Midnight Psychic dims the light at News Cafe
Post-punk and the goth motif itself correlate well with the cold, dark nights that come around New England during this time of year. The overall vibe the music, the art and the atmosphere share is somewhat symmetrical when you really think about it. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, Midnight Psychic exudes the types of sounds that fit well with what I just described. On February 17 at the News Cafe on 43 Broad Street in the heart of Pawtucket’s downtown, the duo of guitarist & vocalist Jayson Munro and bassist George Moore will be performing as part of a stacked bill. Local alternative acts Pet Bee, In Lieu Of Flowers and Neglected Witches are going to be rounding out the lineup with the show starting at 8pm.
I talked with both Munro and Moore ahead of the upcoming gig about the vision behind their musical approach, having a drum machine, a single they released last year and what their plans are for the future.
Rob Duguay: It says in Midnight Psychic’s bio on social media and Bandcamp that your sound is “goth rock inspired by abandoned shopping malls, clown paintings and window blinds.” With this being said, how have you gone about incorporating that vision into your music?
George Moore: I think you just have to visualize an image that gets ingrained into your mind as a result of living in a sick society. Then you translate that into the music.
RD: Do you guys play with a drum machine or do you have a drummer that performs with the both of you during shows?
Jayson Munro: We play with a drum machine, it’s all programmed in Cubase.
RD: Ok, cool. What’s the story behind the band? How did the both of you get together to form Midnight Psychic? Have you guys known each other for a long time?
GM: Jayson and I have been friends forever, since middle school actually. Through some other kids in the area, we discovered goth stuff early on. We were listening to Bauhaus in high school and we had been in bands during our college years but it was stuff that was more indie. Recently over the last year or so, somehow we both returned to doing goth stuff while tapping back into that influence we really loved growing up. We’re also inspired by the modern goth stuff that’s going around today.
RD: This past November, you guys released the single “String Of Fate”. Where was it recorded at and what was the experience like recording the track? Did you guys work with a producer or did you do it all yourselves?
JM: We recorded it ourselves and then we sent it out to have it mixed & mastered. Almost part of our process is recording when we write songs and we just kind of went with that original mix.
GM: Jayson has set up a really cool home studio system and he mentioned earlier how we use Cubase for our drum beats but Jayson, what are the actual samples that we’re using? It’s an actual antique drum machine sound, right?
JM: Yeah, it’s kind of like a mix between a LinnDrum and an RX-5. Then we process it with miscellaneous reverbs, compressors and whatnot.
GM: What I really like about that is, as Jayson is the mastermind behind all this, we can recapture all of these lost ‘80s sounds with this set up. It’s really neat that we can experiment in this way and kind of bring that into the music.
RD: It does sound really interesting. What are your thoughts on the upcoming show at the News Cafe? Is this going to be your first time playing in Rhode Island?
JM: We’re both very stoked. We actually played at the News Cafe back in October and we met a lot of people there. We really psyched to go back and play with Neglected Witches and Pet Bee.
GM: It seems like a really vibrant scene. With us being from Connecticut, we were kind of aware of Providence but not too aware of Pawtucket so when we got invited out there the first time I thought the News Cafe was such a cool venue and I love the scene there.
RD: It’s a really cool place, I’ve always been a fan of the checkered floor there. You don’t get that at a lot of other venues. JM: Yeah, absolutely.
RD: After the show at the News Cafe, what are Midnight Psychic’s plans for the coming months? Do you plan on working on a follow up to “String Of Fate”? JM: We have a few songs that we’re kind of going through to do some final mixes on so we’re definitely going to have another single coming out pretty soon. We’re not so sure if we’re going to do an EP or just keep releasing singles at this point but we’re definitely going to have a new single coming out while focusing on trying to do more shows around the tri-state area. GM: I’ll add that we might also try to get some more video stuff out, perhaps a music video of some sort if we can manage it.