Psylab
February 7, 2006
Artist: Psylab
Program: Revolutions
Psylab consists of bassist Joe Giglio, drummer Steve Asaro, Visuals expert Ed Guild (aka Vizzie) and Dr. Nigel (keys, synth). Joe and Steve founded Nikulydin in 2000, a nine piece that, after natural evolution, whittled down to the current four members of Psylab, an Electronic Dance Music band. Interestingly enough, they insist that most of their best onstage moments are those they didn’t plan. Psylab is performance based, with an emphasis on “spontaneity and intuition,” each show being largely driven by the audience. The band shapes its music depending on the energy that flows between them and the audience; it’s something of a conversation. “There might be some familiar melodic themes and familiar breaks, but exactly where they’re going to happen and when is going to be different experience every time,” says Steve.
The sharp skill of each member coupled with the style of music they play allows for synchronization the Swiss would envy. Each environment and audience is different, so Psylab understand that it wouldn’t work as well to have a great attachment to a particular song, writing its structure in stone, as the majority of musicians do. With the flexibility to improvise, they can take their performances to a whole new level. “You can’t really write those moments in, you just got to feel for them and look out for them,” says Steve. Therefore, the audience and the band may have identical expectations of where the music should go. The greatest Psylab moments are those based purely upon accidents that may incidentally set the band in an entirely new direction. “Accidents become happy accidents and the music goes somewhere else than where we expected it to, but we can all hear what happened and compensate,” says Neil.
Psylab incorporates almost every facet of Electronic Dance Music you can think of, from deep house to psy-trance, hard house to breakbeat, jungle to dubstep. They aim to sound akin to a live DJ set utilizing V-drums, a graphite-necked Modulus bass with a wide array of synth modules, and clear cut synth with focus on sonic patterns, melodic loops, polyrhythm and ambient space. “There’s a lot of fantastic electronic music producers out there…what makes [us] different is that we’re doing this live…without a net and we’re just letting it flow. We feed off the crowd and the more energy we can get from the crowd, the more energy we are going to soak up and give back,” says Joe. He adds that this way “Hopefully [Psylab] can take it to another level and another level and bring everyone that’s in the room with [them].”
The guys multi-track every practice session they do and review it later. They master those they especially like and post them on their website or do a podcast. A lot of their songs are named only for the sake of organization; often when people ask about a certain song, Psylab don’t recognize it. “We also do some random odd covers…sometimes I don’t even know it’s a cover…one guy actually got a record cover and showed it to me,” since it was of the song they were playing, says Ed.
Psylab draw a lot of inspiration from all facets of life, especially from fellow artists. Joe credits WERS’s Revolutions since “it’s pretty much the only station in town where [he] can get [his] electronic music fix on a regular basis…consistently.” They all work to achieve a feeling of transcendence and connect with people on a psychedelic level. It’s evident that they’re usually quite successful, judging by the precise unity which they maintain during their Live Mix, although they improvised the whole set. They credit their fans emphatically: “There’s a little underground community in Boston” such as PsyForia, a PsyTrance monthly held at the Cambridge American Legion Marsh Post says Joe.
Psylab has been performing at various events in the Northeast region and will soon be planning a U.S. and Canadian tour. They have been known to work with such local collectives as Sonic Beating/Changmian, Redtail Collective, Circle / Gnomefatty and others.
-For more information: [www.Psylabunderground.com or www.myspace.com/psylab]