Last Friday, the Bristol experimental outfit, My Octopus Mind, released their third studio album, Trying to Be Normal. The album was written in 2020, in an old, 1920s theatre during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and recorded the following year, with producer James Bright, at Giant Wafer Studios in the rural Welsh town of Llandrindod Wells.
Back in September, whilst the band were finishing up a short European run, we tried unsuccessfully to set up a call, but data coverage in rural Belgium was not allowing such a thing. After weeks of communication and scheduling between myself (the author of this piece) and My Octopus Mindโs vocalist and guitarist, Liam OโConnell, to set up an interview before the albumโs release, we managed to schedule an interview for last Tuesday. Hooray! The day before, however, I got a last-minute text, asking if I could head into the city centre and speak with the members of Bombay Bicycle Club for the Irish Daily Star, a half-hour before I was to interview Liam.
After the interview with Ed and Jamie from Bombay Bicycle Club in a nearby hotel, I went to St Stephenโs Green and called Liam, only for me to realise that my power bank didnโt charge, despite having plugged it in, hours ahead of time! As such, I only had 10% battery on my phone when this interview began. Such is life, ey? Anyway, please enjoy this interview which was months in the making and less than twenty minutes in the execution.
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The first question I was going to ask is, how would you describe My Octopus Mind to somebody whoโs never heard your music before?
Usually, โweird joy.โ
[Laughs] โWeird joyโ?
Yeah! Usually, I say, โexperimental rock,โ because we used to say things like, โpost-face,โ but thatโs just a bit too confusing. [Laughs] โExperimental rockโ seems to do it; we experiment with what rock is.
Do you even find, with the confines of genre, that it gets kind of restrictive? In terms of people like yourself, who want to do kind of interesting art, stuff thatโs kind of out there, do you find it kind of restrictive to be like, โOh, weโre this thingโ or โWeโre that thingโ?
Yeah. Itโs just a marketing concept, isnโt it? I think thereโs a lot of bands who maybe write music that they want to be within a genre, but I donโt think any of us know how to do that, or not in this context of how we play music together; we just play what we want to play and then, later, we find out what it is, kind of thing. Thereโs no kind of, โAh, letโs try to write a song like this,โ orโฆThereโs none of that, so we just play what we want, and that ends up not really making sense as a genre, I guess. And then it’s just marketing people who want something kind of clear, succinct, that they can say to peopleโฆwhich I thinkโsโฆI wonโt go on a rant about that. [Laughs]
No, if you want! [Laughs]
I just think itโs sad, because I think that people are looking for new music but theyโre not actually looking for new music, because they donโt know what to do with new music; theyโre looking for stuff that they can categorise, so they can quickly get on with their lives, I guess. [Laughs]
What I wonder then is, I still think a lot of music festivals, for example, are kind of atomised into genres; so, itโs like, โHey, weโre a metal fest,โ or โWeโre an indie fest,โ or โWeโre a punk fest,โ or whatever. Do you think when it comes to doing showsโฆ โ and when I say โfest,โ I donโt necessarily even mean festivals, but even a line-up on a Friday night. Like, this club is doing a line-up or something โ do you find My Octopus Mind ever had difficulty in that area, or have you guys always been OK with getting in front of an audience?
Eh, no. Thatโs definitely been a big challenge for us. I remember, for years, trying to get the math rock scene to pay attention, but because we had stringy, orchestral intros โ it was post-rock. It fitted completely within what theyโre into โ but it was using string players and everything, so the first โ what? โ 30 seconds, to 45, maybe even a minute-and-a-half of a nine-minute track was this ambient, beautiful thing, so people just went, โOh, I donโt know why this folk bandโs contacting us,โ and then just moved it off to the side, and itโs literally been, like, five, six years later, people have come to our gigs and gone, โOh, youโre a punk band!โ and weโre like, โWell, yeah, weโve always been this band, but itโs just that people mostly watch fifteen seconds of whatever you send,โ which ruins art, doesnโt it? But I mean, what can you expect? Everyoneโs getting so much art all the time, itโs not like itโs anyoneโs fault, itโs just that, basically, if you do an intro to a track โ which is a beautiful thing to have in a piece of art โ then no-one knows what to do with it, because they donโt listen past that; they just hear that and they think thatโs what the music is, and they think, โWhyโs this person sent this thing?โ and the fact that, you know, over the course of nine minutes, it touches on everything isโฆYeah. [Laughs]
Well, actually, when it comes to kind of the songwriting of your music, is it individualised? Is it kind of likeโฆโ what do you call it? Because the music is kind of ethereal, and itโs kind of out there, you know what I mean? How does the actual songwriting process go itself, I guess?
Weโre talking about this new album, arenโt we?
Yeah.
