Time & Perspective Quote by Dave Davies

“Automatic process” is Dave Davies reaching for the least mystical way to describe something that still sounds like mysticism: the kind of band chemistry you can’t schedule, audition, or troubleshoot with a producer. Coming from the Kinks’ co-founder and resident spark-plug guitarist, the line quietly reframes authorship. It’s not just Ray Davies the songwriter with Dave as the executor; it’s a two-person circuit where instinct and limitation become a shared language. “Telepathy” isn’t about mind-reading so much as a deep familiarity with each other’s musical reflexes: Ray knowing exactly how far Dave can push a riff into distortion or drama; Dave sensing when a lyric needs bite, space, or sabotage.

The subtext is especially sharp because the Davies brothers’ story is basically rock’s most productive sibling rivalry. They were notorious for conflict, control battles, even literal fights. This quote doesn’t deny that; it sidesteps it with a craftsman’s perspective. The partnership worked not because they were harmonious, but because they were predictably combustible. In that context, “automatic” reads like survival strategy: when personalities are volatile, you build an internal shorthand so the music can keep moving faster than the arguments.

Culturally, it also locates the Kinks’ signature sound - British observational songwriting welded to raw, angular guitar - in a relationship dynamic. Their best records feel like they’re in dialogue with themselves, swinging between tenderness and sneer. Davies is pointing to the hidden engine: collaboration as intimate knowledge, not consensus.