Darrin Huss has been the driving force behind the electronic duo PSYCHE for well over 10 years. Originally from Edmonton, Canada, Darrin moved to Germany several years ago to further his music, which combines sleek pop melodies with stylish electronic dance music, all the while never neatly fitting into either the synth-pop or post-industrial moulds. Besides his work as PSYCHE, he has also worked on side projects INSIDE and VANISHING HEAT. GODSEND's Todd Zachritz interviewed Darrin in February 1998.

GS - First, please update us on the status of Psyche, and what's happened in the last few years.

Huss - Oh well from where should we start? I guess with Intimacy from 1994 is where we last left off pretty much. It was a somewhat softer more new-aged record I guess, and since no realhuge "indie-club hit" came out of it I came up with the idea of doing Soft Cell's "Sex Dwarf" and put that together with a few rare tracks and live performances under the name "Private Desires E.P." This then was another reason for atour again in Germany and a bit of a darker show. I had to pretty much hire various people to be on keyboard with me, but then found a live keyboarder in Stefan Rabura.

We did various festivals and even began to establish Psyche in Poland and a return to Belgium. However I still had no permanent committed new member to take the position of my brother.I began then in 1995 to record a side project called INSIDE, and shortly after the debut album "Room Full Of Mirrors" was released I got to know Per-Anders Kurenbach through a friend. At this time I was pretty obsessed with wanting to be a pop band and having nice romantic tracks on piano. The song "Lonely One" fulfilled this ambition and "Strange Romance" became a collection of this classic Pop style with a few experiments thrown in for good measure.

Of course the surprise success of "Good-bye Horses" our 1996 cover of the Q Lazzarus song (the original that was featured in "Silence of the Lambs") helped us reach a new audience for our album. We expected a positive reaction to this choice, but most certainly didn't want itto overshadow our own merits, and I think our subsequent record release party and tour through Sweden and Germany proved we had a solid album and a few new classics with tracks like "Tears" and "Silence Was A Melody". I'll be honest that I had also thought we would get tremendous radio play with "You Ran Away" and we had even started to make a video but sadly we found ourselves like so often before ignored by the major media, and underestimated in our potential.Well, well... that brings us up to the new album "Love Among The Ruined" which pretty much feels like a debut all over again.

Here we are once again standing on solid ground with a very modern innovative sound, a bit more outwardly courageous and even including a cover of "Screamin' Machine" as an homage to ourselves and a career spanningalready over ten years. I wanted to show the industrial fans that we've been there too. As for our status I'm happyto say that we have at least our own section in most hip record stores in Europe, and we are working on spreading our music more through the Internet with our wonderful Homepage initiated by Stefan Rabura. I hope by now that we've been placed on Yahoo services. We've certainly gotten a lot of curious mail because of "Good-bye Horses".

GS - Describe your side project Inside and what it means to you...

Huss - Inside began in 1995 as collaboration between musicians fromthe German group "The Eternal Afflict" and myself. As I had begun getting more personal in style with Psyche, I decidedto work with INSIDE on the darker subjects that still interested me but didn't necessarily integrate with my own life experience. This gave me a chance to create a dramatic more theatrical presentation in electronic music. Also itwas new for me to have a singing partner and combine my vocal expression with that of Angela's. Since our club hits "Vampire"and "The Whip" we have been messing around in the studio with various styles and themes, and so it will definitelybe interesting to see what the follow-up album sounds like. I think it will define itself more clearly in its themes and style than the debut. Psyche naturally will continue to represent my personal musical development on a more intimate level.

GS - Was Vanishing Heat just an experiment, or will it continue? Doyou have any interest in this sort of music?

Huss - Hmmm... Well at one point I thought I might release a "Vanishing Heat" album every four years representing a cycle of my thoughts in industrial music, but now that Psyche is infact having a release in 1998, and perhaps INSIDE as well, that's enough f or me. I'll be honest that my desire for thereally hard industrial stuff has died somewhat, as well the success of Nine Inch Nails and Ministry has made my vision somewhat unnecessary. Although I will always feel that songs such as "Night Stalker" or "Dr. Infinite" will remain unchallenged in their sophisticated gruesomeness, I've put some of these feelings into the new "INSIDE" recordings and even surprisingly a bit of this creepy style can also be found on one or two new Psyche songs. So the soul of VanishingHeat is still alive!

GS - Psyche to me represents a more mature, more elegant sort of electronicpop sound that most of the other groups lack. Do you think this has helped you or hindered you?

