Stow Festival is back for a sixth year in Walthamstow this week with more than 100 music acts set to perform in various locations across the area.

The Ye Olde Rose And Crown, in Hoe Street, is holding a psychedelic night this Friday, which will feature The Oscillation, The Hanging Stars and The Left Outsides, as well as Joel Gion from The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who will DJ the after show.

The Oscillation's frontman singer/guitarist Demian Castellanos currently lives in the area. He explains how the band incorporates influences from punk, funk, disco and psychedelia with repetitive angular avant guitar noises and layers of analogue synthesisers…

Have you performed here previously?

I've never played in Walthamstow before. About eight years ago they played some videos from the album Veils on the big brother mind draining giant television screen in the square near the mall, so that's as close as it's got before now! That was pretty funny, I went to check it out and there were a couple of old guys drinking Special Brew on a bench watching it so it did get some attention.

What can people expect?

There was a new album that came out this year in March called Monographic, so we've been touring quite a few songs from that this year around Europe.

Can you describe your sound?

Psychotic, groovy, abrasive, flowing.

When did the group get together?

The band formed in 2007 after the release of the first album, Out Of Phase.

Why did you want to put the group together?

Just as an experiment really. I never intended to play live because I thought I couldn't get over stage fright, but after it started to become enjoyable it's carried on and it's something I really love now.

It's cool to play live and have spontaneity to balance out the production, time and weirdness that goes into writing and recording an album.

Were you all friends before the group? How did you get together?

There's been a few line-up changes over the years. I've met all the band quite randomly and we're all friends, I've known Tom Relleen, who plays bass, the longest, as we met at a seal sanctuary in Cornwall a few years ago.

What is the meaning behind the band's name?

I'm not sure, it's not directly because of Silver Apples, which is what most people assume, but I do love them. I like the literal meaning the word oscillation, which means waveforms, movement backwards and forwards, cyclical movement.

How do you write your songs… does it start from sound or an emotion?

It often starts with a sound that is made as a result of whatever emotion I'm feeling. Although it's hard to know how to re-emote an emotion through sound, as the process seems to take it off on a tangent that you don't expect. Even when you try and write lyrics it's the same, like trying to paint air. I guess it's mainly cathartic.

Are you all from London?

I'm half Venezuelan and the other half of that is Welsh and English, but I grew up in Cornwall in a small village called The Lizard, which is basically the end of the country in a southwest direction. You could look out at the sea (which I think is the Atlantic) (Celtic Sea, ed), so it's quite a big swim to America if you get the right direction west.

We all live in London though. Valentina is from Italy and I think Tom is from around Kingston area in London originally, Cathy, who plays the keys is Belgian and English. We all live in east London including Bethnal Green, Highbury and Islington and Walthamstow.

Who were you inspired by growing up?

The Cure, early Pink Floyd, The Sex Pistols, Spacemen 3, Loop, Jimi Hendrix, Siouxsie and the Banshees. I think the music you get into as a teenager kind of shapes your direction quite a lot and I still go back to them.

What's the plan for the rest of the year?

We're coming to the end of gigs this year so that's why it's so nice to wrap it up in Walthamstow in the place the I've lived for quite a few years and in the local pub too. After that we got shows at Liverpool Psyche Fest, then Paris and Rome and that's it for the year. Hopefully I'll finish some new recordings, some solo stuff and future Oscillation things too. We all have a few other things going on musically, Tomaga, Vanishing Twin so it's time for other things until next year.

The Oscillation, Stow Festival, Ye Olde Rose And Crown, Hoe Street, Walthamstow, E17 4SA, Friday September 16, 8pm, details: stowfestival.com

By Rachel Russell