Getting to know Secret Colours

We take some positively distracting time with Chicago’s psych-poppers, Secret Colours, ahead of their Austin Psych Festival performance and the release of their Positive Distraction II EP. 

Secret Colours are… An entity that started out in 2009 as a typical college psychedelic rock band and over the the course of a few years evolved into a collaborative group experimentation of psychedelia and pop infused rock n roll.

We met at… high school playing and talking about music at bonfires and parties with ungodly amounts underage drinking. We met the newer member Mike Novak while recording Peach in 2011 and Eric Hehr we knew from friends of friends in Elmhurst IL back in high school as well.

We sound like… a culmination of our personalities and musical influences infused into whatever genre of psychedelic pop/rock you’d call us. It is evident we draw from bands like the Beatles, Kinks, Tame Impala, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Stone Roses, Blur, and many more.

A positive distraction is… something that distracts one away from a destructive pattern one can not seem to escape. A positive distraction in a sense is a type of salvation.

Our performances at Austin Psych Festival will be… different than anything we’ve done in the past. We will be performing with seven people including Dan Dusynski and Emily Cross who help record and create positive distractions as well and Maxx Magathey our newest keys player who is probably the best keys player I’ve ever met personally. Most of our set will be material from Positive Distractions but we are going to play a few oldies as well.

We’ve been listening to… many things from all types of genres including jazz, funk, Afro beat, industrial, but as for the groups at psych fest we can not seem to get enough of Temples. That record was a pleasant surprise from across the pond.

For the rest of the year we are… hopefully touring, we are starting to write new material again so we might put out a single or EP but we will see where the summer takes us. As of now we are kinda just going with the flow.

You can catch Secret Colours live at their Austin Psych Fest gig on May 4 or pick up a copy of Positive Distraction II now (you can stream Positive Distraction 1 here). Listen to Heavy and Steady from the Positive Distraction II EP below: 

Interview by Carol Bowditch.