Vibravoid is one of the longest continuously running Neo-Psychedelic band that influenced the current scene starting from the word “Void” in the name, the lightshows, vinyl records and the graphical design. Why do you think you never played on big Psych Fests and were basically ignored?
Yes, that is something I think it is really weird. My only explanation can be that this “new Psychedelia” has nothing to do with Psychedelia. I think that we are probably not that bad to be ignored especially compared with many hobby bands which do nothing but an instrumental jam sessions due to the lack of abilities to write a song. We predate all these other new bands, released vinyl records before it was hip and even have our own characteristic style.
Maybe we started so early and play a different brand of music (that actually can be considered as Psychedelia) that we are not a part of the current “Psych” scene. Most of the music today is just something else and it seems that the least music people want to hear is psychedelic music. Just have a look at the Psych Fests and you will find all sort of Hard, Indie and Alternative Rock but generally no psychedelic music.
How do you see the evolution of psychedelic music from 1960s to today?
Well basically there is no evolution due to the reason that psychedelic is psychedelic – no matter which period. Generally speaking there is no psychedelic music. It is not the music that is psychedelic it is the people who make the music that make the music to be psychedelic. Psychedelia is no genre – it is a general approach towards things.
In the 1980s there was a big Garage/Mod/Psychedelic scene which basically did not leave safe ground due to the fact of being revivalists. The 1980s also revealed a respect for the original scene of the 1960s by using the term of “Neo-Psychedelic” while today everything is simply “Psychedelic” which indicates arrogance and ignorance of today’s “Hipster-Generation”. Anyway, doesn’t anyone see that everything “has to be psychedelic” by any means? And if you say: hey that’s not psychedelic the usual response is aggressive and people keep asking: how can you say this is bad music? I mean these are people who listened to Metallica and those bands in the 1990s and 2000s, first heard the word “psychedelic” a few years ago, wear Metal T-shirts, tattoos and baseball caps, never took acid but all by sudden are the new experts for this genre… this is really weird. I think if you once had a real psychedelic experience, you want to express this in any way starting from the way you dress and express yourself. Your start to think critically and do not just blindly follow the trends. I do not see anything of this in this new “Psych Rock” or “Heavy Psychedelic”.
The 1990s saw a totally different approach in the Techno culture that actually owed something to the 1960s scene due to the massive use of psychedelic drugs. It actually was a very friendly and open scene compared to today’s “Psych” scene which usually is nothing but hostile, dark, depressive and testosterone loaded.
Like Gary Ramon from Sun Dial stated in another interview the interest in Psychedelia was so low that these classic psych records were extremely cheap in the 1980s/1990s, OK there were some holy grails hunted by hard core collectors but a couple of hundred Euros is nothing compared to the thousands you have to fork out today.
Many of today’s experts also do not know that during the 1990s – when vinyl albums were set to die by the industry and customer – a flood of limited edition bootleg vinyl albums of 1960s psychedelic classics emerged – mostly obtained by collector’s who owned the original albums to prevent these from being played.
As well classic books on the topic like the “The Acid Trip” or “The Flashback” still seem to be completely unknown among today’s Psych enthusiasts and experts. Especially “The Flashback” contains a definition of what Psychedelia is that seems to be tailor made for today: there is a difference between psychedelic and mind altering music. From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2020/04/vibravoid-interview-2.html
