“Yeah, [Psuche] just kind of ran its course,” King explains when I ask him about the dissolving of the band, “and some people just didn’t really want to be in it anymore. So everybody went away, and it was pretty much [down to] me and Oscar [Slorach-Thorn]. We also realised that ‘Psuche’ was a ridiculous name for a band, and difficult to pronounce [sue-key, if you’re curious]. So we came to terms with the fact that we’d probably have to change the name, and it’s pretty clear why you’d go from a name like ‘Psuche’ to ‘Oscar and Martin,’ which is just about as straight down the line as you can possibly get!” he laughs.
One aspect most people single out for praise in regards to For You (and its newest single, the fetchingly earnest What I Know) is how it effortlessly jumbles together minimalist analog electronic sensibilities with the heart and soul of R’n’B. How did they approach their unique sound while recording? “When we were making [For You], we were still finding our skills a bit,” King reveals. “We were just trying stuff out and trying to make it as hi-fi as possible with the crappy gear we had at the RMIT studio we were in.
“Of course [engineer] Nick Huggins helped us out a lot, particularly with finessing the vocals and guitar sounds. He also helped tie it all together and make it actually sound like a real album! We only knew so much, but we were trying to take on something bigger than we knew about, as far as making an album sound really professional when you don’t have the money.
“I pretty much exclusively listen to R’n’B and hip hop from the early ’90s. And the only reason I play in an indie band is because that’s the scene I grew up in,” he continues. “If I grew up in an R’n’B or hip hop scene I’d probably be more at home! Oscar and I play in indie bands because that’s where we live, and that’s what the people we’re around are all about. But the music we’re influenced by is more like dance music and club music, music that’s produced to sound really full and fat in a big sound system!
“Alicia Keyes and Justin Timberlake; anything Timbaland produces, and Beyoncé – fucking give me all that stuff, like any day; I live off that stuff! Really, that’s the sound I’m trying to go for, but I don’t have the money or the expensive synths. It’s the same with Oscar. So we make do with what we can; the crap keyboards and trying to take the sounds we can afford and end up with what we can get. Recording our own voices and stuff like that – just trying to push them and see if we can make them sound interesting.”
I point out that since its release in April, For You has been showered with praise, from major publications like The Age to Mess+Noise and The Vine. How does the adulation feel? “Wow, it totally blows my mind, man!” King says emphatically. “You know, we were sitting together in a basement for weeks, piecing together this album at 3am, not knowing what the hell we were doing. And then having a vision about it and really not knowing how anybody else was going to see it, and basically keeping each other from giving up, and making sure that we just kept making what we love making.” He pauses, and says in disbelief, “And to have actual people like that shit? It’s really humbling and amazing!”
I’m curious to know what the writing process was like in regards to, say, What I Know. How does a song like that actually come together? “I think Oscar’s pretty confident at writing songs. He’s really good at it, so with a lot of songs on the album, he’d bring a song to me and we’d just flesh it out and record it. But the stuff I wrote on the album was more a process of writing something, throwing it out and writing it again.
“With What I Know, Oscar threw his first verse on it and played some guitar, and helped me with the chorus. I’d write a verse, then he’d write a verse, and I was, ‘Oh shit, his is better,’ and I’d throw mine out and write it again better and so on – and then he’d write his better and we’d just …I don’t feel it was competitive, but I just wanted it to be the best it could be, so I’d just write it again and again like 50 times before putting it down on the album. I mean, you gotta try to outdo yourself, because otherwise, what are you doing?”
