©2006 Pete Havey (English language)
Listen to the show here.
Pete: WELCOME TO THE SHOW SALVA - IT'S GREAT TO HAVE YOU WITH US TODAY!
Psicodreamics: Thanks to you Pete, it’s a great honour to be here in your Escapes Podcast and proud to be interviewed by you. Sorry for my bad spoken English. I hope you and your audience understand me. I’ll try to do the best for you.
Pete: COULD YOU GIVE US LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND AND TALK ABOUT HOW YOU FIRST GOT INTO COMPOSING MUSIC?
Psicodreamics: When I was a child I usually listened Original Soundtracks from TV series, movies or documentaries, also all about legends, fantasy tales or mystery stories captivated me. I was looking for most of these songs I heard during my teens but this kind of music didn’t exist or were not available at the local stores. That’s going on until nineteen eighty-nine when I discovered a radio show in the Spanish National Radio, where I could discover by the first time the music of Enya, concretely the song “Fairytale” which great ethereal, fascinating tunes and melodies of this artist made me feel living in a realm of fantasy. Also discovered artists as Constance Demby, Richard Burmer (that recently passed away), Steve Roach, Suzanne Ciani and many others, which music transported me into another land beyond space and time. I realized that I loved the magic of this kind of music, I realized there was an artist in my soul and the need of composing new age / ambient music. Fortunately my parents give away my first Synthesizer in 1990 (nineteen-ninety) and I composed my albums Eamalas (yet unreleased) and The Unknown Frontier, which mark the born of Psicodreamics project.
Pete: CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE "PROCESS" THAT YOU GO THROUGH WHEN YOU'RE COMPOSING A NEW SONG OR ALBUM? FOR EXAMPLE, DO YOU JUST SIT DOWN AND START PLAYING, OR DO YOU HAVE A TUNE IN YOUR HEAD AND KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING BEFORE YOU START?
Psicodreamics: That’s a difficult question but I’ll try to answer. Well, I must say that sometimes my inspiration comes and deliver a good idea in my mind. Yeah, that’s good and I only have to paint that idea in my keyboards. But unfortunately many many many times I get my inspiration when I sit in front my keyboard and start to play. I think these two ways of composing music have great advantages because you can also combine them. As many musicians, sometimes inspiration go out during months and we have to go out and look for it. When it happens, playing the keyboard is something like making a phone call to the inspiration and get the anxious tune. Nevertheless in my case, fortunately, I usually have my muse near me and the tunes arrive after pressing no more than a few keys. Speaking about the stating point of composing an album of Psicodreamics I must say that it comes spontaneously, first of all it comes the general idea. For example, my brand new album TDV started when I watched a famous film called Interview with the Vampire, when I saw those decadent vampires in Paris acting in that dark theatre. I have the idea of making an album inspired by those vampires but I have not the tunes or the idea of how compose an album based on vampires. It’s curious, isn’t it? This is like a great challenge, the main thing that makes me continue in the music business.
Pete: WHAT OTHER ARTISTS OR MUSICIANS HAVE HAD A GREAT INFLUENCE ON YOU OR BEEN AN INSPIRATION TO YOU DURING YOUR MUSICAL CAREER?
Psicodreamics: As I said to you before, I started to be in love with new age / electronic music after discovering a radio show in my country. One of the first songs I remember to listen was “Fairytale“ by Enya, I was astonished enjoying her vocals and the melodies evocating a world of fantasy full of mythological beings like unicorns, dwarfs, fairies and others. I also remember other musicians as Steve Roach and Robert Rich with their album Strata, and Richard Burmer, Suzanne Ciani with her beautiful album Neverland… But personally I think female artist Constance Demby has been a great influence during my first years of musical career. Probably this new age artist has been the responsible that Psicodreamics began playing electronic music. This great artist creates a sonic universe of emotions full of healing energy that evolves me each time I listen her. Finally I must mention Enigma with their first album featuring mysterious and sacred Gregorian Chants.
Pete: WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO WHEN YOU'RE JUST HANGING AROUND THE HOUSE?
Psicodreamics: Well, the first years after discovering new age music I was very busy collecting albums of the musicians mentioned before and other that I have not mentioned as Vangelis, Jarre, Mike Oldfield or Enigma. During those years, we are speaking about from 1990 to 1995, I remember spending about three or four hours a day listening many albums. I must add that looking for that rare albums and finding them was a difficult mission. In my opinion, one of the reasons about spending many hours listening new age music was those years were the best in the new age / ambient music history and the pieces created were very creative and amazing. Nowadays I must say that I have no much time available to sit in my armchair and take a closed listening to the latest albums of my favourite artist. But if I have a few minutes available, I usually listen new age/ambient or electronic music of my favourite artists.
Pete: LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR NEW CD - WHAT'S IT CALLED AND WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF THE ALBUM?
