Songs of the Psyentists

BY DIANA GONZEAU PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE PSYENTISTS

An upside of this past year has been the ability to stay in and maybe let things get a little weird, wouldn’t you say? That seems to be the case for Psyentists, a genredefying musical duo of self-described psychedelic astronauts comprised of John Sargent Patterson and Jephirsun Danger, who have been in their respective labs and focused on leveling up. If you’re interested in the avant-garde, the experimental, jam sessions, visionary art, or you just want something to listen to while you do some mental traveling of your own, these are the guys for you.

Jephirsun was born in Hyannis, Massachusetts and raised here in Maine, where he met John—or Sargent Dingo, if you prefer—a native Mainer hailing from Winterport. After taking a couple of classes together at NESCOM in Bangor, the two truly connected at the Germination Music Festival in Harmony in 2017. After spending the day running an art tent, Jephirsun had set his gear up and started playing a renegade set, which attracted Dingo’s attention, and they ended up making a lot of cool noise. That was the inception of the Psyentists.

Their genesis at a music festival has served as a solid foundation for the music they create together, as did their shared curiosity when it comes to sound. They both cite a wide range of influences—punk, hip hop, EDM, jazz, lounge, dub reggae, techno, grime, trap. As Danger put it, “a musical stew that we create each time we get together. Never exactly the same thing twice.” They aim to have a little something for everyone, it seems, and welcome any attempts to genre them.

We touched base via video chat so I could pick the brains of the mad scientists in their natural setting.

How would you describe the music you create?

DINGO: Psychedelic dub trap improv? Livetronica is a years-ago term.

DANGER: Slash. Electrock. Someone’s even called it reggaestep. You don’t pick the genre, the genre picks you. DINGO: We’ll have a contest.Poll the crowd, winner gets to name our genre.

DANGER: It’s a jumble juxtaposition, influenced by a wide variety of genres from growing up as 90s kids. We’re not writing it with any necessary intent, it’s so improv, we’ve never rehearsed a set. We have a few songs we’ve written that we both are familiar with that we’ll throw into the mix, but that’s the most we have as a rehearsal.

What first got you into music?

DINGO: I was brought up in a very musical household, learned piano at a young age, took classical lessons, was in the church choir. Steeped in all of that, by the time I was a teenager, I wanted to learn as many instruments as I could. I was also experimenting with computers and making music on MIDI and other rudimentary sequencing software. My love of both things coalesced into a love of making music with computers. My main instrument has always been trumpet. I will bring a lot of electric trumpet into our live sessions.

DANGER: I was always around my mom playing a lot of rock and pop. I saw rock stars on TV, and it was something that left an impression. Dressing as Bruce Springsteen as a kid, with a red bandana and a mic stand, wanting to be a rockstar. Michael Jackson was a huge influence. My mom listened to a lot of pop and classic rock—Aerosmith, Boston, Fleetwood Mac. I got into a lot of rock early on, but around 13 years old, I started getting into my own music. My dad lived in Massachusetts, which was more urban, so my cousins listened to hip hop. I started playing drums in middle school, that was all we could afford at the time, but that was one of the most essential moments in music for me, learning percussion, which taught me rhythm. I got a guitar for my 13th birthday. It was hard being in a rural area and wanting to start a band. The computer programs that evolved into what we have now were more accessible. I really took to it because I could write all these components and just become the band. The programs made up for not having the other members to make a proper band. Then it became a solo thing, and I realized, “oh, I’m a producer now.” After college, I joined the military and stopped all that, but when I got out, I went to NESCOM and met John, and I got into the newer versions of DJing. I had turntables when I was 15, which really amplified wanting to DJ and produce. More recently, I saw Tash Sultana, who is a one-person band, does looping like John, and writes a beat, then will layer them, etc., and do it all live. Imagine having a band of DJs.

Who are your main inspirations?

DINGO: A wide range. Big fan of Phish and the way they play together and improvise and how they’ve developed their own musical language. Dave Tipper. He’s a mad scientist like no other with his sound production. Watching his live shows along with the live visuals by Android Jones is one of the things that really brought this thing together. It’s a little bit of emulation, but I wear my influences on my sleeve. Beardyman is another great one; he’s not as well known, but he is a beatboxer out of England, and over the years he developed a live looping system, at first using a series of chaos pads and then eventually inventing an entire bespoke live-looping system. This guy does livestreams on a very regular basis, and his deal is that he creates music all from his mouth, all of the sounds that come out of his system are initially from his mouth that he samples himself, and the effects go on top of it.

