Psychic Ills

Psychic Ills - September 2012

Psychic Ills Session
Violitionist Sessions

Session Date: March 9, 2012
Posting Date: September 24, 2012
Artist Hometown: New York, NY
Links: PsychicIlls.com, Facebook, Twitter
Recorded by: Michael Briggs

Incense Head
Mind Daze
That’s Alright
3 QUESTIONS
ONE: Why did you pursue more traditionally-written songs for Hazed Dream, as opposed to the more improvisational style of your previous albums?
Tres Warren: I just wanted to kinda write some more songs, getting more…into some kind of…songier stuff. Listening to some more kind of pop stuff, after having been listening to more kind of like…free or kind of ‘out’ music for the past couple years. I still like that stuff, too, but it was just…seemed like, you know, it would be fun to write some songs.
DJ: Simple enough. Do you think you’ll continue in that direction in the future?
Tres: Yeah, I think we haven’t…I don’t think we’ve figured it all out yet.
TWO: What is it about the music of the ‘60s and ‘70s that is so attractive to you?
Tres: I don’t know if it’s necessarily just that time period, because I like a lot of music from right now, too, but…I don’t know. What do you think?
Elizabeth Hart: It’s kind of a hard question.
Tres: Yeah. Not sure…
Elizabeth: I don’t know if we’ve ever specifically, you know, tried to pull from that time period, or whatever, or if it just comes out sounding influenced by that time…
DJ: Well, what does inspire your music?
Tres: Just playing music, you know? Working on music and writing songs, jamming…
Elizabeth: Right, yeah. Other people’s music…playing together.
Tres: Just playin’.
DJ: OK.
Tres: And listening to music.
Elizabeth: And listening, yeah.
Tres: Do you play music?
DJ: I do, yeah.
Tres: Oh, cool.
THREE: What is it like being a band in NYC? Do you think that the city affects your music?
Elizabeth: There’s so many bands and so much going on in New York, so, I don’t know how it affects, but it does always sort of feel like the energy keeps you sort of on your toes, maybe, a little bit, or wanting to work on it all of the time, I guess.
Tres: Yeah, I don’t know. I’m not sure.
Elizabeth: But, I don’t know, we’ve been there for a while, so…
Tres: There’s a lot of music there just to take in. There’s a lot of music in New York, and then there’s obviously everybody comes through New York, so…I don’t know how it affects things.
DJ: How do you get to and from shows in New York City?
Tres: You’ve got to call a car service. It’s a drag, man.
Elizabeth: It’s a nightmare.
Tres: That’s the downside of it. And now we’ve got five people, so sometimes it’s like two car services.
Elizabeth: We’ve just got to figure out…we’ve got to streamline.
Tres: Or, you know, we might have to buy a van. Insurance in New York, man, it’s no joke.
Elizabeth: Insurance in New York, and also just like, parking, you know, when you’re not using the van…moving it every day for street cleaning or whatever.
– Interview and transcription by Dale Jones