Full-body synesthesia

The Multisensory Aesthetic Experience hasn’t toured in years. But they remember the sweet spots in the lower 48, and how to celebrate them. “San Diego is a uniquely special place for the band,” explains MAE’s Jacob Marshall. “Because we are from the east coast, San Diego has come to represent the halfway point in our tour. Several years ago we started a tradition where after our SD shows we would invite all of the opening bands on the tour and friends and fans to come party with us at the La Jolla cliffs. This would usually involve bonfires, fireworks, and watching the moon sink into the ocean. It is a time when the tour goes from being bands on the road together, to one large family.”

The band, which also includes Dave Elkins and Zach Gehring, pulls into the Irenic on Saturday, so it’s reasonable to assume the fireworks and bonfires are on the agenda. Adds Marshall: “We are good friends with the Switchfoot guys and several other incredible San Diego locals, so we usually follow their lead.”

The band’s back from several years off. Elkins built a studio in Nashville. Gehring earned a Master’s Degree and became a professor.

Marshall moved to Brooklyn and helped found the Global Citizen Festival, based in Central Park. Immersive art, neuroscience, and their connection to tech, all fascinated him, and the new album reflects all the above.

But the overwhelming new theme is synesthesia: That triggering of one sense by another sense, so someone associates letters of the alphabet with certain colors, or sounds with certain tastes. This can occur through psychedelics, but some folks are just wired that way.

Marshall experienced what he calls “full-body synesthesia,” at age 17. His college studies in Aesthetic Theory, and his work with the band, go towards defining and manifesting that feeling, a musical experience involving not only the ears, but the whole body.

Asked about the hardest aspects of the new album, Marshall invokes “Everything from finances, to living in different cities, to trying to create an album experience that is so different from what’s been done before. I personally suffered a complete mental exhaustion breakdown during the album.... The only thing that got us through was the love and kindness and support of our families and our label and our friends. And of course, for each other.”