Psych Analysis: Weirds interview

As they prepare to release debut album Swarmculture, Leeds psych-rockers Weirds chatted with us about the sonic bricolage of psychedelic music, the genre-evading nature of their musicality – and how this acts as a piece of the puzzle that makes up the UK’s wider cultural landscape.

The Skinny: How would you characterise Swarmculture? Do you think it establishes a specific ‘Weirds sound’?

Aiden Razzall (vocals): "It’s a dark, heavy, psychedelic album. We wanted to write something that treads the line between weirdness and popiness. We still wanted it to be heavy and angry sounding but we also really like pop melodies. I think that’s sonically a theme that runs across it."

Matt Vaughan (bass): "We also wanted to push the dancey stuff. That’s a big part of our sound."

Do you think your 'psych-rock/grunge' categorisation is accurate?

AR: "I think we have psychedelic influences, but it’s up to people to put whatever genre they want on us. It’s not like we set out to make psych or grunge music, it’s just what happens when we’re in a room. And because we’ve been putting stuff together for a really long time our sound has naturally developed since then. But if someone wants to call us a psych band that’s fine. We use stuff that naturally transports the listener somewhere else: reverb and delays and that kind of stuff. It makes it a bit more psych in that way."

Dave Nash (drums): "I think we struggled at first knowing what we were so we just said we were psych because we couldn’t think of a better way to describe ourselves. I think that’s tagged along with us."

What do you think of the Leeds scene at the minute?

MV: "There’s a band we played with the other week called Mush – they’re really good. They’ve got a Brian Jones Town Massacre kind of thing about them."

AR: "They have a Lou Reed kind of thing going on; subdued vocals and New York guitars. We like Team Picture too – I guess some of their sound is psych, a lot of their songs are quite stylistically different."

DN: "The first song they did, Birthday Blues, is really good."

How has the scene developed since you've been a band?

AR: "I feel like there was a period a few years ago where Hookworms, Menace Beach, Cowtown, etc. who, although all sonically very different, were cultivating a scene. But I think the good thing about Leeds is the wide variety of bands. I heard a quote by John Peel about how there’s no other place in the country that’s got as many bands in a square mile as LS6. I think it’s true. On our street there’s three bands: us, a soul band, and some electronic people two doors down. Being in an environment where there are so many different types of music all the time..."

MV: "...Kind of gives you the freedom to do whatever you want."

What do you think about the continuing popular fascination with psych?

AR: "It might have started out as a trend to kind of look backwards and take things from history. I think there’s a lot of psych music that has become more accessible in the mainstream. There’s bands like Tame Impala, who you could classify as a psych band, but then Rihanna sang one of their songs. Maybe that idea of sonically exploring more has become more recognised in the mainstream – I think that’s why there’s a fascination with it. Pop music 10 or 20 years ago used to be a lot weirder sonically than it is now; it’s all quite uniform now, so there’s a longing for people to get back to something that’s more interesting than stuff you hear on the radio today."

DN: "The fact that Tame Impala makes psych ‘poppy’ is important. If you’re interested in pop but you like them, you might go on and search for other bands who are like Tame Impala."

How would you say it fits within the UK’s wider cultural landscape?

MV: "I couldn’t describe what a psych band is. But you could look at lots of things that are going on now internationally and pick out elements that sound a bit psych. I think everyone is getting very interested in manipulating sonic structures and making stuff that you don’t necessarily hear as much anymore. That’s what you need. Something that hasn’t been heard: a sound, a weird synth or something. So people will listen to it because it sounds really odd. Not just consumers, either, but also other musicians – they’ll be interested in what pedals you used for certain sounds."

AR: "Maybe it’s because we live in a digital age where everything is completely instant... You know, you can make a song on your iPad, and maybe people are wanting something that expresses the materiality of writing a song a bit more. People wanna know exactly how stuff has been made rather than just using some plug-ins on Logic or whatever. Because everything is so instant and so easy to access now, people are actually looking to the past to…"

MV: "...Find a way to personalise their sound?"

AR: "Yeah, to give it some more meaning."

DN: "The vinyl revival probably helped as well."

AR: "It’ almost become a hybrid thing with that, because you can get those packages that will cater for your tastes. They will give you three random vinyl a month based on your Spotify listens. Maybe the vinyl revival did start out as a fad, but it’s now maybe part of a wider thing where people want something more physical rather than instantly getting a song. People want more of that waiting for the mystery of the record to come in the post."

How do you think psych crosses over into other genres? Could it be seen as a less explicit, semi-spiritual flipside to politicised punk?

MV: "I don’t think it’s as binary as that. I don’t know why everyone is obsessed with psych at the moment."

Zach Thomas (guitar): "There’s loads of DIY psych bands and if anything that’s a pretty ‘punk’ way of going about making music. We’re not too precious. If someone wants to call us punk we’re fine with that. If someone wants to call us psych we’re fine with it. Four or five years ago we had ‘female-fronted five-piece’ – completely factually untrue but we’re fine with it."

AR: "I think psych has become a dirty word and bands don’t wanna say it. People think it’s just a trend. Just make the music you wanna make! Even someone like Sleaford Mods, that you could say are punk, are quite progressive because their music is really simple but has a krautrock, psych influence. Basic beats and some weird keys and then that almost punky vocal over the top. I think people get caught up in trying to label stuff, but if you like the music just fucking listen to it. It doesn’t really matter, does it?"

MV: "I think also the reason I couldn’t really describe psych is because nothing is that black-and-white anymore. As Aiden said, people are making the music they wanna make because they are interested in it, rather than saying, ‘I’m going to make a punk, psych, Alt-J-inspired synth band.’"

DN: "That sounds terrible!"

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Swarmculture is released on 12 May via Alcopop! Records

Weirds play Gullivers, Manchester, 31 May; Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 7 Jun; and Broadcast, Glasgow, 8 Jun

@weirdsband