London boy-girl outfit Psapp bring their distinctive brand of electronic pop to Galway’s Heineken Green Spheres Festival in late January, having played on Irish soil just once before.
That particular gig left them with mixed feelings – the good vibes and warm crowd reaction being dampened by technical difficulties.
“We had a really good crowd at the Electric Picnic, even though everything went wrong,” recalls female lead singer Galia Durant. “Everybody was really nice, and we had fun. We’re hoping Galway will be a re-run of that day, but without the feedback.”
Indeed, gig-goers will be hoping they can see the best of Psapp this time out, as the group have built a reputation for charming, energetic live shows.
They possess what Louis Walsh would call “the likeability factor”; their relaxed showmanship and off-beam humour providing a pleasing antidote to the clenched geekiness of much indie-electronica.
But what can we expect from the show? The band employ an unusual range of instrumentation on record, with toy instruments making regular appearances.
And they prefer not to stitch these component parts together with samplers in the live setting, opting instead to re-interpret their studio material in a more organic style.
“The show is quite different from the record because it’s all played live,” explains Carim Clasmann, the group’s guitarist and producer. “We don’t like using playbacks or computers onstage, so we basically have to re-arrange all the songs for acoustic instruments, like toys, percussion and cardboard boxes. We’ve got a basic set of 13 songs, and we play them slightly differently each time.”
Durant emphasises the group’s wish to provide a vibrant live experience, and one very different to their recorded material.
“People tend to enjoy the show because we’re all quite gregarious on stage. There’s lots of running about and surreal behaviour. There are a lot of exciting accidents and strange jokes, and we like to get the crowd involved as well.”
If some punters do “get involved” at the show, they should be wary of mentioning the t-word around Psapp.
The group are regularly namechecked as inventors of the sub-genre toytronica, a term which has started to grate on them a little.
“We do shy away from it,” Clasmann admits. “I don’t think any band likes the genres they’re put into. When you write a song, you’re not aware of a genre or a style. You find out later what it is, and you don’t need to give it a name yourself. We use a lot of toys, but for us it’s the song that’s the priority, not the genre.”
Label them at your peril; Psapp’s profile is growing steadily, and a feedback-free show in Galway on the 30th may cement their status as a live favourite round these parts.