Kevin Robertson takes time out from fronting The Vapour Trails (who will be playing at our 19th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus Festival in summer 2023) for a first single on Fruits de Mer.
Kevin‘s single combines covers of The Byrds‘ “Why” and Jefferson Airplane‘s “D.C.B.A-25” – lovingly crafted, jangly Pop-Psych. “Why” was written by Jim McGuinn and David Crosby and first released as the B-side of the band’s “Eight Miles High” single in March 1966, it was born out of Crosby‘s love for the music of Ravi Shankar. As for, “D.C.B.A-25,” (originally recorded by Jefferson Airplane), the letters in the title refer to the chords used in the song, and according to composer Paul Kantner, the number is “a reference to LSD-25. It’s basically an LSD-inspired romp through consciousness.”
Stream an excerpt from “Why” through the player:
And from “D.C.B.A.-25” through the player below:
‘Over to Kevin to explain his debut for Fruits de Mer: “Following three jangling psychedelic releases from my band and two solo albums within the last five years, it’s been a pleasure to take a break from those avenues of music and delve into two of my favourite 60s songs, putting my own spin on them.
‘Why’ is right up there with my favourite Byrds songs. The Gene Clark vocals and fuzzy jangle always struck a chord with me but rather than copy the style I wanted to make it my own with uber psych guitar breaks and phasers set on full blast whilst still harbouring the soft vocals and harmonies heard on the original.
‘D.C.B.A-25’ is my personal favourite song from ‘Surrealistic Pillow’, incidentally an album in my top 10 records ever made. The idea here was to keep the jangling psyche vibe of the original but to add gentle splashes of moog and harmonica sounds, structure the vocals a little differently and generally bring the song into Kev Robertson territory…great fun to arrange and record!”