Image by Olivia Parsonson //
From rural New South Wales to earholes around the world, Switch Doctor’s EP Early Symptoms is the tasty slice of psychedelic rock you need this Tuesday.
According to Wikipedia, Tennyson is a suburb located 72 kilometres North-West of Sydney’s CBD in the City of Hawkesbury, it has a population of around 400 people and contains only one community building – the Tennyson Bush Fire Brigade Shed. The unassuming nature of the place is also the perfect backdrop for Switch Doctor, the group who has seemingly come from obscurity and dropped some of the best psych music to grace our ears all year.
We first heard of the four-piece a few months back when their debut single ‘Strange Insides’ caught our attention and left us with a lot of questions about who exaclty is Switch Doctor. And, though there’s still many questions to be answered, today we have Early Symptoms, which is 29 minutes of guitar-lead grooves heavily bolstered by the rawness of the groups DIY recording process.
“We recorded it ourselves in Jaxon’s studio (Deadwater Studios) out in the bush. We tracked the instruments live for the whole EP in a day and added the vocals later,” bassist Jacob Hedges. “The studio is constructed in an old timber barn that houses a live and control room, 28 channel analog mixer and plenty of instruments and devices to experiment with.”
While you wouldn’t say EP is built around lyrics, when the group drags you out from heaving jams, singer Jaxon Sharp proves he’s more than capable of dropping some memorable lines and melodies that thematically fit the outsider/spacey musical accompaniment. “The third track ‘Saturated’ probably sums up the themes across the EP. The music and lyrics aim to emulate ideas like overstimulation, sickness and satire,” Jacob says.
Sucked in yet? You can catch Switch Doctor performing tracks from Early Symptoms live at Brighton Up Bar supporting Joey Equine & The Glue Factory and The Sandy Van August 25th. And check out some snaps by Olivia Parsonson of the guys jamming in the Tennyson studio below:
