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My Octopus Mind
August 11, 2023|FEATURES

“I totally encourage everyone to live their truth. Like the new Barbie film.” – Introducing My Octopus Mind

In their own words, Bristol’s My Octopus Mind are a band that make weird, silly and heavy music. Which, to a degree, is true. However, they’re more than just a weird silly heavy band.

Comprised of members Liam O’Connell (Guitars, Vocals, Keys), Issac Ellis (Double Bass, Vocals), Jordan Woolgar (Guitars, Synth) and Oliver Cocup (Drums, Vocals), the Bristolian experimental prog collective are a unit utterly devoted to forging their own path. With their sound harkening thoughts of The Guru Guru, Genghis Tron, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, Helms Alee and even Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, the group totally forgo convention and genre in order to offer something truly mercurial, idiosyncratic and larger and life; something quite literally true given the band’s seven-odd foot double bass.

However, the band aren’t just weird for the sake of being weird. Nor are they making some sort of convoluted and ultimately creatively redundant stand against the notion of genre. Instead, My Octopus Mind are the sound of pure musical creativity and ingenuity, with their craft being the product of nothing but driven inspiration and boundless musical charisma. As heard within their two previously released records – 2019’s Maladyne Cave and 2020’s Faulty At Source – and as seen at performances alongside the likes of Paranoid Void, The St. Pierre Snake Invasion, Bicurious, Mother Vulture and others, the band are unit that implore one to live their own truth; even if it means pushing yourself and others beyond the parameters of what one would call ‘normal’. New single ‘Moving Slow’ is a documentation of this.

Taken from the band’s forthcoming record – aptly titled Trying To Be Normal – ‘Moving Slow’ see’s the band and O’Connell documenting the failure of trying to fit in societal norms when one exists beyond them. Containing the group’s unique swagger and sultry yet progressive nature, the single see’s the band harnessing the power of prog in a way that’s intimate, bizarre yet utterly captivating. ‘Wandering Alone’, the latest track to be taken from the record also highlights this nature, it’s fuzzed bass and balkan rhythms highlighting the band’s charm and their penchant for creating art that’s beyond that cannot be categorised, pigeonholed or really compared.

With Trying To Be Normal being released November 3rd via Drongo Records, we caught up with My Octopus Mind for a chat.

For those new to My Octopus Mind, how would you briefly describe yourself?

Liam: Weird silly heavy music that hopefully surprises and gives emotional release

Oli: An extension of our brains. Groovy, sultry, provoking and at times, a bit amusing.

Musically and topically, what are your primary inspirations?

Liam: Stuff that surprises me and makes me giggle. Some recent bands that really tickled me were The Evil Usses and Lingue Nada. Also The Mysterons. Subject wise I don’t ever set out to write anything in particular. I just improvise for months and gradually the lyrics take shape, once I have to record them I usually listen through lots of recorded rehearsals and live versions and pool them into one definitive version. In this process the meaning of the song usually begins to take shape in the way the lyrics relate to the song title and to any subconscious processing. Sometimes as with Moving Slow it’s months later after recording that i realise what the song is about, for me. I hope that it can mean something different to everyone who hears it though and I always love to know what that is for them.

Oli: The humans I play with are my inspirations. I also enjoy injecting opposite or unexpected genres into this band. I enjoy Nate Smith and R&B drummers. I’m weird and have never been able to answer the question ‘who inspires you’ I can only say who I enjoy and what our music sounds like. I concur with Liam on those ones. I told him about them all. I am completely original.

You’ve recently released your single ‘Moving Slow’. How are you feeling about the reception?

Liam: We’ve had some really nice comments but to be honest we are finding it really hard to get any real traction. It seems like the brief period where DIY could just naturally get followers has now been taken back by the gatekeeper and tastemakers. There’s just too much music everywhere and so our social media micro content gets attention but beyond that it’s an uphill struggle unless we pay pay pay. The whole process really detracts from the joy of creating art when you have to think about how to sell yourself. Saying that we are very grateful for all the love so far and we hope this music will continue to grow.

Oli: I and all of my musician friends who are making music that isn’t a regurgitation of whatever is hip would agree with Liam. I think it’s really hard to get music out there to the general populace without a bit of daddy cash, which is a shame because everyone who has heard the track absolutely digs it. My girlfriend Ali was in the music video and when her actor friends heard it after she played it they were really surprised they hadn’t heard it before. It’s hard to get it out of that bubble. In fact I think it got more views being shared off her facebook / instagram than all of our socials combined! It’s something musicians face all over, especially in England. We’ve seen packed rooms around Europe dance their asses off to the entire record and buy merch after the show. That’s the only way to scope the reality of ‘are we doing the right thing?’ That being said, I create music for me, not for anyone else. So I’m fine with whatever!

Liam: It was written in The Cube in Bristol which is an anarchist theatre/cinema/events space that I am part of. The whole album was written there over the course of the pandemic and its multiple lock downs. The space is open and non judgemental, so that must have helped, but ultimately the biggest factor was the pandemic unfolding around us and as the world seemed to be collapsing it seemed that we were compelled to make music to escape that reality rather than critique it, as we have done with past albums. It’s like things got so bad that irony was no longer appropriate. We just wanted to play around and have fun instead.

Oli: We recorded in a lush Welsh hillside studio. It was the last time we wrote a song. It took us 20 mins and it’s on the album.

