Top image: Still, ‘Baby’ (2016) Psychic Ills dir. Jason Evans

Sonically, Psychic Ills were trying to go places they hadn’t yet gone with their latest record, Inner Journey Out. Usually bands move away from structure to find comfort or renewal in spontaneity, but what’s customary doesn’t naturally apply to the US band. This time, they’ve restructured things to give their sensibility a different spin.

From The Social Registry to Sacred Bones Records, Tres Warren and Elizabeth Hart’s hypnotic haze spans a decade of trippy, languid guitar leads and bluesy-Americana ambiance. “The challenge to me is to make good songs. I feel like your music should get better as you go and that’s all I can hope for,” says Warren.

On Inner Journey Out, the group’s obscure artistry is put under a microscope, and they sound more alert than ever – crisp chords and vocals that dig deep. Take Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval’s vocal cameo on I Don’t Mind, or seven-minute-centrepiece Coca-Cola Blues, and it’s clear the 14-track record is a journey on an evolutionary plane of its own from start to finish.

Clementine Zawadzki: What is your writing process like?
Tres Warren: It’s always evolving. I write songs and record demos and it evolves from there. At times it may be less improvised, but at other times it’s not. I don’t want to say one period was better than the other, but I think it’s more focused in general now. A song like Ra Wah Wah from Inner Journey Out is one of the most improvised things I can remember us doing, but it’s also one of the better songs that we’ve done. 

“We had a lot of mutual interests in film and music. We were talking about Dennis Hopper’s Out Of The Blue and Monte Hellman, and just exchanging ideas.“

CZ: What is Inner Journey Out?
TW: It’s a collection of songs that represents a few years of writing and recording. The title came at the end, it was almost going to be an untitled record but Inner Journey Out seemed to fit. I don’t want to make it sound like some cathartic statement, but the record had really become this thing that we were getting lost in for various reasons and at certain times it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

CZ: The title suggests it’s a real exploration of self . . .
TW: Yeah I think it’s a pretty honest record, but I’ll stop there. You know, I don’t think people need to know exact details about things. They can have it mean whatever it does to them. I was trying to push us from a production standpoint and have something better and more transparent than our previous recordings. I also wanted to make something that someone can put on and get lost in for a while, take the journey…those are my favourite records.   

CZ: What was the recording process like?
TW: We tried some new things that I’m sure we’ll continue to explore: string arrangements, horns, we had gospel singers on some songs. It had a lot to do with the music that was coming out when we were writing. It was just about what the best way to complete these ideas, or songs were. I know what I want things to sound like…it’s a combination of sounds, ideas, and approaches to music. I think we’re getting somewhere – we’re knocking on the door.

CZ: Who were some of your influences for Inner Journey Out?
TW: Dennis Wilson, Dion, Don Nix, Gene Clark, Neil Young, Eddie Hazel, Peter Green, JJ Cale, Sun Ra, and lots more.

CZ: It’s been a few years since your last release. How did this time shape Inner Journey Out?
TW: We were touring after One Track Mind then we sort of dropped out for a couple years to really work on writing this record. We didn’t have any deadlines. We didn’t have a contract. Sacred Bones came in at the end and wanted to put it out.  So I was just thinking I was making this record that eventually someone would hear but not knowing when. In a lot of ways that was nice to just be lost in this idea. 

CZ: And there are fourteen tracks on the album…
TW: Yeah, there were actually a couple of leftover songs, I’m not sure if we’ll go back and use those or not. It’s hard to say how you decide what’s going to make it on the record. Looking back I’m glad we chose what we did, but there’s always some things you’d change. I’ve heard people like Neil Young even say that.

CZ: What’s the story behind the two-part film for Baby and Another Change?
TW: The videos were made by Jason Evans who does a site called This Long Century. We had a lot of mutual interests in film and music. We were talking about Dennis Hopper’s Out Of The Blue and Monte Hellman, and just exchanging ideas. But he really took the reins and came up with the story and shot these two videos. I was pushing the two-part thing which he eventually got into, but beyond that it was all him. He really made something special if you ask me.    

CZ: It’s your fifth LP – how has your music evolved since your debut release?
TW: I like this record the best, because this record represents where we are right now. I couldn’t make a record like the debut record now because that’s where we were then and I’m not in that place now. I don’t think anyone likes to spend their life repeating themselves. I think the evolution of someone’s music or art or whatever might be subtle, and sometimes it might be obvious, but I think you have to keep trying to do different things.      

CZ: Does the environment you’re in always have an effect on the sound of a song, an EP, an album?
TW: Environment played a big role in this record because it was the first time that we went somewhere else to work on a record. We tracked it in New York and then went to California a couple times to mix it. To go somewhere just to work on something really puts you in a different place. We also felt like we needed to finish this record in California to give it a different feeling. I can’t say exactly how, but I think that experiment worked. 

CZ: And you’re returning to the UK this winter. How were your shows earlier this year?
TW: We had a great time. We played two shows in London in June, but we’ll be playing more places the next time. It’s nice to come to the UK. We don’t have any other plans while at this point but I’d like to record something while we’re there. 

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