Ones to Watch: Moksha Medicine

Four piece, Eastern influenced, psychedelic rockers Moksa Medicine got me hooked instantaneously with their take on psychedelia – taking elements from the old, the new, the borrowed, and the blue. Powerful and encapsulating vocals meet fuzzed out riffs sprinkled with Eastern melodies all awash in a dream like haze.

As said, there’s a lot of variations on psychedelia that have come together to make the music of Moksha Medicine, and that’s why it stands out from the waves of psychedelic bands coming to the fore currently. Anyhow, after featuring them in PULSE recently, I managed to catch up with them for a quick Q&A. This is the result.

Hello, how the hell are you?

Excellent

For those of our readers not too familiar with yourselves, what are Moksha Medicine all about?

We like to make fuzzy psychedelic guitar music and add eastern layers. This is a brief description of the aesthetic but what it is about is up to whoever experiences it. There is no Moksha manifesto. What it means to me may be different to what is means to somebody else in the band. The result of the collective is what is then presented to people at our gigs and on our records. An artist can say that they created a piece of art to represent something but the person who experiences it will create their own unique meaning based on their own experiences.

In the recent Pulse feature you popped up in, I mentioned Moksha being Sanskrit for ‘liberation, and also its use in naming a collection of Aldous Huxley’s visionary experiences and psychedelic literature. Did one of these sway more influence when it came to naming the band, if either at all?

Yes

Speaking of influence, how about your big musical influences or heroes? How about your ‘Eastern influence’?

There are many people who have influenced our music who aren’t necessarily known for making music themselves but their ideas have influenced how we approach what we do.  Lynch, Hemmingway, Bukowski, Dylan, Ginsberg, Suffragettes, Edward Snowdon, Tony Benn the list can go on and on but I am attracted to people who represent freedom and rebellion. Living in the information age we have access to more ideas throughout history and pop culture than at any other time. It’s these things that shape us and in turn the things we want to create. It will be interesting to see how young children who are growing up now with all this information available to them in their hand will be influence pop culture in the future. I think style will become more transient and varied and not with everyone walking around in matching skinny silver space suits eating instant mashed potato like everyone thought in the 60’s.

Aside from music and the band, what else gets you going? Big passions?

My life is a constant battle between things I should do and the things I want to do. The things that I actually do are somewhere between what I can do and the things I can get away with. I suppose these are the things we present to the world as our passions.

There’s quite resurgence in psychedelic music and related genres at the moment. How does it feel to be a part of that? Are there any contemporaries you particularly admire, that we should look into?

I don’t feel part of any particular scene but it would be foolish to suggest psych in its current form hasn’t been growing for a number of years and there isn’t a lot of people doing it. It’s a good time to seen great bands. Psych is a very varied genre and there is a lot of space within it in which to express a broad range of ideas. In terms of other bands to check out within this genre it’s probably best to check the Shacklewell Arms listings. If you don’t mind paying a premium for flat lager then it’s the best place to start.

How are things going for you gig wise at the moment? Where can our readers come experience you live?

Thursday 6th November at 93 feet East, 22nd November at the Shacklewell Arms, 6th December at The Finsbury. We often add dates at short notice so its best to check our Facebook page.

What’s next on the agenda for Moksha Medicine?

We are writing songs for our album which will hopefully be out sometime next year.

Finally, if you had a particularly cultured pet vulture, what would you call it?

Phil

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