Psysalia psysalis psyche

Psysalia Psysalis Psyche is a Japanese indie band from Tokyo, Japan that has been playing live since 2006. Their sound is a unique mesh of international influences.

Psysalia released their first mini CD, “Psyche”, in August ‘06.

Psysalia Psysalis Psyche get a large chunk of their name from the latin for the Portuguese Man of War, a deadly creature of the sea. Like the band’s namesake, Psysalia have an amorphous, floating sound of heady distorted guitar, melodic bass and electric processing and a poison vocal. Influences for the band include a heavy list of western favourites, from Babyshambles and Primal Scream, to the Strokes, the Beatles and Sonic Youth. Japanese influences range all over the map from Guitar Wolf and the Blue Hearts into the more eclectic reaches of Japanese hip hop. Their music is certaintly a melodic, embedded rock with a lot of quirky processing and a very heavily layered sound.

The lyrics are heartfelt, subject to change at the emotional whim of the band’s vocalist, Shion. He says of his onstage antics, including but not limited to the destruction of equipment, emotional outbursts, and impromptu feedback art, that he does purely what he feels and the lyrics as well as the style the music presents itself as are all a big part of that. Of his fans, he described to me that his ideal fan was someone who would ‘Embrace him warmly first, and then stab him in the back.’ · close