Mark Marchman: When did you first come up with the concept for this double-disc project?

Timo Lommatzsch: The first steps for “And the Decterian Blood Empire” were being taken during the end production of “And the Curse of the Universe”, in spring / summer of 2004. Then we made the first contacts, ideas, and plans for the second CD. As we started to work on “And the Decterian Blood Empire” we hadn’t planned to make a double disc. But very soon we recognized that the whole thing was getting much too big for just one cd. We were getting so much great material from all the bands and artist involved and more and more great artists and bands kept jumping on board.

MM: Who wrote the storyline? Over what time period?

Sven "Missu" Missullis: The main story was written by Timo and Leo Lukas, who also writes stories for German sci-fi pulp mags as Perry Rhodan and Atlan. Leo wrote a short version of it for the booklet. It touches many different strands of Timo´s long version of the story, and gives a very good impression of the PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS universe.

MM: Give our readers a quick summary of the storyline from your perspective.

Timo: The evil goddess Anthrozis Su´ube and the 2nd intergalactic fleet of the Decterian Blood Empire materializes on the eastern edge of the Milky Way to enslave another galaxy. They send out blood demon seeds which drill themselves underneath the surfaces of planets. After a while, the blood demons grow and start their horrible foray. Meanwhile the Polyphonic Herald is travelling through the chromatic ether to recruit people throughout the galaxy for the fight against the evil Blood Empire, a menace for all beings in the galaxy. The Polyphonic Herald meets the amphibian water nymph Liirjane and together they set off to find the sun god Jiun-Chaa and the arc of light to get the only effective weapon against the Blood Demons: the “flirrende” weisse sturm. But you can also download the booklet story from Leo Lukas in English under this link: http://www.psychedelicavengers.de/avengers2/stories/BackgroundstoryPA.doc

MM: How did you select the artists that contributed to the project? Friends? Tourmates?

Missu: Most of them are friends we met making, recording and releasing music, and of course also tour mates that became friends. But there were also some artists we wanted to win over for this project, and just got in contact with them. On the other side, there were some artists which were already acquainted with from the first PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS cd, and they asked us if they could work with us for this one. So it’s a mix of everything.

MM: Were there any descendents of Neil Armstrong or others that you wanted to include but couldn’t or wouldn’t join the project?

Missu: Yes, a few didn’t find the time for working on this project, or they were not interested. Two come to my mind, APHEX TWIN never replied and Ron Geesin [He contributed to Floyd’s “Atom Heart Mother” disc as well as Roger Waters “Music from the Body” project from 1970. - Ed.] liked the project but didn’t have the time.

I think that the most important thing to get into the PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS’ universe is patience, because it is not an ordinary kind of record. It’s something you can deal with for a long time if you want to. The more time you invest in the records, the more information you’ll get. And it’s mostly lovely people who like music, just music, no “scene” or “code” or stuff like that, who want to travel with their mind and discover new planets.

MM: So, you do care a little.

Timo: Well, we DO CARE about every living and undead creature on earth, everywhere else and beyond. I think the people who enjoy our music are quite different and can't be named that easily, since what unifies them is only their love for music in general, genre experiments and mind traveling.

Missu: But of course when you get positive feedback from this direction and that direction and suddenly from a different direction, you sometimes think, “Oh wow, so why do THEY like it!?”

MM: Over the years, many multi-disc studio works have been criticized as overlong indulgent works (bands like ELP, FLEETWOOD MAC and YES come to mind). What do you think of such assessments and do you think the same could be said about this project?

Timo: A few people said that one cd would have been enough. By the way, all of them were music journalists.

MM: We’re a prickly sort sometimes.

Timo: The story and the amount of good music became much too much for one cd. It grew while we worked on it. If we had cut it down for just one cd, it wouldn’t have such deepness and variety. I think a record should be as long as it needs to be. This decision has to be on the artist’s side. Maybe somtimes he’s wrong. Maybe we are wrong with our record, but as long as we do love our record everything is fine.

Missu: Also you don’t have to hear both discs in one session. You can of course, but you don’t have to. It’s really great just to hear the second CD for itself or to start with with song 13 or the second CD with song 8 for a shorter listening session. That’s all great and fine with us. But the good thing is also with 2 discs there is so much in it to explore and discover, even we still discover new things, sounds and connections between the songs over time.

MM: The intergalactic concert at the end of disc one seems to be important to the story. Tell us about its relevance and what it was like to record.

Timo: Indeed it is in an important chapter. The Decterian Blood Empire enslaved large parts of our galaxy. Some PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS and other creatures and beings that survived the first attacks of the Decterian Blood Empire and the Blood Demons are spread through the entire galaxy. They hide themselves, praying for hope. The festival is broadcasted through the galaxy shall cheer them up; show them that they are not alone and that the galaxy is not conquered. The broadcast of the festival also transmits an encoded message for some special forces of the PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS, with important information about the Blood Empire and information concerning the gathering for the great strike-back.

MM: What is going on in the final, German-spoken track?

Timo: The evil empire is beaten, at least in our galaxy, and now the Polyphonic Herald has new tasks to complete. In this song, the Polyphonic Herald is visiting Knarf Rellöm, a great German musician, to tell him about how music is the primary fuel for space travelling and that humans must produce lots of space travelling “fuel” (music). That somehow sums up the whole PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS project.

MM: Did the contributing artists write any of the lyrics or did you guys write them all?

Missu: The lyrics are all written by the contributing singers themselves. Most of them got information about what is going on in the song, a short summary of the chapter, with the main content that shall be transported and “visualised” in that song/scene.

MM: There are many stylistic nods to PINK FLOYD on the album. Was that intentional? Do you think it spoils the originality of the work in any way?

Missu: There are many stylistic nods, not only to PINK FLOYD, but also too many other great bands on the album. There are also lots of great Sci-Fi movie & book references and quotes hidden in the album, too. Go search them all! Timo: And no we see no spoil of originality here, just plain fun with music.

MM: In your opinion, what parts of the project came out best?

Timo: It depends on your mood which parts are the highlights and which are more reserved. I can’t say which parts came out best, because I see the record as one big thing, where every song or part needs the other. But we are very pleased with the fact that it all somehow sounds as if it were made in one studio from one band.

MM: It did indeed, and I’ll bet that was no easy task. How many months did it take to get it all together?

Timo: Nearly 2 years. We started to work directly on it just after we had finished the work on “The Curse of the Universe” in early 2004.

MM: Are you guys already hard at work on the next chapter? Preparing for the next launch?

Timo: We are taking a short creative break right now and are working on some other projects. We do have plans for chapters III & IV, but they will, shall, and must be totally different than the first two. We want to change the whole approach and setting and stuff to create something new and different. Well, we'll see!