Vinyl Williams creates psychedelic opuses with elaborate layers and textures. Frontman Lionel Williams has been pretty vocal and philosophical in interviews regarding his production and approach to making music. We reached out to Williams to discuss the psychedelic genre and his upcoming performance at Austin Psych Fest. Below is our conversation followed by a track from the band. See them at 2:00 at the Levitation Tent on Saturday.
Pop Press INTL.: What does the “psychedelic” descriptor mean to you?
Lionel Williams: Trance-like states, hypnotic repetition cloaked by subtle instance (opposite of repetition), paradoxical planets of sound waves, deliberate effort in the pursuit of raw sound waves rather than meaning or any other logical compartmentalization, lush smooth systems of inner flurry, synesthesia, colonization of the imagination.
PPI: Is a “psychedelic” sound something that you consciously think about when creating music or is that sound just a natural occurrence?
LW: If it’s something you think about, in the moment, usually the thought deters the natural flow. Breathing, or focus on the breath, is an anti-thought that is generative in terms of psychedelic-sounding music. Unless a musician is more interested in creating something catchy rather than other wordly.
PPI: Does it feel different to be playing a thematic or genre-oriented festival rather than a general music festival?
LW: Not really, this is definitely where we belong.
PPI: What bands are you most excited to see on the bill—to play alongside?
LW: Lumerians, Clinic, Warpaint, Tinariwen, Deerhunter, Spectrum, Woodsman, Acid Mother’s Temple
PPI: What were some of the first bands you remember hearing that could be called psychedelic?
LW: Probably “Can” (Monster Movie) was the first, perhaps?
PPI: Can psychedelic music help us to transcend our natural ways of seeing/thinking and reach higher levels of consciousness?
LW: Not only that…it can transmute detrimental currents of vibration (3G networks, WIFI etc) into beneficial. We’re all using the electro magnetic field as our sandbox. If we use it correctly, not based on melody, but on pure tone and rhythm, you can become an impetus towards the global conversion process of harmony. It can also interrelate the senses – the sound becomes a flavor, the visual a feeling, all sensation becomes more of one organism, or at least you gain more of an insight into the mirage of that becoming.
