THE PSYCHIC ECHO

An Interview By Mick Mercer

With one of the albums of the year in their debut ‘Into The Light’ The
Psychic Echo are a duo to be reckoned with, for the emotional honesty
of the lyrics and the shifting style of their melodies.
Come reckon with them. It will be worth it.

So then, Eva Valentine and Dark Star, what musical adventures had you been up to before you formed this band?

Eva – I had never been in a band or sang before we met.

DarkStar – I have been in bands to varying degrees of success since the age of about 14 – it was good in lots of ways to experience the band thing before becoming a duo as it gave some perspective on what other musicians would add to the pot.

Why did you form? How did you meet and decide this would work?

Eva – I always wanted to sing, so I decided to find a music tutor (DarkStar) who helped me build enough confidence to do so. After a while I began writing lyrics and creating melodies for songs, which we recorded with DarkStar providing all the musical backing. At this point we didn’t realise this would continue track after track – until we eventually made a whole album! We didn’t initially set out to make an album. It was a completely natural progression.

DarkStar – Eva had a really creative voice from the off-set but it became really strong and I felt it would be an interesting journey to wrap music around her powerful lyrics. It was a great challenge to build up sounds that reflected the strength of emotion in her writing.

You were originally The Butterfly Effect – but found out there was another band of the same name? In fact there seems to be eight or nine of them out there.

Eva & DarkStar - Yes, we initially became aware of a signed band in Australia of that name and then realised there were quite a few more out there. So even though the name said a lot to us it had to go. We really wanted our name to be as original as our sound. The Butterfly Effect encapsulates the philosophy from the lyrical standpoint that small events can have far reaching consequences. We felt ‘The Psychic Echo’ had the same essence without sacrificing the originality.

You list yourself as ‘Alt/Electronica/Gothic, which is rather a loose-fitting description. Which type of music do you naturally feel closest to?

Eva – I would say we are primarily ‘alternative’. Purely because we don’t want to be restricted by a ‘genre’. Alternative, we feel, has a wider scope for experimentation and influence as a wide variety of music can fall within this category. Although as a young teen I began my appreciation of music in the ‘Goth’ era. It was my first love musically, so I’m sure I’ve been influenced by that vocally and lyrically, even if it was quite some time ago!

DarkStar – I recognise that the feel of most of our music is essentially dark as are the lyrics and Gothic is as good a box as any to express that certain feel.

Eva, your myspace page also states ‘this album saved my life.’ Could you expand on that please?

Before beginning work on our album I had suffered a serious emotional and mental breakdown. During this time I had become suicidal for a long period of time. Reflecting on my life, while contemplating what felt like my imminent death, I realised I wanted to somehow leave my mark on this world before shuffling off this mortal coil. I desperately wanted to leave some kind of legacy, however humble. I did some paintings and toyed with the idea of writing a book, but realised I needed something more, something which would ignite a spark of life in me again. I had always wanted to sing but never had the courage to before. It was a life-long ambition. I dug deep to find the courage and really bared my soul through my lyrics. Expressing myself really helped my emotional suffering and every track gave me a reason to keep going. This experience could not have come at a more pivotal point in my life. I’d reached a cross-roads and music gave me a path to tread. The album saved my life – it really did. Now music gives me another reason to carry on.

"This song lyrically is about accepting the loss of a loved one. Realising that their pain is over and appreciating through grief how precious life is.”

To put the album into context, how soon after you formed the band did you start writing it, how long did it take, how many songs did you have to choose from to whittle down for the final selection (assuming you’re fairly prolific)?

Eva & DarkStar - We began writing the album a few months after meeting. We worked on the first track – Fade Away, for a couple of months and recorded it in September ’06. The whole album took around a year and 7 months to complete and record. Although we discarded some musical ideas along the way, we did use every track we created and finished.

‘The Butterfly Effect’ – is a superb introduction on the album, with impressive vocals, a sweet chorus and good percussive nuances, now how does all that come about in a duo, as usually people are good at their own speciality but can find one area lets them down?

