The group knew they would be separated even before the pandemic hit the news. Comprised of Felipe Maldonado from Ecuador, Saguiv Rosenstock from Costa Rica, Aaron Kennedy (U.S.), Tommaso Tadoni (France), Carlo de Biaggo (Italy), Zak Icaza (Ecuador), and Alejandro Vega (Nicaragua), In The Universe had already made plans on how they would promote this album while back in their respective countries.
The band had physically been separated before, but not to this extent. “It’s not the first time,” Felipe said. “Right after we graduated, some of us moved to New York. Aaron moved to LA. Tommaso was a keyboard player and toured around the world. So we were kind of used to that.” They had even planned to meet again earlier this year. Aaron stated that he was making plans to go down to Ecuador in April until news of the pandemic made them cancel.
They were still able to gather as much promotional material and finished the production of their album at the end of last year when they were all still together. Since parting ways, they’ve individually done as much as they could to create some online buzz. Felipe was able to do a small concert in Ecuador with a different lineup but says it didn’t feel the same. “I did a concert here with a different lineup which was a bit of a bummer because I love playing with these guys.” Carlo had begun pitching to media outlets and playlists. Some of the tracks from Psylomaniac made it to a few Russian playlists.
The meaning behind their album name is that there is no meaning. “Psylomaniac is a made up word that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. But I think that it comes from the ‘psychodelic’ experiences in our everyday life that doesn’t necessarily require a substance.”
“I believe in the power of the mind and attraction. The way that you think and behave become a magnetic experience. That’s intangible, you know, something you can’t really see. “
This way of thinking about the universe sets the basis of what the band is all about. This and lucid dreaming. The latter is personified in their song “Fantasy Free Show”, the 8th track on the album. Dreams are “like a psychadelic free show that we can all experience.”
The members have had their own lucid dream experiences, Felipe even writing their song “Sleep” while in one. Zak has had previous astral projection and lucid dreams, inspiring Felipe to read more about these concepts.
When it came to recording the songs on their new album, they wanted to capture the energy of playing a live show. “We were mostly playing live shows in the beginning. We weren’t trying to just record, we wanted to play in front of people.”
Aaron says this about their recording process:
“[The first EP and Psylomaniac were] recorded with everybody playing. There were some overdubs and stuff, but the core of what was going on was us going into a studio and setting up our stuff like we were going to play a show and pressed record. That approach to recording is very old school and is rarely done nowadays. It’s interesting that there’s so many electronic elements and all these weird effects going on in the music where it sounds like it was added after. But, really, most of what you’re hearing is people just playing together. That’s how the band started”
In The Universe
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Cover image by Alissa Lise Wyle
