Sister Psychic Comes Out of the Dark in New Album

If you were to map the Seattle rock scene by its commercial impact, you’d have to say that Andy Davenhall came up on the wrong side of the tracks.

Arriving 10 years ago in the grunge Mecca-to-be, Davenhall started playing drums in several of the pop-oriented bands that predominated in mid-’80s Seattle. But as it turned out, grunge, not the pop-rock that Davenhall played through the late ‘80s, proved to be the mother lode for young Northwest prospectors armed with drums and guitars.

Not that Davenhall didn’t at least sniff around a mine or two that held a big strike. In 1990, he auditioned for the open drum chair in the pre-”Teen Spirit” Nirvana. Dave Grohl got the job, and Davenhall got the notion that maybe it was time to start a band of his own.

Sister Psychic, which he launched in 1991 and fronts as guitarist, lead singer and main songwriter, has issued two contrasting, many-faceted albums that showcase both a sure, pure-pop touch and an ability to rock with noisy authority.

Following its grunge-leaning 1992 debut “Fuel” with the new “Surrender, You Freak!,” Sister Psychic expands from a blasting trio to a nuanced quartet, cleans up most of the extraneous grit and casts its lot with the enthusiasm and wistfulness of pure pop.

The generally dark cast of Sister Psychic’s first album may have fit the prevailing emotional tenor of Seattle rock, but Davenhall says fashion had nothing to do with it.

“When I wrote (the songs on) ‘Fuel’ I was going through some fairly heavy personal stuff that’s reflected on the record,” Davenhall, 30, said by phone recently from Seattle. “I lost a girlfriend to heroin. She’s still alive, and she’s doing well now, living in Colorado. But it was a fairly miserable time of my life. . . .”

Having gotten the songs about that experience out of his system, Davenhall said, “I didn’t want to stay dark, because I think I’m fairly complex, and I want to show different sides of me and express them through music. I really don’t want to get pigeonholed.”

When he moved to Seattle from Upstate New York, Davenhall found a scene in which pop was the dominant alternative-rock flavor. Then the grunge movement arrived, focused on the independent label Sub Pop.

“I think in the early days there was a bit of friction (between the pop and grunge camps). Seattle was just full of pop bands, then Sub Pop came out and they were just that--the sub, the anti-pop. If anything, we created a backdrop for grunge. I enjoy that music a lot, but I’m not going to limit myself. Why be a lemming?”

The new album’s title was inspired by the long odds facing any emerging band that hopes to make a living playing original music. “It has to do with the struggle between trying to make it on your own and surrendering to the norm, to society as we know it,” Davenhall said. “It’s society yelling at us to ‘surrender, you freak, get a real job.’ ”

Paying no attention, he recently quit his day job in a music store.

“I’m just now at the jumping-off stage, and I think I’m going to do this professionally,” Davenhall said. “Or I’m going to try to.”

* Sister Psychic plays tonight at Raji’s, 6160 Hollywood Blvd., 10 p.m. $5. (213) 469-4552, Wednesday at the Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., San Diego, 10 p.m. $5. (619) 232-4355 and Thursday at Our House, 720 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa, 8:30 p.m. $3. (714) 650-8960.