no songs, so that might have helped.
Does it ever get tiring?
Maybe for Simon.
What do you have planned for after the EP is released?
Nothing really, at some point we're going to try and make a video for Roaches, do another single then eventually an album, maybe a tour.
Is the band aiming for anything specific in the long run? Or are you just letting things happen?
I think we're just going to try and go as far as possible, I like the idea of playing to thousands of people, at the same time I don't think we want to be successful to the point where our music is lame and we don't care.
Will you tour at some point? Where?
Yeah, I'd quite like to tour NZ maybe even just for the practice then eventually Australia then one day America and England… but no plans yet though.
Who do you enjoy playing with? Anyone you’d like to share a bill with at some point?
Well I'm a big fan of Rackets so playing with them was cool, also Nevernudes, Eastern Flowers, Connan Mockasin, Good Fun… and Wildwood Lights was cool. And I guess [summer series bands] Kody & Bic and Die! Die! Die!, who I reckon are some of the sweetest bands around. Then hopefully one day the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Strokes, Amy Winehouse, Gorillaz… anyone who's a bit cool.
What do you think of the general state of music in New Zealand?
I think what you generally hear happening at places like Cassette 9 and the Rising Sun are hundreds of times better than anything that's on TV or the Radio.
Michael McClelland
