FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

Listen to the ‘Syd Barrett Meets Chapterhouse’ Psych Pop of Votaries

From North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains Jackson Scott creates psych rock and shoegaze pop.

While you wouldn't necessarily describe it as 'bursting', Jackson Scott arrived on the scene a few years ago with two well-received albums that drew comparisons to the work of a young Syd Barrett with the more straight-forward and hooky guitar jams of Weezer.

The Pittsburg-native, who now calls Asheville, North Carolina in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains home, returns with Votaries, a full band that continues his interest and excellence in mesmerising drone rock and pop.

Advertisement

Teaming up with Chase Gorter, Alex Reed, Andrew Breeden and Duncan Edwards, Scott has produced new album Psyochmetry that gives a 'chin on chest' nod to the lysergic rock of Spaceman 3 as well as the indie melody of the early Merge records catalogue that cab found a three hour drive east of Asheville.

Listen to the track "Succumb" that has Scott's voice gliding over big guitar riffs. We tend to agree with the description from his label Wharf Cat who liken it to "Syd Barrett meets Chapterhouse".

Noisey: Why the decision to go with a band this time around? Has the songwriting changed much from your solo albums?
Jackson Scott: This is a lot more collaborative than my solo stuff. I played almost everything on the solo albums. With Votaries, it could be a solo recording or there could be six people on a song. The songwriting itself really just depends on how I'm feeling for any given song.

What do you think of the world 'psych' in general?
Psych is a great word but way overused. When I say the word psych too much I probably end up sounding like a fuckboy.

Asheville is a city that is more to bluegrass than psych and shoe gaze. Do you have many similar bands in the area?
There's a lot of different music going on. You definitely have the bluegrass folk thing, but there's also a lot of garage and psychedelic stuff happening. As far as local or semi-local acts you got Angel Olsen, Aunt Sis, Nest Egg, Axxa Abraxas, The Nude Party, Muuy Biien, and many others.

'Psyochmetry' is available Oct 28 on Wharf Cat Records.