Psychic TV Evolution

“No one ever asks me about my lyrics,” laments Psychic TV frontperson and visual artist, Genesis P-Orridge. “I spend painful, ridiculous amounts of effort on them.”

Genesis (born Neil Andrew Megson) is sitting in the basement of her Brooklyn home, leafing through marked-up proofs of the liner notes of Hell is Invisible…Heaven is Her/e, the first Psychic TV studio album to be released in 10 years and recorded under the band’s current incarnation, PTV3, with Nick Zinner and Gibby Haynes guesting on a few tracks.

Genesis’ afternoon attire consists of brightly colored pink stockings, knee high boots, a short denim shirt, and an off-the-shoulder sweater with a black, lacy bra strap exposed. It’s an ensemble not many 57 year olds can pull off. S/he’s enjoying a cup of coffee brewed by Psychic TV and former Toilet Boys drummer Edward “Mo Edley” O’Dowd. It is, by all accounts, a leisurely Sunday.

“When people come over, I think they expect debauchery and nude bodies everywhere,” Genesis explains with bemused resignation.

Scattered around the room are collections of old British newspaper clippings of the outrage P-Orridge’s notorious Prostitution ICA show ignited, cabinets full of documentary footage, old Throbbing Gristle recordings, original album art layouts and remnants from Industrial Records, a sculpture created by William S. Burroughs and a small dog named Big Boy curled up and snoozing by Genesis’ feet. Joining Genesis in the basement is her archivist/intern, Ryan Martin, a lanky, cherubic-faced late-twentysomething who s/he has affectionately dubbed “Ryangelic.”

The room probably contains a relic from every counter-cultural movement spanning the last 40 years.

“Oh, look at this,” Genesis exclaims delightfully after rooting through a pile of odds and ends before proudly holding up 1968’s Early Worm. “It’s my first record.”

In addition to housing the archives to Genesis’ musical and visual arts output, it’s also a creative space where Genesis’ partner and PTV3 member, Lady Jaye (born Jacqueline Breyer), works on her gold-leafing projects and Edward does graphic design.

“I believe that lyrics can be more than teenage love songs; they can be journalistic, philosophical and they could be contemporary and they could be about suburban in life in England and they don’t have to be blues oriented. People have tended to assume that the songs and the lyrics have no particular value in the scheme of things,” muses Genesis.

The lyrics on the latest effort cover an expansive amount of ground. In keeping with the album’s unadulterated embrace of all things psychedelic, Genesis takes cues from the Velvet Underground and internal rhyme schemes characteristic of Syd Barrett. Some lyrics, like on the track “Just Because,” started germinating as early as 1985. However, the song “Maximum Swing”—that Genesis gleefully admits is, in part, an ode to partner and “other half” Lady Jaye’s rear end—went into the recording studio with just a chorus, and the rest was improvised.

“I was walking behind her while we were on tour, and I was looking at her bottom and thought, ‘Wow, that’s maximum swing.’”

At times, Genesis views the lyrics as the by-products of more fluid and transcendent states of consciousness. “Sometimes they come from other people living inside of me and sometimes they come from someone I haven’t become yet.”

A track where Genesis certainly seems to be inhabited by a foreign entity is “Higher and Higher” which is a visceral, first-person account of a soldier’s last moments. Genesis’ recitation of the lyrics turns into an impromptu, a capella performance: “And all the fears I’ll never hide/Maggots eating trapped inside...”

“It’s actually an anti-war song. I never thought I’d do something that specific.”

Genesis would also testify that this altered sense of consciousness creeps into the live performance. “It’s all very much trance work. The best gigs we have are the ones I don’t remember.”

The cohesive theme throughout Hell is Invisible is that of “pandrogeny,” which can be succinctly summed up in the chorus of “In Thee Body”: “S/he is here…He is her.”

For years, Genesis has been personally active in dissolving what s/he considers to be constrictive and oppressive binary gender roles. Genesis and Lady Jaye have gone through a series of body modifications to resemble each other, including matching pairs of breast implants as a joint Valentine’s Day gift in 2003. To signify their embodiment of the pandrogyne, Lady Jaye and Genesis refer to each other not as a spouse or husband or wife but as the “other half.” In this case, Lady Jaye and Genesis unite to form one entity, named Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.

“We have put this incredible effort into evolving the technology around us, but our behavior is just prehistoric. Now it is imperative that as humans, our behavior evolve as well.”

According to Genesis, that behavioral evolution involves using the body as a sort of raw material to build something new entirely. In addition to the breasts, Genesis is also sporting a pair of plump, rather Jolie-esque lips in addition to replacing his/her teeth with gold dental implants. Given how drastically Genesis’ appearance has changed over the course of his/her career, one can’t help but wonder how s/he will continue to “evolve.” Of course, not everyone is willing to grasp such radical self-actualization.

“I’ve had a doctor refuse to treat me. He refused to give me medicine that would keep me alive,” Genesis recounts with indignation. “He said ‘I’m not going to treat someone like you.’”

Regardless of physical incarnation, Genesis is all too familiar with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. While spending time in Rick Rubin’s home as a guest of the band Love and Rockets, Genesis suffered severe physical injuries as well as a visit to the ICU as a result of trying to escape a fire. However, Genesis’ greatest setback may also be the most inspiring. Back in 1991, during a stay in Kathmandu where Genesis and family used the year’s Psychic TV royalties to feed rice and dhal to the hungry, s/he received word that Scotland Yard had raided Genesis’ property hoping to find evidence linking him to ritual Satanic abuse. Clearly, returning to England was not an option.

“The British press was making me out to be this monster while I was off in Nepal feeding the hungry. It just didn’t add up.”

Genesis and his two daughters were invited by Michael Horowitz (the father of Winona Ryder) to take asylum in his California home. While there, they were greeted by some surprise guests. “I opened the door and there were all these rave kids outside. My first thought was, ‘How did you find me?’”

It turned out that these “kids” were not only admirers of Genesis’ contributions to dance music and rave culture, but they wanted to show their gratitude by throwing a series of parties that would help get Genesis and family back on their feet financially.

Now that the turbulent times are more or less behind her, there are certain ironies that are not lost on Genesis, namely the fact that government-run art galleries in London are now paying to exhibit the same artwork that caused members of Parliament to declare him a smut peddler and most famously, a “wrecker of civilization” back in the ’70s.

“Genesis, did you see the flier that arrived?” asks Ryan, referring to an ad for an art exhibit taking place in Genesis’ old university town of Hull, England.

The exhibition is titled, I Believe in Genesis P-Orridge, What Do You Be-lieve In?

On May 18 PTV3 play Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-533-2111; 8, $20/$23.