Psychonaut: Trip of a Lifetime
Since the release of their debut Unfold The God Man in 2020, PSYCHONAUT have become an essential name amidst the explosive wave of creative heavy bands emerging from Belgium. Their first two albums combined intense post-metal with a psychedelic twist, offering weighty treatises on human connection and philosophy, imbued with visceral aggression and some classic riff work. But their latest record, World Maker, moves away from the vast societal commentary of 2022’s Violate Consensus Reality, drawing its inspiration instead from a much more personal place – that of fatherhood, of both becoming and losing a parent.
Guitarist and vocalist Stefan de Graef learned shortly after the release of that record that his wife was expecting their first child – knowledge that quickly informed the narrative focus of World Maker. “It was the thing that inspired everything,” shares de Graef. “Meeting my son for the first time, that whole process of becoming a father was quite the big impact, the big event in my life. I simply wanted to write an album about how I was feeling, but also something to give to my son and even leave behind, should something ever happen to me.”
Yet tragedy also impacted the album, with both de Graef and bassist Thomas Michiels losing their own fathers following short battles with cancer during the creation process. “Saying goodbye to both of them in only a few months’ time was very rough, and very weird when you’re writing an album about how amazing it feels to finally become a father,” laments de Graef. That grief, and the extremes of new life and loss, add a poignancy to a record originally intended to be positive and uplifting. “Especially towards the end of the album, you can really feel a bit more melancholy and a bit more of an effort to try to stay positive.”
As such, World Maker is full of more personal touches, notably on the epic And You Came With Searing Light that sits as the album’s centrepiece, and the later Stargazer, a titular reference to his son being born in the stargazer position, his head facing upwards. It’s a noticeable departure from the dense and complex subject matter of their previous work. “It was actually very liberating to write about things that were a bit more close to home… [The] easiest lyrics I’ve ever had to write!” Jokes de Graef. Of course, this being PSYCHONAUT, the music remains no less mind-bending or grand for the intimacy of its source. De Graef argues that it is their most spiritual album to date. “Usually, when we write about spiritual ideas or philosophy, a lot of it comes from psychedelic experiences. But [fatherhood] is the wildest trip I’ve ever been on!”
Musically, World Maker is a diverse beast. The trademark elements of PSYCHONAUT are present: the classic riffs (“They all come from the 70s. From Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore”) and the intense post-metal assaults anchored by de Graef’s visceral unclean vocals. Alongside this are some more exploratory bents – the soft-rock optimism of Stargazer’s chorus, and the introspective instrumental work of Origins and All Was Quiet. The constraints of new parenthood played a role in some of the album’s more unorthodox sounds. “The title track, for instance, was just me messing around with some piano plugins when my son was asleep and I couldn’t make any noise,” says de Graef. “[For] Origins, the whole percussion intro was ten hours of me just with headphones on, just having fun, trying stuff with Tablas and other percussion.” Inspiration also came from more unexpected sources. De Graef cites the big-band jazz fusion of SNARKY PUPPY as a significant influence, and one that prompted an enthusiasm to learn more about music theory to unpick that band’s unique palette.
PSYCHONAUT find themselves at the vanguard of a thriving Belgian heavy music scene, with a whole host of bands such as BRUTUS, AMENRA, POTHAMUS, HIPPOTRAKTOR, and others making waves well beyond national borders. “It’s really cool to see,” says de Graef. “We’re always very insecure as Belgians, maybe because we’re such a small country. We sometimes have a lack of confidence, and will often say ‘they’re good for a Belgian band’, not realising that every band is from a country, might as well be from Belgium!” How does he feel about having such a key role in that scene? “It’s a feeling of pride. Not only being proud of ourselves, but of everyone.”
There’s a personal element to that shared pride, given long friendships over decades with the members of POTHAMUS and HIPPOTRAKTOR. De Graef provides vocals for the latter in addition to his creative leadership of PSYCHONAUT. HIPPOTRAKTOR’s own creative force, Chiaran Verheyden, took on production duties for World Maker. It’s a collaboration borne of a long friendship and mutual respect. “I met [Verheyden] when he was like, 11, and he was playing Master of Puppets on an acoustic guitar with a neck that was way too big for his tiny hands!” Becoming the vocalist for HIPPOTRAKTOR was a surprising turn of events for de Graef, who never saw himself as a singer. “It took some convincing myself to actually believe I could do it. [But] I love it so much, even though I think I’m a much better guitarist than I am a singer, and I still have so much to learn.”
It’s a humble take, particularly given the acclaimed quality of his voice for both bands, evident both live and on record. A run of tour dates have PSYCHONAUT playing Damnation Festival and a massive homecoming show at the famous Ancienne Belgique venue in Brussels, where songs from World Maker will see their first live outing alongside a new light show and stage setup. They are fitting venues to celebrate a profound record, from a band with such a talent of expression finding the canvas of the personal, of fatherhood, no less rich than the broader conceptual works of yesteryear.
World Maker is out now via Pelagic Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS126 here:
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