Interview: Psychonaut
There's some bands that you have to see live to really get it, and, yeah, I think to some extent, we are that band.
World Maker, the majestic latest album from Belgian psychedelic post-metal trio Psychonaut sees the band reach even higher heights with their vast and sublime music. Equal parts hypnotic and heavy, inspiring and introspective, World Maker is an unforgettable listening experience. Gavin Brown caught up with Psychonaut vocalist/guitarist Stefan De Graef to get an insight into the record as well as discussing the band recent live shows, how 2025 has been for Psychonaut, the future and fatherhood.
E&D: You played at the Damnation Festival recently. Can you tell us about how that experience l was for you?
Stefan: It was great. It was the first time we had ever been there, we haven’t really done that many festivals in the UK yet. It felt like a really warm community even though the music is heavy as hell! The people are very passionate and very kind. We saw some amazing bands so we loved it.
E&D: Which bands did you manage to see?
Stefan: I got to see the biggest part of Nordic Giants, that was something that our sound guy recommended and that I really liked, and Anaal Nathrakh, it was really cool seeing them for the first time.
E&D: How have the rest of your recent live shows gone?
Stefan: Very well, we’ve just done five release shows with our new record. We’ve done Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London and the big one in Brussels. So far, they’ve been completely crazy. Almost all of them were sold out, great energy in the crowds, very emotional shows, playing these songs for the first time. They’ve been amazing.
E&D: How has the material from World Maker been going down?
Stefan: Overall, pretty good. We’re playing about five or six new songs from that album. I think most of these songs translate very well to a live show. It’s very refreshing to play new songs after so many years. So to us, they feel very powerful, and you get the impression that they work in a live set and that the crowds are liking them.
E&D: Do you think these new songs in particular take a life of their own in a live setting?
Stefan: Yeah, that’s something you almost hope for when you’re writing a studio album, that once you get to play these songs live, that they’ll actually become even bigger. There’s this one song on our album, which is called ‘…Everything Else Is Just The Weather’. It’s this very calm, Pink Floyd-ish style song, and that was really a hit or a miss, like, is this gonna work live, or is it gonna be weird? but it’s really a magical moment in the set. It’s the song we’ve chosen to end our set with every night, and it’s amazing and beautiful.
E&D: Have you considered playing World Maker in full at a live show?
Stefan: That’s something I think we’ve thought of with every album, but it’s not something we’ve ever actually done, because there are a lot of things to take into account technically, like guitar switches and tunings, and on every album, we’ll also usually have one or two songs that have some kind of instruments that we don’t have. So then the question becomes, is it going to be backing track or maybe find some other musicians? That’s a whole different practical thing to deal with. So I mean, never say never , but I think our goal for a live show is to put on the best collection of music that we have, and I don’t think it necessarily has to be the same as on our studio album.
E&D: You’ve already got live dates planned for 2026, are you looking forward to hitting the road again next year?
Stefan: Yeah, man, for sure. We haven’t really done that many big tours with our previous album, so we’ve got something to make up for now. The first tour has been announced for March and April, and there are plenty more coming up, as well as some. really cool festivals that are going to be announced too. Hellfest is also already announced, Alcatraz in Belgium. It’s going to be a good year. We’re really excited to hit the road.
E&D: You are also coming back over to the UK to play the ArcTanGent festival in August. Are you looking forward to that and will you be playing other dates in the UK around that?
Stefan: ArcTanGent is my favourite festival ever. I would play there every year if I could, or at least go there every year. It’s gonna be awesome to be back there. It’s always such a thankful experience to be there. There are definitely more UK dates coming up soon. Can’t really say when yet, but they’ll be announced pretty soon.
E&D: How was your experience of playing ArcTanGent previously?
Stefan: Aside from the weather, everything about it is just exactly what I what I look for in a festival. I think it’s a lineup of bands that might not get that many big stages anywhere else. I think it’s a really cool mix of everything that they programme. I’ve discovered so many bands there, it’s the people I’ve met, the crew, but also the people in the crowd, and James as well, is a really nice guy. So yeah, love ArcTanGent.
E&D: Do you think it’s cool to have festivals like ArcTanGent and Damnation having such a community built around them?
Stefan: Yeah, it sure feels that way. I’m in the ArcTanGent Facebook group, and it’s awesome to read all of these discussions, like whenever a band releases a new album, or anyone just suggesting that this band should be booked for for next year’s edition. It’s a really small communities and family.
E&D: If you could have your own festival, who would you love to have playing it?
Stefan: Definitely our Belgian friends in Pothamus, that’s pretty much the first band I always recommend the world to check out. The Ocean have to be there with their new lineup, I’m really excited about finding out what it’s going to be. As far as headliners go, Meshuggah, Tool, Gojira. There are so many Belgian bands that I would love to have. There’s this one band from Belgium that is coming up and is really cool called The Great White Nothing, if you’re looking for something new to check out, I highly recommend them.
E&D: Going back to the album, have you been pleased with the reaction that World Maker has had so far?
