Psychedelic what?!? Detailing Psychedelic Porn Crumpets new album “SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound”
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, the ballyhooed, exploratory quintet, released their brand new album “SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound” February 5, 2021. Those unfamiliar with the industrious rockers should be perplexed and intrigued by that gibberish.
They formed in 2014 in Perth, Australia and have pumped out four records since 2016, with “SHYGA!” being the newest installation of their ever-flowing and probing psych-pop, prog-rock catalog.
Jack McEwan, the band’s frontman and guitarist, decided on “SHYGA!” similarly to how the group chose Psychedelic Porn Crumpets as their group name.
“I enjoy using words to intrigue people. The album is one big come up, one big lift, so I wanted a fun and triumphant word to match it… Everyone thinks it’s an acronym, but it’s just a silly word,” said McEwan.
It sounds like an absurdity, but the title of “SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound’s” proclaims to listeners to expect the unexpected and, most importantly, enjoy the ride. With exhilarating instrumentation and witty, punchy vocals, this album blasts the listener into a pulsating, high-octane joyride, much like a pinball in a pinball machine.
In fact, the group’s countless hours playing pinball on tour in the United States served as an inspiration for “SHYGA!”
“Every pub we went to in America had ten machines or a room dedicated to pinball. It was sick! We all got addicted to it because we had so much free time between soundcheck and when we would perform,” said McEwan.
The band translates the euphoria of playing pinball on tour to the overarching themes and sensations listeners will experience when listening to “SHYGA!” Without the COVID-19 pandemic, listeners would have heard an album with a different identity released in the Spring of 2020.
“The original concept was to make the greatest hits album of Sir Norton Gavin, this fictional character that we’ve made. When everything with COVID happened, we had more time to work on the record. Rather than having to release it when tours and everything got postponed, we gave ourselves another six months to work on an idea,” said McEwan.
Inspired by the increasing relevancy and presence of Deepfake AI, the band wanted to make the record sound like a computer’s attempt at creating a 70’s glitch rock album. This unique concept enticed the Crumpets to produce fun and strange sounds throughout the album to bridge together songs resulting in a complete album that flows from start to finish.
The tracks “Mundungus,” “Mr. Prism” and “Pukebox” were crafted for Sir Norton Gavin’s Greatest Hits concept but, instead, have set the framework of what “SHYGA!” has become. McEwan captures the absurd reality of touring around the world on “Pukebox.”
“I’d wake up in some foreign town and what I did the night before was exactly the same as what I’ve done every single night on the road, just the accent has changed, or the city has changed, or the landscape has changed… It’s just one big blur,” said McEwan.
The upbeat track “Tally-Ho” is inspired by the group’s experiences during Covid-19. Having returned to Perth after around two years of constant touring, the band found themselves, like everyone else around the world, in isolation. In weeks, authorities lifted lockdown restrictions in Perth. The Psychedelic Porn Crumpets were set loose like rabid beasts onto their home city.
“I was so sick at the beginning of the year and I had this new lease on life being able to go out. I felt like saying, ‘thank God, I can go out and breathe.’ I wanted [“Tally-Ho”] to have that excitement of Perth in this bubble and all these sorts of touring stories that were still fresh in my head,” said McEwan.
Australia has been able to keep COVID deaths at 36 per one million inhabitants, or about 900 people, due to strict lockdown measures and the country’s geography and location in the world. Australia’s efforts have allowed them to experience live music, albeit in a reduced capacity format.
“We are so lucky in Perth that we only had to quarantine for two weeks because we had zero community transmission. So we were just straight back out, and everything’s half capacity, but gigs were back on [and] pubs were open. It was such a weird time because it was only us that could go out,” recalls McEwan.
“If it wasn’t for vinyl records, I don’t think we would even be a band. It’s given us another reason to make music.”
Jack McEwan
Settled on the west coast of Australia, near the Indian Ocean, Perth is isolated from the rest of the nation. It is located about 1,300 miles away from any city with a population greater than 100,000. To put that in perspective, San Luis Obispo is about 1,400 miles away from Austin, Texas.
Perth’s seclusion from the rest of Australia, and the world, attributes to the city’s top tier music output, with musicians such as Tame Impala, Methyl Ethel, Pond, and Birds of Tokyo making their starts in the local scene. Groups just starting out receive more attention in Perth than in a city like Los Angeles or New York, with famous and established musicians playing numerous shows every night.
“If you’re a band starting out, you’re not really competing with any international acts. You can go and play Saturday night in one of the good rooms, and you know the local scene will come to watch you. You might get Elton John doing like three nights from Tuesday to Thursday and then that’s it for a month,” said McEwan.
While Perth’s musicians benefit from the city’s remoteness, they experience the negative consequences of being isolated from the world when touring. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets created their record label, What Reality? Records in 2017 because voyaging out of Perth to perform live music for the world is exceptionally costly. By pressing and selling their music on vinyl records themselves, the group can continue sharing the joy of live music with their fans.
“We pressed 500 Records, literally, and we got just enough money from the vinyl sales to afford to go on tour. We still don’t make money from shows really over any tours… If it wasn’t for vinyl records, I don’t think we would even be a band. It’s given us another reason to make music,” explains McEwan.
You can’t see this hard-working band in person right now but you can blast their highly entertaining and uplifting music on your preferred listening format. Join Perth’s Psychedelic Porn Crumpets psychonautic pilgrimage by moving and grooving to “SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound” today!
Check out KCPR’s full interview with Psychedelic Porn Crumpet’s Jack McEwan by tuning into KCPR 91.3 FM or KCPR.org at 12 pm Friday 2/5/2021 and 12 pm Saturday 2/6/2021 or listen to the full interview below.
Listen to the best of Psychedelic Porn Crumpets here.
Buy “SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound” on vinyl or CD.
