It was early May when listening to debut album from Serpent Power inspired incredible stories and images, captured in the most allucinatory “review” I had ever written.
Is this what music is supposed to be, right? A one way ticket for unknown destinations!
We’ve been waiting long to have a few words for a Q&A from the two sorcerers behind this album, which was actually born out of the collaboration between The Coral’s Ian Skelly and The Zutons Paul Molloy.
It’s actually a few words, music clearly speaks louder for them, but there are hints and references worth a check.
Here they are, with the usual generous dose of images and sounds.
Yeah!
Q – Did you start to write songs together just out of a common love for same sounds or did you have from the very start the plan of releasing an album?
Paul – We kinda just connected I guess. Mentally and artistically.
Ian – We had and have a mutual love for music, art, literature and movies.
Q – How is the songwriting process? Who came with ideas and how you developed and refined them?
Paul – We write together and separately. There is an extremely interesting process in the creation but it’s almost unanalytical like most art.
Ian – Sometimes we can have a conversation and it then turns into a song
Q – Where did the name of the band comes from? Serpents – especially big ones! – are popular creatures in many folk tales and myths.
Ian – Yeah I was reading the book on ancient mysticism and it came from there.
Q – Who takes care of the visual and graphic side of your project?
Do you have any favourite visual artists you would recommend to check?
Ian – Yeah I do the artwork for the band and in the case of Serpent Power they usually come from the themes and characters Paul and I write about.
Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby are great.
Q – Your lyrics are dense with characters, surprises, surreal situations. Even if they’re not direct references or inspirations, what is your background as literature and poetry readers?
Paul – Yeah some are make believe and some are based on actual people. We love H.P Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe and stuff like that. All kinds of stuff really. A lot of gothic horror and sci fi.
Ian – We pass around a lot of movies. They are a constant really and inspire us as much as records.
Q – Do you see a future for the Serpent Power project or should we consider it more like a one-off?
Ian – Yeah definitely we’re already working on the second album.
Paul – Yeah we are just in the arrangement process now.
Q – The term psychedelic is meant to refer to music to listen to for “mind travelling” (the famous third eye…). Do you see also the act of composing psychedelic music as a trip in itself?
Paul – For me personally yeah I almost feel like I’m levitating when I’m making or playing music. There is a trance like and altered state I think goes hand in hand with it.
Ian – I think our music is not just psychedelic. It has a lot of different resonances. I guess you can call it psychedelic because it is colourful and trippy but it has many different facets.
Ask The Sky 