Phase Materia’s new single Spectrums is an euphoric journey through psychedelic soundscapes. The heavy use of reverb effects and the lovely guitar lines create a dreamy atmosphere that will transport listeners to another realm. Read our discussion below!
Describe your sound in three words
Hermetic Psych Rock
How did you come up with the concept of Spectrums, and what was the inspiration behind the song?
This is a song we’ve had for quite some time and has always encapsulated a feeling of ecstatic positivity for us. ‘Spectrums’ fits this feeling because it’s sort of an all-encompassing physical phenomena found similarly between sound waves, light, and consciousness itself. We were definitely inspired by sounds of the sixties “golden era” but wanted to write something that felt a little brighter and more harmonically dense than what you might actually hear from that time. It’s also in DADGAD tuning to give more of an Eastern tonality where possible.
Can you talk about the symbolism and meaning behind the Telesterion in your music?
The Telesterion was the primary sanctuary of Eleusis which was an epicenter of psychedelia in the ancient world. There’s something about its archetypal wonder which feels like it calls through time itself to be expressed and reiterated in the modern day (at least to us!) As a band, we’re interested in a sort of “archaic revival” of deep mythology and the human connection to deep fields of information.
Can you talk about your experience working with Vinyl Williams on the production of your music?
Vinyl Williams is one of our favorite artists and creators out there, so we were thrilled to collaborate! His harmonic know-how really shrines through on the sonic profile of the track. He also helped us re-release our first record, “Between the Folds” and added lots of dynamic textures with some rare outboard gear and analog spring reverbs and delays. Lionel is overall a breeze to work with and a true visionary when it comes to the healing properties of harmonic, resonant art.
A spaceship from a far away galaxy visits us tomorrow and wants to learn what psychedelia is. What makes a song psychedelic?
We hope this day comes soon and it looks like we might be closer than ever! What makes a song psychedelic might be a more nuanced concept than what that term means in the whole of rock music… To us, psychedelia is more about intention and deep symbolism than even the classic sound associated with it. The psychedelic is truly the edge of where the human mind ends and the universe begins, which lends itself to endless combinatory experiences. Anything that transports your mind’s eye to a visual location through sound alone can be psyche-synesthetic or psychedelic. A lot of what we include in our music is through a process of reaching out into the hyperspace between mind and the universe and interacting with what thrives there.
Artists and people that have influenced you?
We’re of course heavily influenced by sixties and seventies psych and progressive rock, bands like Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, early Pink Floyd, and the like… But also bands like Sigur Ros, Temples, Kikagaku Moyo, Dungen, or The Lemon Twigs.
What isn’t a crime but should be?
Probably black, inter-dimensional chaos magic with malevolent demonic entities. Anything that interferes with the free-will of sentient lifeforms is dubious at best… We’re also rather skeptical of AI for the same reasons.
What is the story behind your name?
The meaning has been evolving the more we learn about the phenomena, but ‘Phase Materia’ refers to the revelatory nature of paradoxical waveform collapses which allow interactions with the quantum field of informational and linguistic consciousness. Simply put, the transformation of one’s experience through the unification of the multitudes. It’s kind of like the noetic equivalent of ‘dark matter.’
Thank you!
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