Psicodreamics: Come on. My new album is called Theatre des Vampires (Theatre of Vampires translated from French language) and I took my inspiration from the myth of vampires and the symbolism [simbelizem] of blood as source of immortality. Though the title of the album might appear sinister and frightening, the music traces the more subtle human nature of vampires, beings full of desires and emotions revealing their sensual as a perverse face. I think all the people have something of vampires inside, or have been acted as a vampire anytime, all we have something of predators, a savage instinct which is manifested even in the game of seduction. I have based some tracks inspired by books like Carmilla by (Joseph Le Fanu), Dracula by Bram Stoker, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, or movies like The Fearless Vampire Killers of Roman Polanski where we are evolved by the classical symbolism of the figure of vampires, like their reject to the crucifix, the stake to dead the “no-death”, the intolerable fragrance of garlic, aversion to the daylight or the coffin for resting during the day. Finally I must define this project as an album monstrously emotive and sensual for everyone where we can gather different styles such as ambient, new age or gothic with tracks embellished with down tempo and chill rhythms, using electronic and classical symphonic instrumentation taking the leading role deeper church organs, surrounding human choirs with a wide variety of distorted electric guitars.
Pete: HOW DOES THIS NEW CD DIFFER FROM YOUR PAST PROJECTS?
Psicodreamics: I have to mention two important changes in this new project. First of them has been about making music as easy as I could. Indeed, many albums have been composed and produced using easy software sequencers and low quality samples or synthesizers. The reason is that I always have believed that is more important how to combine the available instruments than the accuracy or quality of sound paying attention to the final combination. In this TDV project I have used advanced music software that enlarge my possibilities to explore new sound paths never explored by me. Secondly this album shows the gothic side of Psicodreamics. This means that my music has been reviewed and catalogued as new age-ambient, also sometimes neo-classical. But in this brand new album I have wanted to show a little more aggressive style with soft dark textures without leaving my personal touch. I must say that I define my music as the slogan sentence “Emotional Tunes for Dreaming”. Now we can change this and say “Dark Emotional Tunes for Dreaming”
Pete: HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO FINISH THE NEW CD, FROM START TO FINISH?
Psicodreamics: It was two years ago when I get in my mind the idea of making an album inspired in the dark world of vampires but that I wanted was not possible then due to the lack of the necessary software and hardware in my computer to carry out the project. Nevertheless last Fall I got the energy to start the composing process playing the piano and looking for new tunes or sequences of chords to the new work. I got the first ideas that were archived since last January when I updated my musical studio adding new advanced hardware and software. Probably I took for about 3 o 4 months to finish the whole album developing the initial files. In addition I must point the challenge of learning to handle the new gear acquired recently.
Pete: DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE TRACK ON THE NEW ALBUM, AND IF SO WHICH ONE AND WHY?
Psicodreamics: This would be probably the million-dollar question. I should have no answer to this question, in fact because I imagine a similar situation where a father would be asked for his favourite son, you know. Fortunately, I think this album has favourite tracks for a wide variety of listener. Also somebody can choose or change a different one due to our daily variable states of mind. Sorry for no answer the question but if you want me to tell you about a track that comprises the main essence of the whole album, this is the fourth track called “Delicious Agony of Love”.
Pete: ARE THERE ANY UPCOMING PROJECTS THAT YOU'RE WORKING ON THAT YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE WITH OUR LISTENERS?
Psicodreamics: Of course, I’m just living a very good creative moment, you know. There are many projects in my mind that I try to maintain under secret usually. But this time I’d want to reveal the secret for you and for your great audience. The first project is to take some tracks of the TDV album developing new versions for a EP. Now I’m not sure which songs I will choose but I hope listeners will help me.
Also I want to re-master my albums Eternal Angel and The Garden improving the sound quality. Another one is about making a revision of the album TUF, which was a first approach using the old gear I had in 1993. An much more that will be announce very soon in my official website…
Pete: BEFORE WE WRAP UP, LET'S TELL OUR LISTENERS WHERE THEY CAN PURCHASE YOUR NEW CD AS WELL AS YOUR OTHER ALBUMS.
Psicodreamics: Yes, they can purchase my albums from the best online stores as Amazon, iTunes, CDBaby and others or directly from my official website www.psicodreamics.com, I’m going to spell my address: (pi, es, ai, si, ou, di, are, i, ei, em, ai, si, es dot com)
Pete: SALVA, THANKS SO MUCH FOR DOING THE INTERVIEW - IT'S BEEN GREAT HAVING YOU ON THE SHOW AND I WISH YOU MUCH SUCCESS IN THE FUTURE!
Psicodreamics: Thanks Pete for introduce my music project psicodreamics to your audience and congratulations for your great Mystic Soundscapes radio and Escapes podcast.
