Psychotica
America's New Nightmare
By ADRIAN "Energizer" BROMLEY
REVOLT Music Editor
Having been on the mainstage as the opening act for this year’s
Lollapalooza, New York City’s Psychotica have been thrown into the
spotlight and have been the center of hype with their self-titled debut
album on American Records. Singer Patrick Briggs
couldn'’t be happier with the exposure.
"Lollapalooza was a great experience for us. It was a lot of fun for us.
A lot of people came out to see us early and apparently we had the highest
turn out for any opening act in the history of the tour", says a happy
Briggs. "We have already gotten lots of fan mail and our release week
for the album was huge too." About the success right now the band is
seeing he says, "I can’t complain with where we are. This is sort of the
joke that went to far. You get together with people who you like and do
fun creative stuff and it turns into this large thing with a life of it’s
own, at a point where you can’t control it."
He adds, "There are a lot of skeptics about us right now because it
has happened to us so rapidly. People are saying, ‘Oh yeah..we’ll see how
long this lasts’ and you gotta just love that. I do. I look at it and say
it is just fun to be around. I think this record appeals to a lot of
people."
As seen in the early days of the band - comprised of guitarist Ena,
drummer Buz, bassist Tommy Salmorin, other vocalist Reeka and cellist
Enrique C. Tiru-Velez - in New York, Briggs says that he feels the band’s
music appeals to a broad range of people.
"We have a really broad range of musical fans and I think that is because
we have a glitter/glam oriented look and sound. I think it appeals to a
lot of people because I think people now want to have something flashy
back in their lives. Make their lives more fun."
The self-titled debut is a monstrous dosage of theatrical productions
mixed with musical brilliance, as the eighteen tracks of the album go
from extravagant to downright creepy and almost anarchistic Rock n’
Roll at times. On the topic of song ideas and lyrics, Briggs says,
"The album is riddled with my life’s experiences. I like to hide them
in metaphor, instead of inflicting them with a therapy session as
some bands do. I want to be a bit more creative than that."
The album’s makeup of multiple song varieties was essential to
providing Psychotica with it’s own identity accounts Briggs. "I
wanted this to be an eclectic mix of stuff. I think the boring part
of records today is that there is not enough variety in records today.
Bands will argue and record companies will argue that you need to have
a very focused sound but that can get very monotonous and I think we tried
to get a sound. We have a sound we have and I think we added a lot of
dynamics and variation."
As some may not know, Briggs has done years of theater work, was part
of the off-Broadway production of the play Rent (which has gone onto
success on Broadway) and has one or two movie roles to his credit.
He has been very busy leading up to this point in his life and all of
this work continues to plague him but all he can do is laugh and enjoy
it he says. "It is what I have always wanted to do with my life. I’ll
sleep when I am dead." He laughs.
Does Briggs consider himself (looking at the whole image and style of
the band) as a weird person? "Probably more than you’d like to know"
he says laughing. "We are constantly shrouded in rumor and mystery in
the States. I try to keep my personal life under rap a bit. It is too
weird sometimes." The band plans to tour the United States/North America
till the beginning of December and from that point on we'll see where
success and hype takes them. Psychotica is living one big dream and
couldn’t be loving it any way else.
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