Introducing Irish New-Wave band: SSMMÜTT.
Their new album Black Pools Red Dot is available to purchase on Bandcamp.
Read on below for an exclusive interview with SSMMÜTT...
Tell us about SSMMÜTT and how it started ?
SSMMÜTT started in 2017, I'd been making music for years at that point - I was originally a techno producer, and at some point I just fell completely in love with rock and roll again I was starting to get into the occult, in a kind of shallow edgy way, and ssmmutt was a good way to marry some of those themes with what I was doing musically, and illustratively at the time. I remember when it started to come together and I'd be recording tracks in my room, I knew I was finally onto something, the gap between my brain and the audio had finally been closed, it was really exciting. I was losing sleep over it.
Has your environment sculpted you in any way ?
I grew up on the Northside of Dublin. I was lucky enough to grow up close to St Anne's Park...there was a huge fuck off fire that destroyed the house in the center so you get this nice park with a lot of forest and wild life with some spooky ruins around. I spent a huge amount of my life there. Playing and exploring when I was a kid, fucking around on my bike when I got a little older...it gave me a deep appreciation of nature, and wandering and being quiet. I've lived in Germany for the last few years, and being in and around nature is really essential for my brain. A lot of the output I have is devotional, and based on worship of nature, and I wonder if it would be so important if I didn't have access to that park growing up.
What has been the highlight of the tour so far ?
We just got back from 2 weeks in Ukraine though, it was my favourite place I've ever been to, it was really just the greatest experience of my life... I'm still trying to connect all the dots and put the pieces back together. It was a very profound experience. Something in the energy there, and the people are so beautiful inside and out. As Irish people we share a lot of history and rapport with Ukraine, both countries have quite a tragic past, and have had to contend with a colonial imperial bully breathing down their necks forever. There's an attitude of making shit work and using what you've got available, punk without the posturing.
What is the inspiration behind the new album Black Pools Red Dot ?
I'd just moved from Berlin to Leipzig, and didn't really have any close friends there. I was on my own for a long time, and I'd just meditate and take magic mushrooms alone a lot. I went pretty far out and was communicating with goat entities and dominatrix spider goddesses. It was also super snowy and cold and lockdown was hitting hard, so I was very isolated but had some very beautiful spiritual experiences, some sober and some not sober. I made the music to document and process the experience and to help me remember these new friends I'd met.
What is your personal relationship with spirituality ?
Perception is reality, and you can make the decision to live in a world with magick or you can make the decision to live in the world without it. I chose the former and it enriches my life. I'm relatively disciplined so meditating and doing breath work and yoga and setting time aside for tarot isn't so hard. I'm not doing any big ritual magick, I don't require much more from the universe these days but I like to give thanks, leave offerings to nearby spirits, wood spirits, my house spirit, the sun. I'd like to give more energy than I receive rather than treating nature like a vending machine. My practice is fairly intuitive, I'm borrowing a lot from pagan and folk tradition. Being engaged with nature and being independent are my pillars.
Have psychedelics informed your creative practice ?
Absolutely, they've wiggled their way into everything I do. Psilocybin is my number 1. It's incredibly therapeutic for me, sometimes incredibly challenging but always completely welcome. Again it allows me to just sidestep some of my hangups and issues, accept things I can't change, helps me change the things I can change. I'm a better friend and boyfriend and son and collaborator because of Psilocybin, I could probably have achieved these things with conventional therapy but I'm poor and like being left alone. Mushrooms for me is like being hit with a big freudian truck. I try to share the benefits with as many people as I can now. Psychedelic use, drawing, making music, spirituality, they're all irreversibly interconnected. Taking a step back and being nice... is nice
Follow them on Instagram: @ssmmutt_
& listen on Spotify.
- PSYCHIC GARDEN