Not long after they first emerged in the underground music scene in mid-1960s London, Pink Floyd earned a reputation, as Rolling Stone put it in 2007, as the city’s “farthest-out group.” And as art students at the time they got together, the band members — the bassist Roger Waters, the singer Syd Barrett, the drummer Nick Mason and the pianist Rick Wright; Barrett was later replaced by David Gilmour — firmly believed their aesthetic was as important as the notes they played. The Floyd, as they were known, provided audiences with a complete sensory experience, pairing visceral, operatic lyrics with elaborate light projections that seemed to move in turn to the music. And even as they achieved global popularity in the 1970s with a string of landmark albums including 1973’s “The Dark Side of the Moon,” 1975’s “Wish You Were Here” and 1979’s “The Wall,” the band remained focused on bringing visual ideas to the forefront through their live shows and iconic album art.
It’s no wonder, then, that Pink Floyd has inspired countless visual artists since. As the band prepares to unveil its first unreleased material in 20 years, the largely instrumental album “Endless River,” T spoke with four contemporary talents to learn how they first discovered the band and ultimately drew upon its work to influence their own.
Amanda Sage
“Pink Floyd was about the plight of the human dilemma and exploring what it is to be human, expanding and questioning consciousness, who we are. What they were doing wasn’t just background music: Your full attention was demanded. Like my art, the experience and the end result of Pink Floyd is a gift from the beyond. All of that can create a psychedelic experience for somebody, depending on how open they are.
Their album covers are a big influence on me. I’m from a generation that values them. And for a lot of artists in the genre of art I’m in, that’s how their art got out there. It wasn’t mainstream enough for the contemporary art world; it was touching on things that were too weird and too challenging. But the music culture understood it. Pink Floyd helped bring about a revolution and inspired artists all over the world. They had the reach.”
Andrew Jones, a.k.a. Android Jones
“I discovered Pink Floyd early in high school, probably around age 14 or 15. I might have found one of my dad’s old tapes in the garage. There was something about them. They spoke a lot deeper. They went right into the really archetypal issues of humanity and consciousness: time, life, death, money, sex. And there’s a very strong visual component to their music. Their songs are layered like paintings. I think the great thing about being an artist as opposed to a musician is that we’re free to constantly choose our own soundtracks. In my maturity, I’ve learned the selection of playlists can be one of the most influential decisions I make throughout the creative process. Thousands of hours of my creative soundtrack have been Pink Floyd. As an artist, I want to put on music that I trust will put me in a certain mind state. And you can always reach for Floyd and know you can count on a deep, meaningful experience.”
George Atherton, a.k.a. Geoglyphiks
“Pink Floyd has such a deep, flowing, melodious feeling; it puts you in a creative frame of mind. The themes and lyrics of their music and the visuals that represent them invite quite a lot of deep interpretation of the postmodern era. They really condensed a lot of the horrific war and strife of their generation into very emotionally triggering imagery and animation: dark bombers and birds or bloody crosses. I wanted to communicate similarly using a condensed symbol. I was working on this one piece while I was traveling in India. I was listening to “The Dark Side of the Moon,” and there was just a lot of thematic inspiration from that album that made it into the piece. This piece is particularly influenced by the songs “Money” and “Us and Them.” The whole point is to show there is no separation between the dark side and the light side.”
Mario Martinez, a.k.a. MARS-1
“I caught them at the right age: I was in high school and experimenting with psychedelics in the early ’90s. They left an imprint on me. They may not have been a direct influence on my work exactly, but they’re more imprinted in my DNA. They were the heavy soundtrack to the approach and atmosphere for my work. I don’t really call myself a psychedelic artist, but my work definitely holds that space: the imagination run amok or whatnot. It’s about that invisible realm that Pink Floyd tapped into. Listening to Pink Floyd, you can almost see the music. They create these audio soundscapes. They’re so creative. They put their antennas up and they catch this otherworldly, cosmic type of vibe. It echoes in my work as well.”
Interviews have been edited and condensed.
