-by Elizabeth Spouse (Development Coordinator / Curator at Improper Walls)

Improper Sessions is a platform for new and rising Viennese musicians to present their music to the audience of Improper Walls and Vienna via livestream. This time, celebrating the sombreness of the Fall, Mme Psychosis transformed the room for an evening, performing live, creating an audio-visual experience with pleasure for your eyes provided by Öykü Özer.

Mme Psychosis (short: MP) is based in Vienna, where she’s making music from time to time. Active only in the dark, she can be caught in the evenings letting out the rhythms, melodies, and harmonies that hunt her during the day. In MP’s music world, the beat is your guide and your drive, the synths melt all over you, the vocals resonate to then turn distant. The uncanny. MP wants one thing. One thing only. To gradually build her music into your vanes, have your blood pump to her rhythms and, ultimately, to have you see the light. The light of The Seventh Reduced – her Cult in the making.

Catch the latest album “BSV” (out on Cut Surface), “BEATS” (out on Atom Urlaub), soundtrack to Burnbjoern’s “Meanwhile”, and more here on Bandcamp.

Read what MP has to say about synths and cheating - in English or German.

Keep track of MP here and photographer Koen Smet here and here.

Watch the Improper Session from Mme Psychosis here. You can find a link to the full livestream in the description.

So, without further ado, meet Mme Psychosis!

I like the story behind how you got the name Madame Psychosis; that it actually predates your current musical career, that it was originally your pseudonym for a student radio show in Denmark and that Madame Psychosis was the name of a homeless person in San Francisco in the 70s who you read about in a book your friend had. Do you remember anything about this person’s story?

MME PSYCHOSIS: No I have very little information, I know that Madame Psychosis was actually a living person in the 70s somewhere in San Francisco on the streets. The name comes from a book; I don’t know the title of the book, it was dug out by a friend and I was really happy to actually bring Madame Psychosis back to life in Vienna because I didn’t want to bury Madame Psychosis again in the darkness of Denmark.

When you resurrected the name for your synthy beats, what new meaning did it take on for you...or was it more like, “eh, makes sense”?
MME PSYCHOSIS: I think Madame Psychosis makes even more sense in its current version than before, or let’s say it’s good to see that the Madame Psychosis from Denmark was into completely other stuff and didn’t realize the potential of the Viennese version of Madame Psychosis. Like with any other music, it depends what you like, but if you like something that is a bit uncanny and a bit weird and not necessarily super cheerful, but still gets you in, then you’ll like Madame Psychosis. If you only like happy tunes, then that’s not this one. Maybe there will be a Psychosis somewhere else, maybe there is one somewhere else and I don’t know her right now.
I love that you’ve started adding lyrics to your beats. I like the style of sometimes disjointed sentences that can be taken together or separately, and how some of the messages are quite emotional (or maybe I interpret them that way). You seemed hesitant at first to do so, but do you feel more confident about it now?

MME PSYCHOSIS: Hmm yea, I feel most comfortable with just the instrumental stuff actually, that’s somehow where I come from. So adding vocals is always super difficult and I think this is one of the most personal things you can do, it feels more intimate. I guess it’s always hard. Some tracks I’m going to play today are from unreleased material which I refer to as emotional, so I’m not sure, I guess it’s another transformation of Madame Psychosis, changing the vibe a bit. I’m curious how our little audience here is going to react. Let’s see!

You’re a classically trained pianist, and as you’ve said, the piano has been a pretty defining part of your life...so...when are you going to start the cult of “The Seventh Reduced” and what will it be about?

MME PSYCHOSIS: The cult is already on! There will be some people here today who I believe would define themselves as members of the cult of The Seventh Reduced. It’s just about being a bit seduced by this music, so as you can see, there’s no active recruitment I’m currently doing for members for the cult [laughs]. It kind of works symbiotically, let’s call it like that. Who knows, maybe in the future I will need an extra source of income and I can finally capitalize on my cult [looks off in the distance]...or not. I don’t know what’s more absurd, the cult itself or the capitalization of the cult!

You’re very active in the protest scene against the Polish government’s abortion ban. It’s been just over a year since the ban, do you have any plans to bring back your Polish vocal alter ego “Czeski Film” and do some more musical activism?
MME PSYCHOSIS: Right, so yea, there’s some stuff that is kind of related to music that I want to create which I don’t really think is fully Psychosis. One face, let’s say, is “Czeski Film”. All of the Polish people out there will know it means the absurdity of not knowing what’s going on. It’s actually a positively intentioned name and refers to Czech movies and them being completely spaced out in a very original way, so yea, go to see Czech movies! So [the name] Czeski Film, or Czech movie basically, that’s what it means, is my Polish lyrical alter ego that cooperates very well with the music of Psychosis. Czeski has one album and it’s all very much venting of frustrations that get to me in relation to our government…and actually what’s generally been going on for around six years, in Poland, where I come from. Since this government is still there and things are getting worse, it’s just a matter of time for more Czeski, because I don’t know what else I can do apart from protesting and supporting different organizations. This is like a therapeutic session, you just throw it all out and I don’t know, maybe somebody will like it. Recently, I sent it to a friend of my mom and she sent me really good feedback saying which songs she likes most and why and because of which line and I was like, ok it was already worth it for this. I mean it would be worth it even if nobody listened to it, but yea, it’s crazy. Somebody sabotage the Polish government, please.
You’re also collaborating with other artists, like the one who made the visuals for tonight.
MME PSYCHOSIS: Yea, I’ve been really lucky with a dear friend of mine who happens to have a really good “hand” for visuals, Öykü Özer. She already made a video for one of my tracks. Today she prepared the visuals, they are really great. It’s always really spontaneous ideas, so let’s see what happens. Otherwise, Psychosis has been lucky to have Burnbjoern action on cover designs, tapes, the 7-inch...check them out! Touching included, it's riso!
How do you know Improper Walls?
MME PSYCHOSIS: I’m a big fan of Improper Walls! Urte!! [Waves to Urte] I don’t know, I used to be a part of a Verein [association] with two friends and I don’t know how we bumped into each other years ago when we were also- we didn’t have a location, but we were doing stuff all around at different locations, let’s say cyclically. Oh That Place, big holla to Elaine and Nadia. I think I was coming by, but there was another coincidence of taking a German course with a dear friend of Improper Walls, so I had extra motivation to come around. I’m super honored to be playing this today!
Do you have anything else in the works that you’d like to share? Or anything you’d like people to keep in mind when they listen to your music?
MME PSYCHOSIS: I have one important message. I think that one thing Psychosis music really needs is either a good sound system or good speakers. Don’t listen to this music on a crap sound system because then maybe you’re not going to be able to fall into the lure of the cult of The Seventh Reduced. You need a lot of base and preferably some good situation for dancing. I hope so, at least that’s how it works on me. A message about today’s show, if you’re there online, I hope you watch it in darkness with a good sound system. If you wanna join the cult, let me know, but there is no need for an official certificate. Hope you enjoy the show!

Improper Sessions is a new concert series in which we’re inviting musicians to play in the middle of an existing exhibition, with the entire evening dedicated to the musical act. It’s a platform for musicians to present their music outside of the standard concept of the concert stage or music video; a space where we can create something together, allowing for more sides of the musician to be seen.

Each performance takes place in front of a small audience and is live streamed. You can learn more about each musician/band via a short interview released in each Improper Dose following the concert, as well as an additional edited video that we believe will be quite beautiful, so make sure to check this out and be on the lookout for future acts!

IMPROPER SESSIONS presents MME PSYCHOSIS