Alt-J frontman Joe Newman felt “hyper-vulnerable” after taking mushrooms at university.
The ‘Something Good’ hitmaker has opened up on the time he took the psychedelic drug in a “mushroom tea”, but he admitted things didn’t go to plan.
He told the Metro newspaper’s Guilty Pleasures column: “We made mushroom tea, but my friends got the batch wrong. I think they put in five times more than was required.
“I went to my bed and just rode it. I was like, ‘I’ve got to pretend this is a f****** wave and I’m surfing this through the night.’ “
Although Joe – who recently became a dad for the first time – was “fine” when he woke up the following day, he had “some kind of relapse” a week later which he says “changed [his] chemical DNA for the rest of [his] life”.
He said: “I couldn’t escape feeling hyper-vulnerable. You experience the futility of your life and everyone’s life around you in crushingly deep spells.
“I had that for maybe four months. But I got better. It was a huge mental scar, and it released a lot of mental illness that I suffered at university.”
Joe noted he hasn’t had mushrooms since that, as he added: “I don’t want to feel like I felt.”
Last month, the band released new track ‘Get Better’ as they confirmed plans to hit the road across the UK in 2022.
Reflecting on the song, Joe said at the time: “I felt a nervous heat when writing ‘Get Better’.
“The context of the coronavirus pandemic lent my words a chilling weight and gave me a new sense of responsibility as a lyricist.
“Whilst the direct events described are fictional, I believe – or I hope – that it’s emotionally the most honest song I’ve written.”