Eva – Thank you. We are really pleased with this track. My strengths seem to be in my lyric writing, song structure and vocals. DarkStar’s strengths are in the musical arrangements and instrumentation. So I feel we work well together.

DarkStar – I have worked in various capacities in bands as a multi-instrumentalist. I have a grasp of what sounds good in relation to the lyrical structure that grew around the song. We knew what kind of feel this song demanded and developed it. Knowing how Eva wanted to present the vocals and lyrics made it far easier, as I know how this would fit to produce a full musical picture.

‘Fade Away’ – delicate and sorrowful, why is that? Are emotional worries a lyrical inspiration?

Eva – Yes. This was the first song I wrote. It was inspired by the loss of one of my dear friends to suicide. It also expresses my own battle with depression and suicidal thoughts and feelings around that time. All my lyrics are inspired by my life. My own, very personal and emotional experience of being human.

‘Beautiful Broken Butterfly’ – where does the appreciation of gentle pop come from?

Eva & DarkStar - We think pop music can be equally valid to alternative music as long as there is strength in the song. Songs that have weight emotionally, lyrically and musically can fit the pop structure without sacrificing there essence. Occasionally something that is musically easy to listen to can communicate a powerful message. This, I hope, is what we achieved in this song.

‘Scars’ – this has an unusual filmic quality, why is that? There’s something intentional about the unusual development of the song isn’t there?

Eva – We wanted to experiment with the development of this track and break away from traditional song structure. I also feel the change to a narrative ending really helped to communicate the emotion within the song.

DarkStar – I love the work of film composers such as Angelo Badlementi, Danny Elfman and Graham Ravelle and feel that as with many of the songs on the record the lyrics were so descriptive that they lent themselves to this particularly descriptive soundtrack style musical backing. The development in the song mirrors the urgency of the lyrics and creates quite a intense sense of claustrophobia.

‘The Dead Don’t Bleed’ – all the songs so far have had clear differences in tone and texture, was that intentional? What’s this one about?

DarkStar – We wanted to create an album of tracks that hung together as a whole but also retained a sense of musical experimentation. I have always found albums that didn’t deviate from a specific sound to be quite boring after about the third song. So here we wanted to change direction slightly.

Eva – I suppose it is intentional to change the tone and texture of each track to a degree. We want to constantly change, experiment and evolve. This song lyrically is about accepting the loss of a loved one. Realising that their pain is over and appreciating through grief how precious life is.

On a stylistic front, where do your ideas come from if there is a great variety, is it through experimentation, through personal preferences? Obviously bands usually have quite a melting pot of influences which will govern how their music changes or develops through time, but with a duo you’d expect quite a narrow defined area. Not the case here though. Are you ever surprised by what you come up with, as though it was wholly unexpected?

Eva & DarkStar - We both have quite broad musical tastes and we are really keen to explore our influences, while still maintaining an original feel to the album. We are quite open to experimentation and have a pretty clear idea of what we want to produce musically, but sometimes we stumble across musical mixes that sound new and exciting.

‘Where Were You’ – did you get my Althea & Donna comparison? It’s got that same cheerily loping style. How did this acquire the shape it has?

Eva & DarkStar - This track came from our musical love of Dub. Reggae and Dub, such as ‘Althea & Donna’ usually feels uplifting, so it was quite an interesting experiment to play with this formula and create something that plays with a contrasting musical and lyrical dichotomy.

‘Crawl’ – how odd is it sharing vocal duties? There’s a touchier modern edge to this track, is that intentional? If so, why? It does rather jar against the rest of them?

Eva – Although sharing vocal duties on this track was a necessity, it was another experimental musical avenue we wanted to travel. I really wanted to portray the feelings of both the stalker and the stalked though a conversation/argument and express the feeling of love turned to hate on both sides. Musically it is rather edgier, yet softer in places in order to portray the extremes of emotions involved. I feel the sudden appearance of a male vocal on this track really suits it, as feelings of ‘intrusion’ are a big part of the concept behind the track. We intend doing more tracks like this in the future.

