Lucas O'Heyze of The Shadow Kabinet - Interview - 15 June 20
This was found, wrapped around a bong in the street...
Liverpool is the capital of psychedelia in the UK, with more psych bands per capta than anywhere else in Europe. Blessed by the magick waters of the Mersey-sippi, Scousers and adopted Liverpudlians alike have been offering nuggets of psychedelia to the world with the fecundity and dedication of a drug dealer’s bag delivering acid to a Grateful Dead audience at the Fillmore East in San Francisco, circa 1969.
But it didn’t happen overnight. The trip took a long time coming. It’s a journey that arguably started with Bob Dylan offering The Beatles a joint, was amplified with the help of a certain Dr. Robert, then spiced by George Harrison’s fascination for Ravi Shankar and, finally, sedimented by “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and the film “Yellow Submarine” - yes, in other words, we got The Beatles to thank for.
Though the Fab Four were the only notable band from Liverpool making psychedelic music during the most psychedelic decade ever, and didn’t even record their songs here, the association between Merseyside’s musical scene and psychedelia was thus born. Sure, to start with, most Liverpool bands didn’t play psych, but at least they all loved drugs, and as far drugs go LSD has always been one of the most fun and, therefore, most popular.
Slowly but surely, the acid trips would inevitably transmute into music, from the long jams by Echo And The Bunnymen in the post-punk era to the more mystical moments by The La’s or Cast, until finally The Coral put psychedelia back on top of the musical agenda. Since then, psych music blossomed in Liverpool, and nowhere else in Britain or Europe you’ll find more or better psychedelic offerings, from the popular Liverpool Psych Fest to the new Liverpool Psychedelic Society events.
Today, there are countless bands making music which could be described as psychedelic, from Deltasonic-approved Sunstack Jones to Essa Shields, Aaron Ellis, San Pedro’s Vision, Thee Lucifer Sams and Sallow Pillow. All very different, but all undeniably kissed by the lysergic vibes still emanating from the Sixties.
We decided to interview one of Liverpool’s most active, and perhaps wayward, psychedelic band - Liverpool Psychedelic Society’s favourites The Shadow Kabinet, led by the unique talent of Lucas O’Heyze, a scottish musician who chose Liverpool as home.
Before I interviewed Lucas and got to writing this article, there was only one thing to do - trip my balls off with a big dose of acid. Reality is made of a series of levels, and there’s no point talking about psychedelic music as if it was a black and white page on a book, to be read linearly from left to right.
Shadows don’t exist in the dark, so if I were to uncover anything interesting, I’d need to shine a light on The Shadow Kabinet. During my psychedelic trips I’m always visited by a multi-dimensional entity called Ekoteph, who guides me and often illuminates the deep questions that arise in my mind - though just as often I forget them later on, as if our reality was merely the hazy, foggy details of a much wider picture.
We need to see colours we don’t know, hear sounds our ears can’t capture, if we are to fully understand and appreciate psychedelic music, never mind talk about it. That’s why so often, it’s nearly pointless to interview a veritably psych band - the answers and the truth are in deeper levels than in this, poor reality we are all stuck in.
I’m not aware of my hands, of my mouth, of my body. I don’t know if I’m talking, writing, or dreaming. Maybe all, at the same time. Like I said, reality is a series of levels.
“I don't think that would be of any interest to anybody, really” replied Lucas. But… what did I ask? Well… I can’t remember for the life of my hamster, so he must be right!
Ekoteph reminds me that, before The Shadow Kabinet existed, Lucas existed as another version of himself, so even though what he did wasn’t the same, and he himself wasn’t the same, there was a connection between the past and the present - not so much like a line, as linearity is an illusion, but more like a tri-dimensional object like a cube, placed on a two-dimensional reality, like a sheet of paper:
The cube exists in full, with its six faces, but only one face is presently seen and experienced by the sad people who live in the two-dimensional world represented by the sheet of paper.
As such, we can appreciate the other sides of Lucas, a prolific songwriter, sides non-existent in our dimension but still present on Youtube: past projects such as i-Dischordian and The Heyze, which offer a clear link with The Shadow Kabinet - Lucas himself, obviously. Worth checking out if you want to appreciate the evolution of his music into its current incarnation. THANKS, EKOTEPH.
“The only inspirations that matter are my friends and the people I interact with in day-to-day life.”
Words to live by. As Terrence McKenna once said, the only thing that matters is the nexus of reality in which we exist, pretty much the same idea of what Lucas wisely told us, and expressed in songs such as The Shadow Kabinet’s trademark tune “Psychedelic Revolution”, always a highlight of their sets:
“The government, they don’t care about you / the world they make would still work without you… we gonna start a psychedelic revolution, inside your mind”
The Pandemic changed everyone’s lives, but it affects little people like Lucas, who always spends generous amounts of time at home, being creative anyway. A creative mind doesn’t need stimulus from the outside world, therefore a virus out there is as real as your imagination, the sun that shines in the sky is not brighter than your inner light - without going out of your door, you can know all things on Earth.
It’s a pity, though, that The Shadow Kabinet doesn’t have plans for a vinyl release. It shouldn’t matter, really, but it does. Today, the band remains in the shadows of the music scene, even though they make some of the best music in Liverpool right now.
You can’t help but feel there are many lesser bands who get to play Psych Fest events worldwide but who are not half as good as The Shadow Kabinet. You know, bands who have albums out on whatever trendy record label and are, because of that, considered more “proper” than Lucas’ band ever will - even though, as is so often the case, so many of those bands who get to play psych festivals can hardly be considered truly psych. A real shame.
Not that our friend Lucas O’Heyze here gives a shit. His job is to be creative and make music, not to shift units. You don’t know The Shadow Kabinet? Your loss. Lucas couldn’t care less.
Take this article as me doing a favour to you, the reader. Don’t miss out the opportunity.
And yeah. As Lucas proves, and as my friend Ekoteph also does in this mad trip I’m having right now, drugs DO work. Turn on, Tune in, and drop out of the same old, same old, my friend. Drugs do work. No work. Do. Drugs. Do some Shadow Kabinet.
Signed by your friend, Captain Sweetheart.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theshadowkabinet/ Burn Down the Pyramid (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsIV-UKoxlM