Psyche - �The inner psyche revealed in the 11th hour�

Industrial Music CDs at eBay USA | eBay UK | eBay DE

30 Mar, 2005 [ Views: 28750 ]

After the success of "Babylon Deluxe" Darrin Huss returns with "The 11th Hour". For this release he has joined up again with Per-Anders Kurenbach after Remi Szyszka decided to part from Psyche to start a new project under the name Nonpoptale. Note that on the single release of "The Quickening" Per-Anders Kurenbach had already returned with his version of "Anonymous Skin" as an added bonus. Let�s say it was written in the stars that both would work together again. "11th Hour" therefore sounds much darker and soundtrack-like than the previous release. You can see Psyche hit the road as special guest of Diary Of Dreams on their entire European tour in February 2005. Time for a chat with the Canadian Marc Almond! (By Bernard Van Isacker)

SL. The album has been recorded mainly with your previous collaborator Per-Anders Kurenbach. Is Remi no longer in the band?

D. That�s correct. Remi decided to make other music on his own, so Psyche is just my decision who I wanted to work with for now. I chose to continue the songs with Per because we have made 2 albums together already, and we found that we had much in common towards the idea of Psyche's future sound.

SL. With the change of personnel you have left the new sound from the previous releases with Remi aside for a more analog old school sound, why?

D. I wanted a more rock sound, so we have alot of drums, and acoustic sounding instruments. Also the analogue sounds have more warmth and atmosphere. Per works with modern programs however, and hey it's all synthesizers and computers after all! I don't make such a separation in the technique, only care about what best suits the emotion of the songs. The style here is connected to the way Per and I express ourselves.

SL. The sound represents the place and time between purgatory and deliverence. What made you decide to follow this path? Anything special that triggered it?

D. That's where Psyche is now. It's the 11th album. I've been through, and seen it all in a scene and a business that's falling apart, and changing, and sometimes repeating itself again. I'm also basically alone without a definite plan. That is Psyche at it's 11th Hour, and this is the document of that situation.

SL. The artwork for "The 11th Hour" is very gruesome...

D. Ravens are "in" this year (laughs)! Honestly I wanted something that won't make people think of calling us synthpop, and something shocking that represents an end to something, and leaves the question of what happens after we become a crushed bird. It actually kinda makes me think of Neofolk like Death In June actually, but anyway, the whole point was to get away from expected images for electronic pop, and ironically it also really fits with the broken, desperate feeling of the whole new album.

SL. Some of the tracks are rather blackish as well contentwise... "Bloodcurse", �Yearning", "Defenseless", "Justice And Damnation", "11th Hour", "Buried Alive... You have been watching too many horror movies my dear!

D. Sometimes life is the horror movie, and I just decided to let all my anxieties and fears pour out over the course of this album. Believe me, I have the same feeling listening to some of it myself. I haven't been on such a subconsciously dark level since �The Influence� album in 1989! Even though it's hard to be so honest about these feelings, sometimes you have to let it out, and music and art are still the best way. I am still an optimistic person but after all this time, I have still reached a point where alot of things upset me lately. These are seriously desperate times after all.

(...)

To read the complete interview, be sure to buy Side-Line issue 50!

Side-Line issue 50 at Side-Line shop
Psyche CDs