Writing A Psychedelic Song

Utilising non-Western, specifically those used in "Indian Classical music such as the sitar and tabla" (Rubin & Melnick, 2007) and elaborate studio effects such as "backward tapes, panning, phasing, long delay loops and extreme reverb" (Borthwick & Moy, 2004), psychedelic music's main goal is to to replicate the effect when taking psychedelic drugs - such as LSD, originally promoted as a "potential cure for mental illness" (Farber, 2002).

When writing a psychedelic song, the feeling of being under the influence of the recreation drugs is important to get across. One of the immediate things thats comes to mind when I hear the word 'psychedelic' is the colourful and bright psychedelic art and the effect that it has on your eyes when you stare at it for too long (i.e: blurred vision, 'fuzziness' and a surreal visual exploration). Writing a song about the things that one would see when taking these drugs are exploring that would help to create the lyrics that help get across the feeling without actually taking them.

Coming up with the title 'Lights' helped to shape the rest of the lyrics that I wrote to do with being under the influence, with the lyrics being about hearing voices, seeing things that aren't there and time moving at different speeds. "Sensory perception become especially brilliant and intense", "colours seem more intense" and "Time may seem to slow down...or it may stop entirely, giving place to an eternal present" (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1983). Just some of the general psychological side effects of psychedelic drugs, which I attempted to recreate when writing the lyrics such as "And it burns, the world turns. And I scream, it's a dream" which gets across the point that everything that happens isn't real. All the things felt are in the mind which is the bodies most powerful weapon and when under the influence of these drugs, the impossible can seem possible, no matter how bizarre.