Six Pack: The Unofficials

With a focus on delivering an evening made up of music, paintings, lighting and other art installations, Brisbane bands The Unofficials and Magenta Voyeur have joined forces to look towards a new beyond as The Psychedelic Syndicate.

“Me and Mark Cosgrove [Magenta Voyeur – guitarist/singer] have known each other and been jamming together for ages,” Romain educates, discussing the formation of the collective, “and our two bands are always hanging out together and we both play experimental music. We all share the same interests and similar musical styles, so we figured the two bands could merge and become a syndicate with the goal to put on regular psych shows that have interesting things for people to do while they experience the music –  a kind of musical, artistic journey.”

Like the start of many great movements before them, it was friendships and literature which was behind the Syndicate's formation.

“We always had the intention to start doing shows together, and a few of us in the syndicate were reading [Tom Wolfe's 1968 acid classic] The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test – I think that was probably the other main catalyst for the Syndicate. The ideas of doing the psychedelic nights, well, there is no real scene for psych and experimental music in the kind of setting we want.”

Although the bands want to eventually write together, currently the focus is simply on hosting these exciting new nights, playing tunes and bringing the passion back to music.

“Creatively both bands drive each other,” he admits. “There's a small element of cheeky competition which is great, but the big picture is we're both working together to create this experience – that idea is enough to inspire all of us many times over.”