by Sarah Crisman

If you need more symphonic psychedelia in your record collection, Chlorine Colored Eyes is ready for you.

Dallas supergroup, The Crash That Took Me, releases their sophomore album this week to much critical acclaim. (At least as far as I'm concerned, it's a great album that I kept listening to, even when I didn't have to anymore). Heavily influenced by Western psychedelia, Chlorine Colored Eyes takes listeners to new dimensions while sustaining a melodic stronghold throughout. I chatted with front man, Dylan Silvers, about what he digs most about their new album.

Your new album, Chlorine Colored Eyes, drops this week, how excited are you right now?

We've been working on it for a long time, so we're excited to get it out and have people hear.

I was listening to it, I like it. It was very refreshing to have it come across the ridiculous stack of CD's on my desk.

I know writers get so much music, I can't imagine how you sit through it and figure out the good from the bad. It's got to be overwhelming.

It can be. Alcohol helps. Paying attention to who the musicians on each album are and what other projects they've worked on works, too. You're a bit of a Dallas supergroup in that respect; the musicians on Chlorine also play with the Deathray Davies, Polyphonic Spree, Little Black Dress, and Robert Gomez.

I wouldn't go so far as "supergroup," but we've definitely been around. That's for sure.

Are you the primary composer?

Yes.

How long did it take you from the time you started writing the songs until you had it mastered at Abbey Road?

We've been working on the songs on and off for a year and a half. There might have been a few songs around a bit longer, but we really started getting into it a year and a half ago. This record is a lot different from anything I've done before. Once you listen to the record a couple of times, you can hear a lot of stuff going on, a lot of layers – that's the full-out production. Even being in the studio was a part of creating ... we didn't want to create a live sound, I wanted to create something really intense and beautiful at the same time with lots of layers. If you listen to it several times you catch more.

How do you feel these multi-dimensional intricacies are going to translate live?

Luckily, since there's several of us, we can cover a lot of ground. Some of the weird psychedelic overtones are always hard to recreate. Luckily our violin player and keyboard player can manipulate a lot of stuff. We have three guitars, so we definitely have that covered.

Little bit of shoegazing going on?

Yeah, we're influenced by a lot of '60s-psych era. Definitely by a lot of the early '90s Shoegaze from England and America. Sometime we're a little heavy, sometimes we're not. I like to keep it as melodic as possible.

It's necessary to do that. With bands like This Will Destroy You and Broken Social Scene, the sound is going in so many different directions, but as long as it's melodic you can follow it.

Totally, I agree. It's hard to write good pop songs. It's always the goal at the end of the day.

You're doing a good thing, we could certainly stand more psychedelia in our pop songs.

There's definitely been a resurgence in a lot of different ways. It's gone from drony-pysch stuff. That's why I reference The Beatles, they were writing pop songs that were still psychedelic, colorful, and symphonic, but still sticks in a kitschy format. Broken down to the chord progression, it would still sound good. I think some bands are scared to break out of their shell and experiment more. The thing with the rock band is they don't want to branch out – using even just reverb or delay pedals. They just want to keep it bland. Then the bands that do branch out, you don't ever hear about them – unless they're just writing freaking brilliant songs.

There does seem to be a cap. I mean, we're never going to hear Explosions in the Sky on the radio. But I feel like with your album, that could be something experimental that's also widely accepted. Do you have a favorite track on the album?

My favorite track on the album would probably be “Through the Pattern and Out the Other Side,” if I had to pick one, just because it's kind of a journey. Obviously I'm biased and self-indulgent, so there's a lot of emotion and impact for me. I like the indiscernible sounds on that song. On a slower one, one of my favorites is “Empty Vacuum.” The recording of those two songs was probably the most fun, personally.

That's good to know. I've talked to some musicians who get to their CD release date and they're just ready to move on to the next thing. They're totally over it. That's not really a good sign.

I've worked on this thing longer and harder than anything else before, you get to the point where you're just like “well, I hope people like it.” I always want to outdo everything I did last time. That doesn't mean people are going to like it, we just have to keep moving on and see what happens next.

Would you buy your album if you ran across it in a record store?

Yes! I love the artwork on it. I would definitely listen to it in a listening booth.

What do you think?