DANGER: I’m really into synth music. For older music: Pink Floyd, Gary Numan, Junkie XL does symphony scores, he’s a good synth DJ. As far as what we’re doing, our style, one of my biggest influences is Emancipator. He kind of does what we’re doing but with other influences. Flows and waves. I like Soohan and Antten-aye. These are newer DJs that do a lot of psy-dub meshing of tribal world sounds with deep bass. But also Miles Davis. Bob Marley. That’s what makes our sound... what’s critical to our sound is that we are influenced by musical minds, a certain aesthetic of sound that we like, there’s a science to it, and we know the science behind it and put it to the test.

What has your creative process been during the pandemic?

DINGO: We have managed to get together a number of times, but the majority of our output has been on an individual basis. We’ve both been trying to figure out our best personal individual voices and methodology so we can level up. DANGER: We have been learning new equipment. It’s essential to sit back away from each other and master our gear and how we can best go through workflow or set up new ways of mapping. There’s so many different ways to reconfigure setting it up. A lot of the process is troubleshooting through that, trial and error, bored of this setup, etc. Lots of discovery processes. When we do get together, it’s magic because we have all these new ways to interface with each other.

Let’s experiment. All of a sudden beautiful music starts pouring out of us. We kind of have a digital language that is based on timing and tones. We have a certain understanding of how music works.

How does cannabis influence your creative process?

DINGO: It factors in in a major way. I tend to use cannabis to open up my neural pathways and let my emotions spill out through the equipment and the instruments I’m using. It allows me to become one with the music. It’s always brought us together as well, it’s unifying.

DANGER: It has many factors. As far as medicinally, I have a lot of pain, both from the military, as well as from being pretty wild growing up. Having a neck pinch injury, it helps ground me. It adds a synchronicity between the music and your own personal vibe. Bob Marley said smoking weed helps you find yourself. It helps me get into that mindset. A lot of anxiety builds up as well, like when you are going to perform. It helps open you up to the dream state, daydream state. DINGO: Curiosity. DANGER: Sometimes it keeps you from getting stuck in loops, keeps you moving forward and progressive. Sometimes it does help me feel hyper-focused; I can notice things I need to change or that are just right.

Favorite strains?

DANGER: He’s the doctor over here. DINGO: I do a little bit of growing myself. Citron Cookies. Right now, I’m smoking on Groot, a nice sativadominant, as well as Mac and Mac Punch. Those are my jams. I work at New England Reserve, which puts me right in the nexus of where everything’s happening.

DANGER: I lean towards the gassier, cheesier strains. Right now, I have been smoking Do-si-do, Don Mega. Indica strains, I like the couch lock, the wind down. I’m kind of a hyper guy, so it helps take that and level it out. Makes me not so Danger, more Jephirsun.

DINGO: Ratios and science.

DANGER: Glitches get switches. Crossfader action.

Funniest story?

DANGER: We had a really interesting set in my backyard one summer. This was back when it was a larger group. We had a guitarist with us as well; he did a lot of noodling, jam-band style. He had effects and would play an electric guitar. We set up in the backyard with my PA. I’m right in the middle of Brewer. There’s a stoplight right next to my yard, which has a natural stage due to the terrain. We set up a tent and were jamming up there with a lightship and projector. We started around 2:00 in the afternoon and went on and on and on. It was like a nonstop progressive jam. I have about two and a half hours on video, which comes to an abrupt end at 10:20 p.m. The cops showed up after someone made a noise complaint. They felt bad…they had been driving by repeatedly because they were interested and liked it, but we had to shut it down.

DINGO: “Wow you guys have quite the setup going here…How does it work?”

What’s next?

DINGO: Expand our audience. If that means starting out small, playing festivals, playing small gigs, I’m great with that, but eventually, I would like to get more of our material recorded. I did go to NESCOM for audio engineering. So I have the skills to put it all together. I’d like to get it out there on Spotify and pump it out to everyone.

DANGER: Big picture down the road, we’ve talked about the visual side. I’d like to add more of an avantgarde theatrical element, like Shpongle. Imagine something Cirque du Soleil-ish on stage while we are doing these improv sessions. I think It would be really fun to get into concept stuff, like Peter and the Wolf was a song that was turned into a play…We could do something like that with our digital format. For me, I would like to get to a point where we are avant-garde, have other people involved with theatrics, dancers, something to that degree, and if not, the same thing, adding textures of light shows, 3D projections, creating a visual accent that impacts the music. I want you to see sound, hear color. DINGO: Force some synthesis. DANGER: Think Hendrix before he died. He wanted to go to Berklee and learn classical music, learn how to read it, learn a little more about theory.

the Psyentists

It seems the Psyentists are on a quest to discover all they can about the science of sound. In fact, they made one important discovery during our conversation—a shared childhood of dressing up as Bruce Springsteen. If you find yourself intrigued and want to play Name the Genre, check them out on Facebook and Soundcloud. Enjoy your trip!