Huss - Well first of all thanks for the compliment. I think the maturityand lack of obvious dance tracks like "Unveiling The Secret" has hindered our sales a bit, but hopefully solidified our respect for going our way and not doing the same kind of song over, and over again. For our next release"Love Among The Ruined" we're looking back at Psyche's earlier music a little while enhancing the rhythm tracks aswell. It is representative of the next step in the plan I've been following in my mind for some time now. The themes are somewhat darker, and not so much about my relationships as on Strange Romance. I'm hoping for somewhere along the lines of an update on the atmosphere of "The Influence" for the '90's. The subjects are a little more mysterious and psychedelic with some sorrowful feelings, but more aggressively staged than in the last while. Probably what David Kristian would have described as "Merry Maladies".

GS - Have you noticed an increase in people interested in psyche inthe last few years as synth-pop has become more popular again?

Huss - As we released "Strange Romance" there seemed to be a generalconsensus that Synth-Pop was coming back, but I think this was not a real big movement. I don't like this word as adescription either. When I think of Synth-Pop then only ERASURE or early DEPECHE MODE come to mind. I'm not sure that Psyche fits that mould at least under my description of this term. The categorisation of a band's music canbe quite useful however when it brings more fans of a certain sound to you. The dangerous side is of course when they expectyou to always be that way.

GS - Why do you think it's so difficult to break Psyche into the U.S.?

Huss - A friend of mine informed me that gothic, and industrial is really the main movement and Psyche is too poppy! Well it's true that "Strange Romance" isn't fitting any direct package and so it's real hard to get a label if they're only looking for a sound like Leather Strip or God knows what else.I also haven't really worked too hard to get something in North America since I left for Europe so early in ourcareer. I still will continue hope for a release however, and will probably try a bit harder with our new album.

GS - Looking back at your impressive back catalogue, what are you mostproud of so far?

Huss - Without a doubt, songs like Eternal, Secret Angel, The Sundial,Brain Collapses, and pretty much the whole "Intimacy" and "Strange Romance" albums. My new favourites are "Exhale","Murder In Your Love" and "The Drowning Pool".

GS - Do you see Psyche (or your other projects) more as a release/expression for you personally, or do you write music mostly with your fans in mind?

Huss - Although I write for my personal expression, I think of our audience when I'm arranging the music or the singing style of the songs. Some songs are written for fans of electronic musicthat we hope to impress with our development. Something like "Searching" or on the new album "The Game" and "Belong To You" are done without worrying about the audience reaction because we want to surprise people who think they know what we sound like. I'm usually good at guessing which song will be the most liked, but you can't always know.Most important is that we're proud to perform our songs live.

GS - Several years ago, you mentioned that you wanted Psyche to gain international recognition. Are you comfortable having a smaller, but faithful fan-base as long as it allows you to continue doing what you enjoy most?

Huss - Well, I still would like to be available in the countries whereI think the people would be interested in us. I think we haven't reached our potential audience yet, but it's great to be discovered along the way. Of course it will always be my hope to continue to live from the music I want to make.

GS - What happened to Stephen and will he release more music or work with Psyche in the future?

Huss - Stephen has been struggling with a diagnosis of schizophrenia since around 1989, and we've had alot of ups and downs about Psyche becoming a career or not. When I decided I wantedto continue to live in Germany and build some kind of a basis, Stephen chose to stay in Canada. I have in fact compiledan amazing collection of his best instrumentals
throughout the years and most definitely plan a release soon. It willbe called "VOID LOGIC". The tracks are timeless! In the meantime Stephen has a cassette release that can be ordered through our fan club.

GS - What are your thoughts on the current state of electronic music.Do you listen to or like any of the newer techno/ambient/drum-n-bass/whatever artists?

Huss - Oh yes I'm aware of all the electro trends and I had a period where I was really into techno, and it's variations. I like Aphex Twin and LFO. I'm a little sick of new dancetrends now though. I prefer music with vocals or old Tangerine Dream stuff to what's out now but "Poison" and "Smack My Bitch Up" from the Prodigy is definitely fun. I also quite like Madonna's more recent material. I listen to a-lot of new releases, but don't buy so much because I know I may forget about it sometime. Still every couple of years somethingwill come up that I just have to have. I hope our fans feel that way about Psyche too. I especially am excited about "Love Among The Ruined".

GS - Closing words and thoughts...

Huss - Psyche is back so fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the ride of your life.
 

(Interview: Todd Zachritz)