So, with the new album, it was 100% written through the COVID experience, and it was all jammed; there was no ideas broughtโฆmaybe occasionally, like, the bass player was like, โOh, Iโve got this riff Iโve been working on at home,โ but, mostly, we just got together in a room, and โcause there was no time – we werenโt very close, by the way. [Laughs] It was a big theatre, and we were able to be actually properly spaced out. So, we would have our little zones โ but we would just play for like, six, even twelve hours in a day sometimes, at that point, which is something weโd usually never get the opportunity to, because weโre normally rehearsing to gig, rehearsing to gig. So, yeah, in this album, this album has come all from, like, just collaboration, and everyone just jamming, recording everything, going home, finding the bits from the jams that we liked, then bringing it back, and refining it and refining it, and kind ofโฆand some of the tracks on the album, they just happened like that, and they didnโt need much tweaking, and some of them, obviously, took, like, most of the year to kind of nudge into place and find the characters.
![](https://postburnout.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/newnormal-1024x682.jpg)
Courtesy of Memphia
And actually, when it comes to the album โ โcause itโs called Tying to Be Normal โ so, like, was there an intent for the get-go of what it was meant to be, what the album was actually meant to beโฆ? [The end of the question is drowned out by a gale of wind]
Eh, I think the drummer joked and said that in a rehearsal when we were, likeโฆWe were trying to make things shorter and more succinct, so we were trying toโฆlike, itโs still odd time signatures and itโs still things like that, but itโsโฆthereโs a lot more groove in the music, itโs a lot more on-point, and the songs are, like, much closer to three-to-four minutes โ some are, like, two-and-a-half minutes โ which, previously, we were in the kind of nine-minuteโฆsix-to-nine minute category. And weโve got more verse/chorus structures and things like that, which weโve never really had before, which, actually, for kind of experimental, โproggyโ people is actually a lot more work, to try and remove all the fun, in a way, but not, you knowโฆHow to distil it down into these, and condense it into these short, punchy moments. So, that kind of was a focus that we had, and so we kind of joked that we basicallyโฆthis is what happens when weโre trying to be normal, and we listened to it and were like, โOh, itโs not normal. Oh, right. [Laughs] OK,โ and we just thought that was quite hilarious, so we just kind of rolled with that. But then, in the Bristol music scene, there was literallyโฆWaldoโs Gift released an album called Normflex and someone else released an albumโฆHippoโฆwhat was their one? The New Normal? [Editorโs Note: Itโs called New Normal]. And, so, I was like, โI bet it was just getting into our heads,โ because the Government was constantly talking about โthe new normalโ and the media was all talking about that, because itโs just like three bands in the same scene came out withโฆtitles that use โnormalโ in it but kind of poke fun at that. So, I was like, โAh, right! Yeah! Weโre just part of a thing!โ It was quite annoying, because they put their albums out before us, and we were like, โNo! We didnโt [copy] it!โ [Laughs][Laughs] Well, whatโs kind of interesting is, itโs kind of subconscious, I guess, in that sense. Itโs kind of likeโฆI donโt know. It seems very influenced by the environment of COVID; not just in the recording of the music, as you were mentioning, the kind ofโฆthe setting, the restrictions, the isolation, sort of influenced both the writing and the production of the record, but I think, simultaneously, might have also โ even on a subconscious level โ might have influenced the concept, you know?
Yeah. Iโm a huge fan of the subconscious is the main thing that does the writing, in my book, and what I always love is, after writing music โ whether itโs me or with the band โ is you look at afterwards and you go, โOh, what is that?! Whatโs that saying?โ, because itโs always somethingโฆyouโre not thinking about it. At the time, you just need to do something and express something, and then you come out at the end and youโre like, โOh, wow, thatโsโฆโ Because one thing we did kind of say about that album โ because it was such a break from the panic and everything โ we previously wrote quite heavy political subjects. I mean, they still are in there but much more on identity stuff and consent is a bigger issue on this album, but itโs not so much, like, critiquing the Government, you know? โThe system,โ blah, blah, blah. That kind of stuff was much more present before, but everything was so messed up that it just felt like a clichรฉ to point out how messed up it was, and also, post-Trump and everything like that, itโs likeโฆI mean, Trumpโฆno, Trump was there! So, it’s like irony was murdered, and you couldnโt really poke fun at things. I mean, there is a song on there, called โDraining the Swamp,โ which was obviously, likeโฆAnd, initially, it was a big rant about, you knowโฆkind of Trump-esque, pretending to be Trump, shouting stuff stupidly, and then we just decided to remove that and take it off on a different direction because that just felt boring. It was the sameโฆrecently, I met a guy, and we started talking. We started getting into politics and why the worldโs messed up, and we both just looked at each other, bored by it, and just went, [He lets out an exasperated sigh], and I was like, โWow.โ Weโre kind of in this era now, where itโs just like we know that theyโre all lying, we know that itโs all a joke. OK. What are we going to do? So, I think in this album, we were like, โWell, letโs just mess about and be stupid.โ And thereโs still serious stuff in there, but thereโs also a lot more just silly, just โLetโs not filter ourselves.โ
One thing I wanted to ask you, actually โ because, as you were saying, the album was produced during COVID โ and, obviously, there was a lot of politics at the time. Like, you were mentioning Trump, and lockdown measures, and whatโs excessive, whatโs actually necessary?, etc., etc. ย But now, in the three years itโs been since the album was recorded and its release on Friday, weโre in such a different political environment now; you see whatโs happening in Gaza, you see whatโs happening in Ukraine, and so on. Do you wonder if doing political music can, in some ways, date the record, then?
