Video premiere: Psychic Temple, ‘Dream Dictionary’

Kevin Bronson on December 13th, 2017

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Chris Schlarb and Terry Reid during the sessions for "Psychic Temple IV"

Songwriter-producer-composer Chris Schlarb abides no genre boundaries, his work as Psychic Temple shape-shifting based on which Muse has his ear, or who is in the room with him. On “Psychic Temple IV,” released this summer, Schlarb’s mad science had a jaw-dropping cast of assistants. Scroll through the album’s credits, and you find the names of seasoned hands like legendary British singer Terry Reid, jazz bassist Max Bennett, keyboardist Mick Rossi, guitarist Mike Baggetta, pedal steel whiz Dave Easley and keyboardist John Wood alongside Tabor Allen (Cherry Glazerr), Avi Buffalo, Davin Givhan (Detangler), Philip Glenn and Nedelle Torrisi.

That’s Reid duetting with Schlarb on the warm meditation “Dream Dictionary,” with director White Star’s video for the song reflecting the beautiful overall psychedelic/cosmic West Coast vibe of the record. “I wrote ‘Dream Dictionary’ shortly after my daughter Isabella was born,” Schlarb says. “My wife and I were getting her dressed after a bath and she was screaming that baby scream. A few months earlier, I’d worked with Terry Reid and we struck up a friendship. I had been thinking of writing a few songs with him in mind. That night with Isabella I looked over at the bookshelf and saw my wife’s dream dictionary. I wrote the song that night, chords, lyrics and all.

“We cut the song in the studio soon afterward. Davin Givhan played acoustic guitar and I played electric 12-string (including the solo) live with the band. Terry and I got together a few weeks later and recorded our vocals. Me and ‘Superlungs.’ It was beautiful and terrifying.”

Recorded at All Welcome Records in Inglewood and at Schlarb’s own Big Ego Studios in Long Beach, “Psychic Temple IV” is the subject of this making-of documentary.

||| Watch: The video for “Dream Dictionary”