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Gathered around the same table in the Hangman's bar where 2 years ago elder statesmen Hawaii launched a vitriolic attack on Taunton and it's music scene, sits Sam, Louise, Tom, Martin and Matt, the youthful faces of Pyscadeliasmith. Can we expect the same bullishness? Not likely, but then again....

So where did you get the name?
"We don't really know, although we found that someone else is called Psycadeliasmith, but we didn't copy it, honestly. It came to me subconsciously or something, I think it was a dream"
When was the band formed?
"At secondary school, it was just Tom, Martin and myself,' offers Matt, 'Then we started our course at Huish, so we invited Sam and Louise to come and play with us"
The RSA contemporary music course seems to be a good breeding ground for local bands, did your band form simply because of the course?
"It did, you have to be in a band as a requirement of the course, but we are going to carry on afterwards"
If someone walked into a record shop wanting a CD sounding like your band what would you suggest?
"We never know what really to say to this, no one knows how to describe us. Someone labelled us 'Funk rock' the other day; Andy (music lecturer at Huish) calls us eclectic. We've been compared to The Pixies as well, but I've never heard of The Pixies. We know what we want to sound like, but we probably don't at all."
(At this time weekender begins to think that we are sat down with ten personalities not five, and there seems to be a hint of psychedelic drug damage resulting in a lack of decisiveness.)

P S Y C A D E L I A S M I T H

 

P S Y C A D E L I A S M I T H
PSYCADELIASMITH TEXT ED & TOWSER IMAGES NEIL WHITE
Who writes all your material?
"We all chip in, because we are all quite lazy, we don't use the same structure for every song we just tend to improvise we know each other well enough to do that."
Where do you see yourselves in the Taunton band pecking order?
"You see a lot of grungy bands in Chambers, like Fiction; we would like to set our sound aside from that and be more contemporary. Bands sound very similar, like Spanking Fluffy. They are obviously talented and tight and stuff, they know what they are doing, but they sound too familiar, we like music to be more varied. They sound like The Spin Doctors"
What do you think of the venues in Taunton?
"Chambers is hot and it's a pain in the arse to play in sometimes, it's sweaty, it's small and it vibrates a lot! There are nowhere near enough venues, Chambers may be very sweaty and hot, but it's a perfect venue for new young bands to start out. Sloanes could be good, if you can fill the club out it would be a great venue as it has got a stage and facilities"
The Taunton music scene and music in general is becoming more indie orientated, would you agree with that statement?
"I think it's always going to be there, there is always going to be a sub-culture, saying that we only know of one band younger than us who play guitars. Playing instruments is hard work, buying records to DJ's isn't. Guitars aren't 'cool' anymore"
This time next year you will all be off to university is that it for the band or do you have other plans?
"Well we have been discussing this and we are not entirely sure. We might take a year out and go around the country in a transit van"
Matt interrupts and asks the band who is up for touring next year..." I would do it as long as we weren't bum's for a year" answers Louise. "I guess we will see if we can be bothered."

As Pyscadelia wander off after their photo call, Weekender is left wondering whether talent will be overwhelmed by lethargy. A good reception from their live appearances in the Autumn and next year may convince them they are the perfect antidote to mainstream dumbed down happy-clapping college bands.   BACK 		   La la la la

 
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