Isolation in the digital era
The band name Failed Psychics might bring to mind Uri Geller trying unsuccessfully to solve Brexit through the telly, but it has a far more personal meaning for the Brighton-based math punks: “As a trio of relatively unsuccessful musicians, we have in the past failed to make connections (psychic or otherwise) through our music and in present times, people seem more distant than ever.”
It’s a common theme, that the digital world might seem to bring us together but only makes us more separate, particularly in these polarised times. This idea is at the heart of the band’s new EP, which has an especially harsh view of the online world: “Rather than being a utopia of human connection, it has become a chaotic isolating place built on contempt and vanity, a dopamine-inducing procrastinators’ playground.”
While we all sometimes share this frustration, Failed Psychics are self-aware enough to recognise that their anger could be seen as the not-so-young – “yesterday’s men”, as they call themselves – railing against the new, but they have found a positive way to leverage both their (perhaps tongue-in-cheek) despondency and their experience: “We have no choice but to plough on, desperate to make a connection with others who feel the same. To do this, we put on our own DIY punk promoterless gigs and share equipment to try and give ‘other psychics’ a bit of a platform to make those connections. From this, we have made friends (one enemy) and put on a whole bunch of unforgettable nights.”