For as many rock stars as Seattle has produced, it\u2019s a little surprising that none currently anchor a music festival of their own on their home turf. At least not until now.<\/p>\n
Indie rock titans Modest Mouse had floated on the idea for a while. The band even played two 2018 shows in Port Townsend, where late drummer Jeremiah Green<\/a> lived, effectively serving as a test run for Seattle Theatre Group\u2019s THING festival, which relocated<\/a> to Carnation\u2019s Remlinger Farms<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n Seven years after those twin Port Townsend gigs, the band, led by Isaac Brock, and STG have reconnected to launch the Psychic Salamander Festival at Remlinger Farms, roughly 20 minutes from where the frontman \u2014 and former Seattle Times paperboy \u2014 grew up in Issaquah. The two-day fest takes over the family-friendly venue Sept. 13-14, with a stacked lineup led by Modest Mouse and their summer tour mates The Flaming Lips performing both nights. Sunday\u2019s bill has the kindredly wiggy rock bands<\/mark> each playing one<\/mark> of their most celebrated albums, \u201cThe Moon & Antarctica\u201d and \u201cThe Soft Bulletin,\u201d respectively.<\/p>\n Joining the lineup are Courtney Barnett, fellow Pacific Northwest heroes Sleater-Kinney and Built to Spill, Yo La Tengo and more. Similar to THING, which overhauled its format<\/a> this summer, kids 12 and under are free, and Remlinger Farms\u2019 mini amusement park will be up and running during the festival.<\/p>\n Ahead of the inaugural fest, we spoke with Brock, who now resides in Portland, about starting Psychic Salamander back home and \u201cThe Moon & Antarctica,\u201d released 25 years ago this summer. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n How did the idea of doing your own festival back in Washington come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n Honestly, it started a long time ago with Jeremiah and I. (We)<\/mark> had started talking about doing a festival and never really got it together. He started talking with the people who put on THING fest. I think THING fest was something that he had started talking with them<\/a> about, but then they didn’t end up working on it together. They brought the (festival)<\/span><\/mark> idea back to the table, and I was pretty on board. Initially, I was hoping it could be in Issaquah, being where I was from, but Carnation is close enough and Remlinger Farms is awesome. I like the idea of curating a festival. It’s like a living mixtape.<\/p>\n In terms of the bands, were you coming up with names and (asking STG) to get these folks, or what was that process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah. And there were things that I’d wanted to have on it, but didn’t end up on it because people have their own touring cycles. But I ended up really happy with who ended up on board. Especially some of the smaller-name things that I think are really great that probably not a lot of people have heard of, like Sun Atoms, Mattress and The Vaudevillian. The Vaudevillian, I don’t know what in my YouTube feed gave it to me, but somehow it popped up, and I watched it like a thousand times, one of their songs.<\/p>\n Every once in a while, the algorithms come through.<\/strong><\/p>\n My algorithm’s pretty certain I want to be miserable, just having doomscrolled so much. I get trippy (expletive), which is good. I get a lot of Carl Jung things, which is funny because I never Googled him.<\/p>\n You have played a ton of festivals over the years. Was there anything that you wanted to do \u2014 or not do \u2014 in terms of the experience you wanted to create?<\/strong><\/p>\n If I’m going to be completely forthright, I’m cutting my teeth on this one. One of the better festivals I ever played was Electric (Picnic) in Ireland, and they set up all sorts of different areas. They even had a lot of these logs or trees \u2014 there were campfires, but they were burning from inside out. Well, we won’t be doing that.<\/p>\n No contained fires?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, no. But we’re still putting together different ideas to make it fun. That’s one of the reasons Remlinger Farms itself was ideal. There’s already a lot to do there.<\/p>\n Where did the name Psychic Salamander come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n At my house, I have these two ponds that are rife with salamanders. I’m really into them. It just seemed like a silly thing. I was hanging out, finding salamanders and just liked the name.<\/p>\n It’s been a while since you lived in the Seattle area. How would you describe your relationship with your hometown at this point in your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n My mom still lives in Issaquah, so I’m there very frequently. I (expletive) love Seattle. It’s great. It even has its own smell that nowhere else has, and it’s damn nice.<\/p>\n You guys are playing \u201cThe Moon & Antarctica\u201d the second night of the festival. What are these full-album performances like for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n I got talked into the first one I did, \u201cThe Lonesome Crowded West.\u201d The idea of playing a full record, there’s the songs that you drift away from, where you’re like, \u201cEh, I don’t know.\u201d Once I did that one, I was (expletive) sold.<\/p>\n Anytime I put a record together, I’m very calculated in the order and every song’s there for a reason, to paint the bigger picture. \u201cThe Moon & Antarctica\u201d was an absolute version of that. We don’t have plans to do that record in its entirety again, although I’m sure we (expletive) will once we’ve got it together. I like it because it’s a challenge. Piecing the whole thing back together is not as easy as just playing random songs off other records.\u00a0<\/p>\n