Austin psych-goth trio The Schisms bring together the dark theatricality of The Damned, the tightly wound swagger of Arctic Monkeys, and a kaleidoscopic streak all their own. Led by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Carson Barker, the band also features Goose McCollum on bass, keys, and vocals and Michael Stockton on drums and vocals.

The Schisms’ new EP, Tejas, is Texas-made through and through. Barker, McCollum, Stockton, producer and engineer Stuart Sikes, and Barker’s brother, who created the artwork, are all native Texans. The three band members even grew up in the same town and have known one another for years, although differences in age and timing kept them from playing together until now. The EP’s title draws on the word’s association with friendship—an idea that came to embody both the record and the chemistry of the band’s current lineup.

“The universe just threw us together, and it’s been amazingly positive,” Barker says. He recruited McCollum with an unusually specific request: “I’m looking for a leather daddy who plays a vintage Rickenbacker bass left-handed. Know anyone?” Stockton joined after letting Barker stay at his house for a month while Barker was between homes. “The chemistry is so positive,” Barker adds, “I feel like we’re the fucking Teletubbies.”

Barker wrote half of Tejas while spending a winter alone in a one-bedroom log cabin in the Colorado mountains and completed the other half in the studio with Sikes, the Grammy-winning producer known for his work with The White Stripes, Cat Power, and Loretta Lynn. Isolation gave the music its purpose: Barker needed something capable of lifting his spirits, so he wrote it himself. That impulse distinguishes Tejas from the darker themes of The Schisms’ previous album, Moon, while opening the door to a brighter, punchier form of experimentation.

For the first time, Barker recorded every instrumental part himself, later sending rough mixes to McCollum and Stockton for their input. The two bring another dimension to the material onstage, reshaping the songs through the energy and chemistry of the full trio. Sikes also worked closely with Barker throughout the recording process, particularly on “All the Good Things.” The pair went through dozens of revisions, stripping the song down completely before rebuilding it around Sikes’ instinct for minimalism and the principle that less is often more.

Both “All the Good Things” and fellow single “I Learn to Love” began as personal mantras. Barker wrote “I Learn to Love” as a way of reaching toward a higher state of mind, completing much of its lyric spontaneously the night before recording it. The result carries the raw rhythmic spirit of early James Brown and Bo Diddley. “All the Good Things” offers a similar reminder to keep moving forward. “The world in general seems like a shit show right now,” Barker says, “and I needed something to remind myself it will get better.”

Those more immediate pop instincts sit alongside The Schisms’ established psych and goth sensibilities. Barker draws inspiration from the surrealist worlds of Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch, as well as the punch of ’80s and ’90s pop acts including Hall & Oates and Ace of Base. To him, the tension between psych and goth is part of the appeal: seemingly opposite impulses that, once connected, “blend atmospherically like watercolors.”

“I Learn to Love” is accompanied by a video created with Austin film crew Three-Eyed Cat Collective. The release follows Moon, whose “Don’t Clip My Wings” video premiered through The Austin Chronicle and earned a Best Video nomination from Austin Short Film Festival. Partially funded through the City of Austin Live Music Fund, Tejas captures The Schisms taking a purposeful risk: loosening their grip on the darkness without sacrificing the strangeness, electricity, or atmosphere at the center of the band.

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