The track is taken from your new record Trying To Be Normal. Trying To Be Normal is likely a sentiment that many may be struggling with in an age like this where conformity is expected. What does the title of the record mean for you?

Liam: It’s hilarious, this is us trying to be normal and completely failing.

Izy: We spent many years making highly tangential, cerebral music. Soundscapes, non-linear song structures, non-repeating metre sequences. This is our best effort to calm down and hide all that cool indulgent stuff in the margins of earworms.

Oli: I came up with the title after a tongue in cheek discussion about making the structures of our songs a bit more approachable. 3 or 4 min bangers sort of thing. We managed maybe 2. Things got out of hand. But the title is still true. We tried.

It feels like the Bristol scene has become somewhat of a bastion of unrestrained creativity, and your music carries the very essence of that creative freedom associated with the city. Has Bristol shaped and inspired your music and approach to writing?

Liam: That’s very nice to hear. it’s hard to say exactly as we don’t feel like we sound like other Bristol bands but we definitely draw inspiration from the scene and how creative ideas are always welcomed and encouraged, I personally do still feel like an outsider having moved here 9 years ago, but i’ve always felt like an outsider so I can’t say that the place has much to do with that.

Oli: My bandmates are my influence and inspiration in whatever project I’m in, and whatever vibe is in the room. Nothing happens if the mood isn’t good. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt truly ‘inspired’ by a place – I should mention my neurodivergent nature which inhibits my ability to think like a normal person.

Bristol has birthed some amazing alternative artists over the years, to you what is it about the city and its scene that makes it so special?

Liam – It’s a small city with a large amount of small venues 60 – 250 kinda size which really fosters new ideas and small bands to have lots of places to play.

Oli – Bristol’s full of dreamers and thinkers who have a lot of places to express themselves. Where something is championed, something will flourish. Water is useful, as is the nearby countryside for creative folk, probably.

In relation, the city has long held the reputation for being a liberal place for nonconformists. Do you find this sentiment true, and does this liberal energy assist in writing?

Liam: I guess in comparison to other parts of the UK this could seem true but it’s definitely far less the case these days with the massive clamping down on squatting and van dwelling. It is still very creative but with the rising rent it’s pushing the creative culture towards the London model with less margin for error and the “check me out I’m so busy” syndrome.

To return to ‘Moving Slow’, the track deals with trying to find the confidence to live up to the ideal version of yourself whilst rejecting restrictive gender norms. Much akin to the name of the record, this is likely to be a subject many are struggling with. For those struggling to find this confidence, what would be your message?

Liam: It’s confusing I just wish it wasn’t something that drew so much attention. I guess the way I feel is that we should all be able to dress how we feel like dressing without feeling like that makes me part of a particular group. But for many people the groups and community are very important. I’d say that might relate to the fact that whilst in the Bristol bubble all things queer are encouraged, the outside world seems to be launching some kind of war and creating some kind of us and them narrative. The dialogues seem to have lost all nuance and it feels like camps are polarising even amongst like minded people. But my actual lived experience is one of acceptance. I think it’s always important to question things but for me my lack of interest in social groups is part of some kind of outsider thing that I seem addicted to.

Oli: The name of the record relates to the music, it’s all about the music for me but I totally encourage everyone to live their truth. Like the new Barbie film.

Your shows have always felt like joyous events totally freed from conformity, is this something intentional? How do you go about creating such an environment?

Liam: It’s just how we are, everyone in the band has different forms of diagnosed neuro diversity and I think at least for myself the stage is the one place I can truly be me and express without a filter because people are there to be entertained.

Oli: I can’t pull the neuro divergent card on this one, or on any of the music. It’s the bits that surround the music that is potentially ‘different’ to different folk. I think joy is infectious, and playing mental music is joyous. Enjoy your life, even if it’s in front of people. No one cares. It’s definitely 100% not put on, that notion makes me quiver with shame. Nothing is intentional apart from attempting to play our songs correctly. Joy creates joy. Hate creates hate. I know where we stand.

Also one of the biggest aspects of your live show is the fact there’s an upright bass on stage. What’s it like having such an instrument as part of the dynamic? I can imagine load-outs must be a nightmare.

Liam: I’ll leave that to Izy as he has spent many years refining his tone with that beast, having a big enough vehicle is definitely an issue and flying so far has seemed completely off the cards. Tone wise he has found a sexy slinky fuzzy pocket unlike anything I’ve heard before which makes me happy.

Oli: Izy is one of the easiest musicians I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing with. No faff, no arseache, it fits in the van or on the roof. He’s a self contained unit of legendary proportions.

Izy: The double bass is a key part of the whole sound, both on stage and on record. Between the bow and the more percussive plucking techniques, there’s a lot of things it does that the electric just doesn’t. I put it through some key effects like fuzz and an octaver that of course give it superficially a very not-an-upright sound, but before that transformation the sound source has some big impacts, it means the low end in the band feels very different to most other setups, it attacks differently, it blooms differently, and it slides around pitches differently.

Finally, what do you want people to take away from My Octopus Mind as a creative entity?

Liam: A feeling of freedom, play and catharsis that you can do what you want regardless of the industry.

Oli: Our merch.

Trying To Be Normal is released November 3rd via Drongo Records. Pre-order the record here.

My Octopus Mind