Politics has a way of sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong. Due to the Western world’s current relationship with the Middle East, musical influences from that part of the world are often overlooked.

Socially conscious trio Telepath, who combines influences from Arabic, Indian and Jamaican music, remind listeners there is more to a culture than what American news media portrays.

“The sound that we use could be stereotyped and pigeonholed into a very negative thing,” bassist Curt Heiny said. “I think that it’s been spun the wrong way, and I think it’s important for us to [show] that these cultures have been around way longer than Sept. 11, 2001.”

Telepath started as the brainchild of keyboardist Michael Christie, who single-handedly composed its debut album “Fire One.”

“I had a lot more time to refine the vision of what ['Fire One'] was going to be,” Christie said. “I narrowed it down to the Indian, Arabic and dub theme, and made sure that every track had some element of one of those in it. That defined what Telepath was going to be from that point on.”

Christie’s next challenge was figuring out how to replicate the album live. He enlisted Heiny and drummer Mike “Mike B.” Bocsusis to help flesh out the sound and bring Christie’s musical ambitions to life.

“We have the unified outlook on music in that it’s a powerful thing,” Heiny said. “It can make a difference. It can make a change. It can influence people’s lives.”

With the permanent lineup in place, Telepath quickly forged a distinctive musical direction.

“When it came time to make ‘Contact,’ the direction was already there and it was a lot easier to write the material for it,” Christie said.

Despite comprising only keyboards, bass and drums at its core, Telepath has no problem incorporating non-traditional instruments into the mix.

“I think there were 20 guest musicians on ‘Contact,’” Heiny said. “Nobody else is using the samples that we’re using because Michael [Christie] writes them and we record them with other people.”

Added Christie: “There’s a real conscious effort to keep the music very organic, even though we’re coming at it from the electronic perspective.”

The self-described “organic-electronic” sound doesn’t come easily considering Telepath is geographically separated. Christie resides in Philadelphia while Heiny and Bocsusis live in Asheville, N.C.

“When we get together, we either rehearse our songs during sound checks or get together beforehand to work the songs out,” Heiny said. “It’s fun to take songs that aren’t on the albums and take them out live, play them and get responses. In a live setting, [we're] able to see what works and what doesn’t work, and the songs morph and evolve before they come out on the album.”

Telepath’s loose, free-form approach to the live environment makes its show one-of-a-kind.

“We’re not a jam band, but we have found ways in the live setting to take studio versions of songs and open them up a little bit more, which is simply more conducive to the live environment,” Heiny said.

In spite of being a stripped-down trio, each member contributes instrument-based samples to create the full Telepath sound during its performances.

“For somebody to cover a Telepath song, per se, would be almost impossible,” Heiny said.