IN THE MAGAZINE

THE ODD COUPLE

Dinner and DMT With Growing

Kevin did DMT.

Joe did the dishes.

The first time I did DMT I was listening to Growing. I left my body and went blissfully floating through a heavenly realm of gothic cathedrals and blue shiny caves under a pink sky made of billowing curtains. Then, unfortunately, I coughed and saw an octopus with a screaming skullface try to smother me. And then my lungs disappeared.

It was equally amazing and terrifying and Growing’s music is the perfect soundtrack to it. Their songs sound like if you tried to play the ocean on guitar and bird chirps on a synthesizer from outer space. Gah! See what doing psychedelics does to you?
Anyway, seeing as how their stuff is tailor-made for tripping, we figured it would be a neat idea to have the two guys in Growing do DMT since they both said they’d never done it before. Kevin said, “Sure!” and Joe said, “No way,” which, to be fair, is a perfectly reasonable response to “Hey, wanna take an intense hallucinogen and then do a band interview afterward?” So Kevin went into one room and did the DMT while Joe hung out in the kitchen making dinner. Here’s what happened.


Vice: You were giggling and the first thing you said when you came to was “I could get used to that.”

Kevin Doria: It started setting in so fast. I took two hits and I was already there.

You leaned back and you said, “Whoa, a plane.”

Oh yeah! This plane totally flew right by the skylight.

A real plane?

I… I think so. I thought that was really funny and then after that it was just space travel, like there were all these patterns in the skylight. Man, I wish I could draw it, it was like, there were a million skylights and each one was its own woven thing and they were all flashing a billion different colors of light, like rainbow style. And the skylights were stacked on each other in this weird way and there was one that went through the middle of all of them that was a weird twirly hourglass thing.

You know they say that Francis Crick discovered the DNA double helix while on LSD.

Yeah, it was totally that style. Holy shit. I have never seen anything like this before. Everything was moving together in this weird fuckin’ way and I think the music had some effect on that.

What was that song you were listening to?

“So Much Love to Give” by DJ Falcon and Thomas Bangalter. Classic French house song.

Is your music very influenced by French house?

I hope so. I like it a lot.

Was everything moving to the music?

At that point I closed my eyes and the music became inconsequential. It’s so stupid but there was this melting weird shit, almost like I was scuba diving through some opaque liquid, you know? And then there was this weird thing that looked like a mix between a deer, a mouse, and some crazy praying mantis and it was just like, “Bwoop!” Like, waving at me. I’m not even joking. Shit was there, man. It would come in and out of the weird melting mass that was always moving forward, like you’re rocketing through weird goo. It would form and then disappear over and over. It was rad.

Wow, so you saw a thing.

I saw a thing. I dunno if I saw THE thing, but I saw a thing for sure. It had huge alien eyes but it seemed real nice. It didn’t seem mean and it wasn’t gonna bite me or anything.

Did it talk to you?

No… It didn’t have to.

Was it fun?

Yeah, I’m never gonna forget that ever, ever.


CONTINUED
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COMMENTS

Anonymous, on Jun 28, 2009 wrote: honestly, any music you listen to on DMT your first time will then become "the perfect music to listen to DMT on." try doing it without sound, that’s when the real fun starts.

Anonymous, on Jun 9, 2009 wrote: Sooo weird! The first time my wife and i did it we were listening to Growing’s "On Anon" and it was miraculous. Awesome to know we aren’t the only ones blown away by this combination!

Anonymous, on Jan 13, 2009 wrote: idk wtf dmt is but im in.

Anonymous, on Sep 27, 2008 wrote: Yeah, that band who just started a massive US tour in support of their fourth album in the past two years and are garnering slobbery write-ups from every publication on the planet are really starved for your attention.

Anonymous, on Sep 26, 2008 wrote: No link or anything? I’m not gonna go through the trouble of googling these guys and clicking on their myspace myself. And that’s sad cause they could probably use any PR they can get.

Anonymous, on Sep 26, 2008 wrote: Growing are so fucking good - seeing them live is like visiting Mecca.

Anonymous, on Sep 24, 2008 wrote: DMT is fun...but it smells SOOOOO BAD...like really really bad...seriously. Good article though!

Anonymous, on Sep 21, 2008 wrote: growing - lateral, such a great 12"

neezy, on Sep 21, 2008 wrote: yo quiero DMT

Anonymous, on Sep 19, 2008 wrote: doesn’t that second guy usually have a mustache? i always see him around town eating sausages and the like.

Anonymous, on Sep 19, 2008 wrote: i love acid and i love this interview *

A Taipan, on Sep 19, 2008 wrote: I second that.

Anonymous, on Sep 19, 2008 wrote: Nice interview... Kinda touching, in a weird way.