Stefan: Yeah, we just posted this collection of quotes from reviews we’ve had over the past couple of weeks, and I was collecting them and just reading all of these reviews, and it’s amazing, man. I like people’s honesty, and I like that there are some people who simply said that it took some time to get into it, or maybe even that they said it’s not my favourite, but it’s still a really good album. Overall, most of what we’ve read is incredibly positive, and what I like most is how people describe it as an emotional album, as a much more bright and warm album, as an immersive album, because that’s that’s really what we were going for. We were not going to write a Gojira album, it was going to be more of a Steven Wilson album. They had to be just incredibly immersive and narrative, and it’s nice to hear that people seem to experience it that way as well.
E&D: Can you tell us about the title of the album and what the songs on the on it deal with?
Stefan: Well, the album is a story about fatherhood. it’s a story about me becoming a father in January last year, and writing an album for my son, but unfortunately also combined with some very bad events that happened last year where both my dad and Thomas’ dad passed away from cancer very suddenly. So the album deals with becoming a father yourself and also saying goodbye to your own father. World Maker, in that sense, to me, means both the Father and the Son. The father creates a new life.l and also creates a new world for that person, but from a more spiritual perspective, I guess I do believe that we generate the Universe with our perception and our minds and spirits. We turn it into something physical. We’re making the world in front of our eyes. I think it’s probably just information or energy, but we translate it into something real, like a computer screen does. So in a sense, everyone, every living being, is creating life.
E&D: What are the biggest influences on the music of Psychonaut?
Stefan: The biggest of all time is definitely Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Those are really my favourite bands of all time, bands that I got into when I was learning to play guitar. So I guess that really got into our sound. But also bands like Tool, Amenra, Mastodon, a Belgian band called Steak Number Eight has been very influential for us as well. Cloudkicker is another really huge one, the list goes on, man, but those are a few of the of the biggest ones.
E&D: Now the new album is out, have you had any thoughts about any potential new music, or is it a bit too early at the moment?
Stefan: Not really. I mean, I’m always writing music. It’s my favourite thing in the world to do, but I think it’s going to take some time until we come up with a new idea, a new story. That seems to be the best way of working for us, to first have something that we want to say and only then, start writing music. What is going to happen now is probably a year of experimenting and trying weird stuff, then throwing all of that out, and then starting fresh, and having some new ideas to draw from. I think I’m definitely gonna keep writing, but I assume it’s gonna be a while until the first new songs arrive.
E&D: Have you found it a challenge, balancing fatherhood with the band, or have you found a happy medium?
Stefan: Yeah, the practical aspect, of course, is difficult. I have a wife who is very supportive, and fortunately, is always there for our son when I’m on tour and playing shows or recording. There’s that but then there’s also the not sleeping very much and, not having as much time as you used to. So it does put everything under pressure a bit, I guess. But I don’t really think that pressure is necessarily bad. I think the few moments I had to write when he was born, like in between his naps, felt so powerful that in an hour, I could write what I would have written in 10 hours before he was born, because it was so inspirational. It was an incredible first couple of weeks of fatherhood. I think all in all, it’s, it’s actually a positive thing, but there are definitely some consequences as well.
E&D: Are you looking forward to your son coming to see you live and things like that, when he’s a bit older?
Stefan: Yeah, man, I’m looking forward to bringing him on stage when he’s just a bit older. He’s only two years old now, so I think maybe in a year or so, with the massive headphones on, I can bring him on stage. I’m looking forward to that
E&D: What else have Psychonaut got planned, aside from the live dates, going into the new year?
Stefan: Nothing very concrete, yet. It’s mostly focusing now on our live sets and the tour dates. I do assume and hope that we’re gonna do some kind of live session. I think that would be cool, to go to a unique location and maybe do a live session, or maybe three or four tracks. Yeah, aside from that, I think we’ll just focus on rehearsing a lot and playing a lot. That’s the main deal.
E&D: What have been some of the most memorable live shows that you’ve played so far?
Stefan: Well, the ones since the album came out. We also did three tryout shows in small venues. Choosing one of them is hard, I guess, probably Paris, because that was a record volume of crowd noise. I think it was like 111 decibels of music, much louder than the sound limits, that was incredible, and a sold out venue, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, they’ve all been so amazing. Berlin was the first one, there’s something special there as well. And it’s also the hometown of our record label, Pelagic records, so a lot of people came over.
E&D: Would you definitely say that seeing Psychonaut live is where the band come even more alive?
Stefan: Yeah. That’s kind of how I feel about Amenra as well. There’s some bands that you have to see live to really get it, and, yeah, I think to some extent, we are that band.
E&D: What have been some of the other memorable experiences you’ve had in the band so far?
Stefan: Oh, man, you know the easy answer is all of these amazing live shows. We’ve done so many cool festivals, like ArcTanGent but also Graspop and Motorcultor in France. But I guess in terms of what we’ve done creatively, I’m quite proud of the acoustic version we did of our title track of our previous album. That was a massive challenge, and I’m quite happy with how that turned out. I also really like how we did this insane sixteen minute long track for a split album in 2021, a massive sixteen minute song, just going crazy! I’m proud of all of us. I mean, maybe meeting Harm who’s been our drummer for five or six years now as well. I’m very proud of him, to see how he’s progressed. He had a very difficult challenge following our first drummer, and this is now his second album with us. He’s an animal! He’s my favourite drummer I could ever think of for this band. It’s amazing. So many things to be proud of.