DarkStar – I found working with Eva on vocal duties quite a natural progression of the musical elements of the song. We really wanted to play up to the duality of the track and I think this works quite well. Again we wanted to explore another musical avenue and rather than jarring I find it an interesting variation within an album that is quite thematic.

“I have always found albums that didn’t deviate from a specific sound to be quite boring after about the third song. So here we wanted to change direction slightly.”

‘Dark Angel’ – is this emotional melodrama or personal fact, as it mentions death having a grip on you?

Eva - This is personal fact, I have battled with a depressive illness since a young teen. I have periodically become very ill during my life. Unfortunately, I have also had more than my fair share of trauma and personal tragedy in my life and many other obstacles to overcome. Over the years I have lost two very close family members, a friend to drugs and three of my friends to suicide. It’s at times like these when my battle with my illness becomes even more difficult, as I become weakened by my illness. This is when my ‘Dark Angel’ can over power me and when I have to battle against the depression the hardest. This track expresses my battle with that illness. However difficult it becomes I always somehow manage to “struggle free” from carrying out the ultimate conclusion to depression. ‘Dark Angel’ is a metaphor for that conclusion.

‘Kill Me If You Dare’ – lovely piano, where does that come from? Piano lessons as child you always hated but suddenly informing your mind later on?

DarkStar – I write most of the initial backing on keyboard but am really self taught in relation to, musical performance. The piano sound does seem to give this track some weight and I think it really lends itself to the general feel and tone of the song.

‘Come To Me’ – why does this sound a bit mental?

Eva & DarkStar - We feel that far from ‘mental’ this track has an urgency and an unusual cadence in the vocals. It’s quite hypnotic and we think this lends it an abstract quality.

‘Lotus’ –  seemed a bit skimpy to me, and didn’t know if it was going in trancey direction or not. What is it, in your minds?

Eva & DarkStar - Lotus has a lighter feeling but it was not an intention to make it a trance track but again to give an ethereal quality. We like the lightness of this track as it is in good contrast to some of the other darker material on the album. We tried to evoke an underwater and esoteric feel.

‘Turn’ – a charming closer, and was it intended as a final track? Did you worry about orders (some bands don’t)?

Eva & DarkStar - It wasn’t intended as a final track, it just was, and seemed to sit nicely where it was. We didn’t worry too much about orders. The most important aspect in relation to the order were the first and last tracks. We felt it was important to end on a positive note, as the album expressed much pain and sadness. We are primarily positive people and the album is about coming out of the darkness and into the light, looking to the future and not dwelling too much on the past.

How was it as an experience for you both, you must be proud of your small round child, but do you regret anything you have done, is there any aspect of the record you’re determined
not to repeat next time around?

Eva - It was an amazing experience for both of us. There were some tears along the way but there were many happy times too. The buzz of completing each and every track was amazing. We are both extremely proud of our achievement. We hope it will be the first of many. We regret nothing.

DarkStar - This album feels very much like a living and breathing fruit of our combined emotional expression. Working with Eva allowed me to express myself musically in ways that I had not explored before and so much of it touches me on a profound and very personal level. I have no regrets in the recording of this album because I think its purity is very much part of its essence.

Eva – being partially deaf, can you explain how you work around the problem, because you’ve obviously worked out how you adapt to the recording process?

Eva – Yes, my hearing isn’t great. I am completely deaf in my left ear so only really need one headphone but they don’t make them like that! Basically I just concentrate on listening and have the volume turned up! DarkStar pans the backing tracks into my working ear to compensate for the lack of stereo.

“I am completely deaf in my left ear so only really need one headphone but they don’t make them like that!”

What do you have planned short-term or long-term?

Eva & DarkStar - We hope to record a number of new tracks and get our music out to listeners. Hopefully we can eventually recreate some of this material in the live setting and keep experimenting and creating music that touches us and hopefully emotionally engages others. The second album will veer more towards a heavier sound and further musical evolution.

And as a duo, how do you find it – with certain limitations, or allowing limitless opportunity?

DarkStar - I think working as a duo opens up a number of challenges musically but also allows us to steer away from the dilution that a number of groups find eventually stifles creativity.

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