Like, it would be more relevant now?
Well, I was wondering, do you think sometimes when youโre making declarations in a song about the politics of any given time, do you ever worry about it kind of dating the record, as inโฆ? Because politics is always moving, and by the time you write a song, record a song, release a song, the world can change so drastically on a whim.
Yeah, definitely. In terms of referencing politicalโฆparticular political figures and everything like that, itโsโฆthereโs no point; it all moves so quickly. And albums are timestamps. We recorded it after lockdown โ like, it was mostly written over that year โ but, it was recorded later, and so a lot of the lyrics were refined later. A lot of it would be lyrically written through improvisation, and then Iโd just listen through the recordings and jot down all the lyrics Iโve sung, and then, literally the week before I go into the studio to record the vocals, thatโs when I wrote definitive versions of a lot of the songs. So, they areโฆthey do encompass quite a long period of time, I guess, but theyโre always going to be a timestamp, arenโt they, to a type of headspace or a type of thought? And I thinkโฆyeah, I think things could get very dated very easily if I was more explicit, as well, but Iโm very against being very explicit. Like, I often am doing a character roleplay of messed-up peopleโs points of view and embodying it, or I have my own metaphors; like, the walrus. In this album, the walrus is the kind of toxic, archaic male who doesnโt, like, look at itself, and just kind of blunders through the world without self-awareness, I guess, and thatโs something that kind of comes up maybe just once – actually, once or twice – in it, but it’s kind of there, but itโs like no-one would know that unless I said that. Sometimes, itโs just a funny lyric, and at the end of the day…Ah! This is a thing Iโve been talking to a friend about; I need to not explain too much of this, anyway, because people can just get what they get out of it, but if we were being really explicit and we were being like, โOh, this political thingโฆblah, blah, blah,โ like, or whatever, yeah, that would date really quickly, and I feel like it would make the album have a shelf life.
Iโve really enjoyed this conversation. I just might have to go because I think my phone is about to die. [Laughs] One final thing I wanted to ask, actually, we were kind of talking about the Bristol music scene and stuff. Obviously, you guys have enjoyed some international success; youโve been able to tour Europe, for example. Yeah, I was wondering, how do you find the reception outside of Bristol to you guys? Because, I donโt know, it seems, from my perspective, that people seem very receptive to what youโre doing. Yeah. Itโs been really great. We really love going over to Europe. I think itโs partly because youโre travelling, but, also, weโve been getting really great reception in towns where itโs like we donโt know anyone and we havenโt got that big an online presence, so itโs just amazing, people show up. Some of the best gigs have been in Germany, I think. In Germany, there seemed to be a really greatโฆYeah, people are just immediately there, super present, dancing, going crazy, and just seeming to really love it, and theyโre kind of asking us back quite a lot. And, yeah, itโs just felt really easy. It was very scary after Brexit and COVID [Laughs] to go back over there, and we were like, โOh, are we going to get fined for everything?โ Turns out, it was alright. It was great. And, yeah, just being over there, and I think itโs just so exciting to know that weโre still part of the world, I guess, because that whole COVID and Brexit combined just made, I think, me and a lot of people start to forget that we are connected to the world and that we can just go out and be in other places.
Is there ever a concern when you go to a new place of, like, โOh, shit. Will people even turn up?โ or do you just kind of go, โOh, itโs just funโ? Because I know some people just treat it as a holiday; theyโre just like, โOh, yeah. You know, whatever.โ But there is a financial risk, in terms of actually going somewhere and no one turns up, you know?I think weโre gradually learning that people do turn up, so thatโs making us feel better. [Laughs] Like, I think we did two tours of Europe just before COVID, in 2019, and thatโฆI think, as a band, we had more anxiety about no one showing up, much more then, and now we kind of feelโฆit seems like everywhere we play โ even if itโs only thirty people. Like, in-between thirty and a hundred or something โ thirty is great, you know, if youโre a small, little space and theyโre into it, and theyโre all just there. [At this point, before he can continue, my phone dies and ends the Zoom call. Liam responds to my final question on WhatsApp].
What do you have planned for the future?ย
After our album launch this week, we will be retreating to our cave to plan the future before reemerging to play Portals Festival in May, followed by some potential European festivals in the summer. Our focus has shifted to quality over quantity when it comes to gigs, so wish us luck.
My Octopus Mindโs latest album, Trying to Be Normal, is out now and available to stream and purchase on the bandโs website, where you can also keep up to date with their live shows and social media links.
![](https://postburnout.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/pbprof.png)
Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO,ย Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRDย and more.