Brighton-based Tristan and Berlin’s Juli Holz are Psylhouette – a genre defying duet inspired by German electro pop. Their new single Moonlight, from their third album Psylhouette III is out now.
Here they tell Entertainment Now about the story so far.
How did your musical project/band first start? Is there a story to tell about it?
Juli: Tristan bought a track of mine on bandcamp and I was so thrilled that I wrote him a thank you note. We started emailing and I was fascinated by his music. A couple of emails later we decided to collaborate.
Tristan – yeah I loved Juli’s solo stuff and the work she did with Oliver Koletzki, and Psylhouette was just me at that point, so I asked if she’d be up for collaborating. I never thought she’d say yes, so I felt under loads of pressure to make some decent stuff to send over to her!
What was your first gig?
Juli: Tristan and I never played a gig together. My first solo gig was in a squat like place in an empty apartment beneath my apartment at the time. Me and a bunch of friends just put together a few speakers and an improvised bar and the party was starting. Another very early gig took place in an abandoned tram, which was also very cool.
How has your music/live performances been received by fans?
Juli: I hope we are going to find that out someday.
What three words best describe your musical style and why?
Juli: bold – unbound – new
Who are your biggest musical influences?
Juli: It’s hard to only name a few. I’m listening to so much music everyday and my music taste is very broad. I have a big heart for electronic sounds and Indie Vocals. At the moment I like what the band Still Corners is doing, I saw them live recently and their performance is very ethereal.
Tristan – for me a lot of the music coming out of Germany in the 1970s, Can, Neu, Conny Plank. Our music isn’t as minimal as some of that music but the studio craft and experimentation was incredible and is really inspiring. Maybe that type of stuff is more of an aspiration than an inspiration, I’m still a long way away.
Tell us about your new release.
Juli: I think it’s a little darker than our previous albums, I guess that comes with age 🙂 It was such a good idea of
Tristan for us to sing together. When I listen to it I get the feeling as if Woodstock got transported into our time and circumstances. The use of modern technology was also important and gives it a fresh note.
What inspires your lyrics?
Juli: Philosophy and personal thoughts. I use automatic writing (Écriture automatique). I’m also a big fan of dreamlike metaphors and images. Tristan’s music inspires me a lot to write.
Tristan: I haven’t written lyrics for a while so I needed to get into character by looking at the occult and mysticism. So quite dark but I tried to focus on the themes within this that contained beauty as well as darkness.
How do you hope listeners will feel after hearing your music.
Juli: Empowered and uplifted.
What are you working on next?
Juli: We are planning to release a remix and outtake album in 2025. With remixes and the songs that didn’t make it on the album.
Tristan: and turning this into a project we can play live. It’s tricky to make a studio project portable, but with this album we kept the possibility of playing live front of mind as much as possible.
Listen here:
