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Psychedelic therapy is still a mystery to a large portion of the populace, but if the industry is looking for some evangelists to spread the gospel, they couldn’t do better than the leaders of indie-pop group Presidio.
When singer-songwriters Gabby De La Cruz and Will Zesiger relocated to Portland from the Bay Area three years ago, both were reeling from the chaos of the pandemic and trauma they have carried with them their whole lives. Individually and as a couple, they explored therapy using MDMA and psilocybin to help process these issues, and they both walked away from the experience, De La Cruz says, “transformed.”
“It transformed us both as individuals and as a couple,” she continued. “For the longest time, I felt like I was living with almost a veil over my head. The psychedelic therapy really allowed me to lift that veil, and I feel completely in line with myself and the world around me in a way that I’ve never been before.”
Their experiences inspired their upcoming Holocene event Intra-Psychedelia at Holocene on Aug. 29. In addition to sets by Presidio and their friends Tango Alpha Tango, the “immersive experience” will include an appropriately trippy DJ set by DJ Deadpan, a live painting performance by artist Justin Potts, a light show that will be mapped to the room and, crucially, a chance for attendees to consult directly with professionals in the field of psychedelic therapy.
“It’s about destigmatizing the therapy in a safe environment for folks who are interested in learning more,” De La Cruz says. “It’s really important to have vetted therapists to make sure everyone feels safe when they go into this process.”
According to the couple, their experiences with therapy were also conducive to unlocking something within them creatively. The two have been making music together since they met in 2016 in Berlin as part of the first wave of students to attend New York University’s campus in the German capital. Upon returning to New York, they began writing quiet, introspective music—solely because the only place they had to practice was their tiny apartment. With a move to the Bay Area, their living space expanded as did their sound, with De La Cruz using a small trap kit to provide spartan backbeats for Zesiger’s slow melting guitar work. Perhaps due to their instrumentation, the sound, anchored by their taut vocal harmonies, was minimalist and spacey à la Low.
Now in Portland with a basement to play around in, Presidio is a full band with De La Cruz out front on vocals, and music that layers in elements of Latin, funk and soul. It’s a rapid evolution that the couple says might have been impossible were it not for their joint therapy sessions.
“I feel like it made us a little bit more open as collaborators,” Zesiger says, “and helped us really listen as we are creating. We’ve been playing music together for a long time, but after those journeys, there was a big shift in the types of music we were writing where we were being so vulnerable with each other in terms of what we were writing about and how we were approaching our harmonies.”
Listeners can hear Presidio’s evolution not only onstage but in the two tracks they are releasing at the same time as their Holocene show. “Devotion,” written before De La Cruz and Zesiger tried psychedelic therapy, explores the fissures in a relationship to the tune of an almost bombastic rock number; “Into the Light,” written after their sessions, is hopeful and warm, acknowledging their mutual anxieties but finally seeing a path beyond them.
“It really helped me clean the windshield of my life as a person, and more so as an artist,” Zesiger says of the effect that their therapy journeys have had on his music. “Songs just started popping out, and I felt like I could be more myself and less burdened by that old pain and trauma.”
SEE IT: Intra-Psychedelic at Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639, holocene.org. 8 pm Thursday, Aug. 29. $12 before 11 pm, $15 after. 21+.