[Interview] Exclusive interview with Space Shepherds

Dear readers, we are pleased to offer you in this article an interview with an Irish Jam-band that offers Experimental and Psychedelic sounds. We welcome the Space Shepherds.

Hi how are you?

Hi Jacopo, we’re doing great. Hope you’re doing well too! Thanks for having us.

Yours is a Jam-band that offers sounds Psychedelic and Experimental, where does your passion for these musical genres come from?

We definitely have to nod our heads towards the likes of Dead Meadow, Hawkwind, The Doors, Osees, Jimi, and many countless others (the list could go on, and on) for giving us the listening experiences that got us into psychedelic rock and helped broaden our musical horizons. These influences coupled with the act of playing itself is what shapes our passion towards this style of music, as we see how free and expansive it is, allowing us to really go for it and not worry about what’s right and wrong.

You are a prolific band, releasing several records in a short time, how does the creative process of your music take place?

We’re always getting together for fun just to jam out and make some noise. Because of this, we’re all comfortable with listening to each other in the moment and reacting to the music as it flows. As for recording, it’s really just plug in and go (and hope you’ve remembered to press the record button before starting lol). We’ve been lucky to work with some absolute wizards when recording our albums, and because of this we avoid the kind of mistakes like not turning the mics on we would probably encounter as a free form jam band..

Your new album “What Fabric?” was released on July 20, 2023, how would you describe this work?

We’d like to describe it as a fun set of tracks as that’s how it was to record them. It goes through a lot of different musical ideas and genres, but is somewhat more centered than our previous releases with more of a kraut-rock feel to some of the tracks which helped to establish some motifs within the jams while still letting the music unfold naturally and freely. It’s easy to lose track of time when jamming, but when recording these tracks, not once did we feel lost amongst the soundwaves, they flowed easily and freely.

Long jams incorporating elements of different genres and styles, what are your sources of inspiration?

Mainly guessing it comes from whatever we’ve been listening to individually and collectively at the time. Like if one or more of us have been listening to a lot of funk, some things from that style will sneak their way into our playing without us even noticing at the time. The same goes for everything you can think of, whether it be post-rock, jazz, cuban, or any other style of music. What you put in, is what you get out it seems. It helps to always be listening to new styles and even practicing little things from every genre in
your own time so that the body can pick things out at any time it feels is right.

Your music definitely makes an impact in live performances, do you have any plans for this in the near future?

We’ve been fairly quiet on this front the past month or so, so we are definitely planning to play a few shows around Ireland and further afield in the very near future. We’ll be looking to play a lot of shows around Europe and the UK over the next year including festivals and more local shows. If anyone would like to play with us feel free to reach out, we’d be happy to get a few things cooking.

You have released several albums since your formation, how has your sound evolved over the course of the various records?

We try not to limit ourselves at all to the sounds we include in our tracks, and this has helped us progress with our releases. We like to have a drop-in drop-out element to the music, and we really enjoy playing with new people and instruments. This has only broadened our scope to be more creative while helping us to tighten up on our own individual playing as we record more.

Music is constantly evolving, how do you see the future of your genre?

It’s hard to tell but psychedelic rock will always be about pushing boundaries and bringing fresh perspectives to music. As music is evolving so are the sounds we and others are able to include.

You are originally from Ireland, how do you see the music scene in your country?

It’s great. For such a small island it’s surprising just how much music there is coming out at every moment. Ireland is a bustling hub of bands creating great music, and not just based around one or two genres, but every genre you could think of.

How difficult is it to establish yourself with more Experimental sounds like yours nowadays?

There’s a great worldwide community for our sort of sound and playing style, so it’s really just about getting involved. It can be hard to gain mainstream recognition for festival slots, but that’s because there are so many great acts making great music out there and slots are limited. We’ve been lucky to have a lot of support from fans, and we feel the love. Thank you.
Do you have any other passions or artistic activities outside of music?

We’re music-heads at the core of ourselves, but we also enjoy making art in different forms as well with some of us taking to painting, videography, writing and others liking to do a bit of skateboarding when our ankles aren’t rolled already.

I thank Space Shepherds for the interview and wish them the best as they continue their artistic careers.

Thanks Jacopo, this has been very much appreciated. It’s been great, and we hope you continue to do the good work with the journal. Thank you, all the best.

Space Shepherds |Bandcamp|Facebook Page|Instagram|Spotify|YouTube Channel|

Author: Jacopo Vigezzi

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