Under the Mushroom Cloud

The Infected Mushroom was born when two Israeli nationals, Amit Duvedevani and Erez Eizen met in Goa, and decided to release an album. Back in 1998, Mushroom was rejected by every record label they approached. Today, their project is a globally recognised phenomenon. Frequency Live has organised an India tour of the psychedelic superstars. Excerpts from an interview

Although Infected started out with only two members it now comprises four on-stage musicians including a guitarist. Rumour has it that you’re slowly transforming into a trance-rock band?

First of all, we are already a trance-rock band on stage. But our influences have stayed the same throughout. So you can expect a lot of experimental psy music in the future. If you listen carefully to the first two Infected albums you’ll find plenty of guitar recordings. We just didn’t have the budget to fly a guitarist with us back then.

Tell us about the origin of Infected Mushroom?

Erez and I met in 1996 through a mutual DJ friend, and started making music just for fun. Initially, we didn’t even have a name – so our first tracks were under the name Duvdev and Shidapu. However Erez and I weren’t very happy with the results. We later came up with a track called ”˜Montoya,’ which paved the way for Infected Mushroom. We took the name ”˜Infected Mushroom’ from another band that had just broken up. Back then, we didn’t know that we will become a big band. It was only after the release of our second album that we started to tour massively around the world, and decided to make it our life project.

The release of your double album Converting Vegetarians earned you a respectable name in the global trance arena. How would you juxtapose life before and after the release?

Actually, Converting Vegetarians was such a controversial album that most of our fans didn’t like it initially. They thought Infected had lost the power to rock the dance floor. They appreciated Converting Vegetarians only after IM the Supervisor released. For us, it was a fun project to do, but a very hard one because it’s tough to make a double CD such that each side is different and experimental as well.

As for the brand name Infected Mushroom – it became much bigger after our fifth release IM the Supervisor, which was when we returned to our smashing dance floor psytrance roots.

You and Erez are trained classical musicians. Do the intricacies of western classical music influence your style?

Our classical training helps us a lot in producing music and makes it easier with the harmonies. When we go to the studio it’s like starting a day of work but we love what we are doing. As for the mood, we like to be fat and happy before entering the studio. Some days the creation is easy and the flow is fast, and nothing happens on some days. Welcome to the world of making music.

January 2007 witnessed your live show at Elevate, the New Delhi club. What do you expect this time? Do you plan to visit Goa; the sanctum which provides impetus to thousands of psytrance artists?

I expect the same rocking reaction from the crowd that I received on my last visit. I love India and I’m sorry I can’t spend more time this time around, because we are in the middle of a world tour. As for Goa, I wish to go back there some day when I’ll have more time. It’s one of my favourite places in the world.

How do you spend your time outside the studio?

I like to spend all of my time in front of the TV despite my wife’s complaints. Erez is addicted to Playstation and X-Box 360! And he spends his time playing on both. We both have families that we try to spend as much as time as possible with in spite of our hectic schedule.