SOURCE – Given the increases in technology for producing albums, what do you feel is your most important role when work on an album as Persona?
Stein (Guitar) – There are always pros and cons when using technology for making music. Some just want the raw stuff and feel that using technology is kind of cheating. I embrace technology when I write music. It makes me hear the music from a different angle. Instead of me writing a riff on the guitar, presenting it in the rehearsal studio, waiting for the drummer to come up with something to accommodate the riff, I can program some midi drums, and then make a riff to accommodate the drums instead. The technology has helped in so many ways and even lowered the cost in a pro studio.
Jezpr (Guitar) – Our most important role is as always to focus on writing good music. The production is secondary, I’ve heard lots of great songs with horrible productions and lots of terrible songs with high def productions.
SOURCE – The 4th studio album Persona comes 3 years after MØRKE. Did you have any apprehensions about making the new record this many years away from the scene, and at what point in the process did you know everything was going to be just fine for Psy:code?
Stein (Guitar) – Actually the process of making Persona was the shortest of all our albums, we try to keep it as short as possible.
Jezpr (Guitar) – It’s not that we’re keeping everything on hold while we write music. It happens alongside our concerts.
Stein (Guitar) – I’ve always been sure that everything is going to be fine for Psy:code. We love what we create and love creating it with each other.
SOURCE – Tell us about the video for Deranged – and how important do you believe the visual medium is in the social media platform in comparison to your early days when video channels seemed to have more of an impact for bands to gain attention?
Stein (Guitar) – Deranged is a classic lyric video. The music speaks for itself, and as a bonus you get to read some of our singer´s deranged thoughts.
Jezpr (Guitar) – The visuals are very important for bands. In these days everyone has access to youtube, facebook, tiktok, Instagram, Snapchat and whatever and if you don’t take these social platforms seriously you will fall behind. It’s a full time occupation.
SOURCE – What’s your opinion on illegal downloading and what do you think would make people buy more music?
Jezpr (Guitar) – Illegal music is of course stealing like everything else, there’s nothing you can do about it though. Even for a small band like us, the day the record was released there were illegal download links everywhere. I feel sorry for the bands out there who play music for a living.
Stein (Guitar) – I’m sure that in the nearest future, people won’t buy music as we know it today. Bands have to adapt to that reality and find new ways to make money. It’s a tough business and everybody gets screwed.
SOURCE – What are your thoughts on the Denmark music community – as it seems to have developed its own distinct flavor and characteristics, where a multitude of musicians and bands have been able to succeed internationally as a result?
Jezpr (Guitar) – I think it’s fantastic that we as a country has made an impact worldwide for our characteristic style and sound. We have so many great bands here and they all deserve some attention. We can only hope to be among those few who gets an international breakthrough.
SOURCE – What financial impact has COVID-19 had on you and your band? Have you had to cancel or postpone any tours or festival appearances or postpone an album release because of COVID-19 and how will that affect you in the long term?
Stein (Guitar) – To a certain degree we almost immediately followed our government’s recommendations and therefore until last week the entire band hadn’t met up and rehearsed since the middle of March. Our release party and the first couple of gigs after the release were cancelled. That is very frustrating for us and we are a bit anxious about our plans for the rest of the year. We had quite a few plans of playing in Denmark and a couple of places in Europe. Hopefully cancelled shows will just be postponed to later dates.
Jezpr (Guitar) – In the long run we don’t think that it will affect us. We’re already in the making of our next album, so it’s all about looking forward.
SOURCE – If you also have a day job outside of music, how has that been impacted by COVID-19?
Stein (Guitar) – On a personal level only one of us was briefly affected jobwise by the Corona lockdown. Otherwise frustrations could have been more extreme.”
SOURCE – What is the best way fans can support you financially right now? Buying vinyl and CDs, downloading and streaming your music, buying merch, supporting your Patreon page or other crowdsourcing platform (if you use one), or some other means? Is there a particularly cool piece of merch you’d like to highlight?
Jezpr (Guitar) – All of the mentioned things will help us. You can buy our merch through bandcamp or write directly to us, we’ll happily answer all messages. We decided not to make CD’s this time round, but we’re doing a crowdfunding on Kickstarter to see if there’s any interest. If you’d like a CD, please go and make a donation. Well the vinyl is pretty awesome looking, so go buy that one too if you please.
Contact:
Psycode
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