Psapp (pronounced sap) is an experimental electronica band from the United … Read Full Bio ↴Psapp (pronounced sap) is an experimental electronica band from the United Kingdom. The band, a duo consisting of members Carim Clasmann and Galia Durant, are sometimes credited with inventing a musical style known as toytronica.

Galia Durant’s story began in a household running amok with records, art and books. Galia’s mum collected protest songs while her dad is a professorial art historian with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Indian classical music. Galia “loved it all,” finding no real distinction between Woody Guthrie peacenik anthems, Sarangi etudes and her elder brother’s acid jazz albums. After struggling to learn violin and piano (she preferred her 1988 vintage Casio SK-8 sampling keyboard, which the band still use), at 8, Galia graduated from a more-ideas-than-action ‘band’, “GO”, formed with her brother.

Carim Clasmann’s musical youth was spent in German recording studios learning the alchemical business of faders, compressors and microphones. A self-professed failure at the school recorder and a frustrated guitarist, he dabbled in music-making while cutting demos for other people. Quickly rising through the Cologne studio ranks, Carim learned his chops recording bands like Einstürzende Neubauten and Die Toten Hosen and even worked at Can’s famous Inner Space studio, always dallying with music of his own on the side. He moved to London at the close of the ‘90s, working and then taking up residence at the King’s Cross studio/house he and Psapp currently call home.

Carim met Galia through mutual, musically-inclined friends who would often gather at the studio. For a year or so the duo experimented, united by an eclectic taste for Tom Waits, the Cure, Erik Satie, Duke Ellington and “anything that’s silly and uses stupid noises.” Their own ‘silly noises’ married to Galia’s sultry vocals and perspicacious lyrics produced recordings of shimmering originality and nascent charm - an opinion shared by the handful of labels to which Psapp, as they’d by now christened themselves, sent demos toward the end of 2002. A litany of recordings duly followed. Early 2003’s debut EP for Melodic called, instructively, Do Something Wrong was followed by a single, "Difficult Key", the following Autumn. After seeing a live show by Morr Music electronicists ISAN and befriending the band’s Robin Saville, Psapp’s next recordings would appear on Saville’s own Arable imprint, with Winter ‘04’s Buttons And War EP attracting rave notices.

Around this time several Psapp tracks found their way to US music consultants who were universally wowed by the band’s evocative charms. The duo’s music seemed to chime with the TV zeitgeist and their music started to seep into primetime dramas (not to mention a very high profile Volkswagen advert), culminating in the track Cosy In The Rocket being chosen as the theme music to hit ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, which premiered in March 2005. At a stroke, burgeoning inquisitiveness about Psapp turned into an eager US fanbase. Meanwhile, in King’s Cross, dust wasn’t being allowed to settle. A Japanese EP, Northdown appeared in March 2004, swiftly followed by a vinyl-only 4-track nugget, Rear Moth for the discreet Wiaiwya imprint – some tracks from which would appear on the band’s debut album for Arable (also licensed to Leaf for the US and Canada, Third Ear in Japan and Gronland for much of Europe). Released in February 2005, Tiger, My Friend consolidated the burgeoning interest in all things Psapp. MOJO magazine’s four star review – “Arresting, childlike pop confections… effortlessly carved pop sophistication…” was typically hyperbolic. With Psapp duly rising, the major labels soon came a-courting but by autumn 2005 Psapp had spurned their fevered advances, preferring to ink a deal with Domino.

Toward the close of ’05 Psapp embarked on their first live ventures. Translating their records’ layered complexity to the stage was never going to be easy, but with the multi-instrumental Galia and Carim joined by Gwen Cheeseman (violin, floatation toys), Eshan Khadaroo (drums, lumps of wood), and Jim Whelan (bass, keyboards, ashtrays etc), (joined in 2008 by Matt Jones (keyboardist, Ultrasound, Minuteman)), Psapp took to the road around the UK and Europe, eventually honing an exhilarating, ‘in the flesh’ version of their incomparable recorded sound. Initial touring forays successfully completed, Psapp set about buffing their second album to lustrous perfection, pausing only to head down to the Dorchester Hotel to pick up the BMI Award for 2005’s Best TV Theme Tune for ‘Cosy In The Rocket’.

Psapp are known for their humour on stage, throwing cats (hand-made by the band) into the audience and their highly eclectic music videos.

Leaving In Coffins
Psapp Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

You used to come, come around the house
Now everything you've got, it's gone cold
And everyone who I have ever loved
Everyone is getting old

You go, go
And you don't come back

I used to see you driving round the town
You and your children always smiled
Now all the things I hold dear to me
Are falling off in pieces

You go, go
And you don't come back

You used to come fixing round the house
Now all your things are getting cold
And everyone who I have ever loved
Everyone is getting old

You go, go
And you don't come back

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Psapp's song Leaving In Coffins seem to be describing a sense of loss and abandonment, specifically in relation to someone who used to be a fixture in the singer's life but has disappeared without a trace. The opening lines suggest that this visitor, who used to come around the house, has now become distant and unresponsive. The phrase "everything you've got, it's gone cold" implies that this person has lost their warmth or interest, perhaps due to some personal crisis or emotional upheaval.

As the song continues, the singer reflects on the changing nature of their relationships, saying that everyone they have ever loved is now getting old. There is a sense of nostalgia and melancholy, as if the passing of time has robbed them of something precious. The chorus repeats the phrase "you go, go, and you don't come back," which drives home the idea that this absence is permanent and final, leaving the singer feeling hurt and abandoned.

The song also includes some details that could be interpreted as metaphorical or symbolic, such as the line "all the things I hold dear to me are falling off in pieces." This could refer to the loss of physical possessions, human relationships, or even emotional stability. Overall, Leaving in Coffins is a poignant reflection on the transient nature of life and the pain of losing those we care about.

Line by Line Meaning

You used to come, come around the house
The singer is reminiscing about someone who they used to see frequently at their home

Now everything you've got, it's gone cold
The relationship with the person has fizzled out, and there is now a sense of emotional distance between them

And everyone who I have ever loved
The singer is acknowledging the inevitability of aging and mortality, and how it affects those around them

Everyone is getting old
This line reinforces the idea that aging and the passage of time are central themes in the song

You go, go
The person the artist is addressing has left or moved on, possibly physically or emotionally

And you don't come back
The singer is expressing a sense of finality or loss, as though the person is not coming back

I used to see you driving round the town
The singer is recalling the various ways they used to encounter this person in their daily life

You and your children always smiled
This memory evokes positive feelings about the person and their family

Now all the things I hold dear to me
The artist is expressing a sense of loss or erosion of things that were once important to them

Are falling off in pieces
This line is a metaphor for the things in the artist's life that are slipping away or deteriorating

You used to come fixing round the house
The singer is recalling a specific way that the person used to be present in their life

Now all your things are getting cold
This line conjures another metaphor for the emotional distance that now exists between the artist and the other person

And everyone who I have ever loved
This line is repeated, emphasizing its significance to the song's themes

Everyone is getting old
This line also echoes the earlier use of the phrase, reinforcing the idea of mortality and the passage of time

You go, go
Repeating this line creates a sense of finality and loss

And you don't come back
The repetition of this line punctuates the song's themes of loss and separation

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Carim Clasmann, Galia Durant

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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