Winter seems to be making another lasting impression this year. At least for most of the east coast, the shift from warmth and cold is quite jarring. However, not all is lost. Luckily, there is some new music for folks to listen to while hunkering down at home these chilly nights. Psychocide, a masterful hard rock outfit, have successfully released their newest album, ‘Alcohol & Bad Decisions’ and it is already proving to be another win in their discography. As a bonus, Mr. Goldwyn Thandrayen on vocals and guitar dove into their musical journey to date to give Psychocide a well-rounded picture.
Musically, the whole endeavor came together rather nicely. “I had all these songs that I wanted to get out, so unless you print or publish something publicly you will always want to re-do them, perfect them, etc… Once its out, that door is closed. So that was one of the motivations, the other I guess is legacy. It always comes down to that, one way or the other.” The simple and sweet need to put the art out there. Listeners will be glad they did.
Psychocide have found a way to match their musical talent within the medium of film in a entertaining way while also including valuable colleagues along the way. Goldwyn elaborated a bit on this. “Right now, I would say the music videos [are my favorite]. Paranoia, Crazy Janet and Mary, which have actually turned out pretty well… As did the mixing of the record. So I think working with Olivier Sabino and Christian Cummings are the reasons as to why this is. As its pretty hard to find people who understand your vision right away, and those two individuals did pretty much that right off the bat… It is such a cool thing where I don’t find myself explaining the same things over and over again or drawing a picture.”
Mr. Thandrayen still has some high hopes for their future prospects as performers. “I think doing the perfect set, which hasn’t really happened yet as we are fairly new there, but that requires so much. It’s a lot on us of course, but also where we are venue wise; the sound guy, the backline, etc… I think the equivalent in sports is the Perfect Game. It’s possible for sure and it’s a beautiful thing when it happens. So I look forward to that.”
That being said, they have had some early bumps in the road. “Our first gig in Montreal I think was pretty tough. We didn’t get to soundcheck properly or have a sound engineer… What was really bad was there were no monitors, so when you’re playing a full house, [you] can’t hear anything you’re doing on stage… It’s being projected to the crowd and you’re relying greatly on guesses and singing whilst playing guitar. This gets a bit tricky to stay on pitch when you don’t hear the band.”
As they continue to grow within the musical art space, Goldwyn shared his views on it all as a whole. “It’s good and bad. I mean, we are only now learning a bit how everything works, so in terms of clutter there is a lot of that… The encouraging part of that is with hard work you eventually get past it and it pays off. Especially in our case where we actually have a great fan base in multiple areas of the world, which is beneficial in a way but not so much when you gig locally.”
Ambitions remain strong while Psychocide continues to expand the musical craft at hand. “…We are doing just that with the music videos we are putting out… Its another part of the process you know, we have to put the story visually now and I like to make sure it’s a story-based video all the time… Furthermore, we are doing a comic book. Further than that I’m unsure for now.” Either way, their creative work is sure to shine with each new development.
Revisiting some of their work, the desire for more experimental elements can be found. “Sometimes I feel like adding a keyboard player to the mix, especially for live shows, to fill in that space in the range of frequency… Other times I much prefer that raw blend we have going on, which is what I think a lot of people refer to us as being a punk band thing.”
Influential artists come easy for Mr. Thandrayen. “[I enjoy] Pearl Jam, Guns N Roses, and I just got to see Sting live so him too.” Fine choices all. Goldwyn never seems to slow down in the least. “Right now I’m directing a script I wrote for a short film, so I have to prepare the pre-production list with the UPM, AD, DOP for that i.e. casting calls, location scouting, shot list etc… I’m [also] currently writing new materials for my solo project which I intend to have out by the summer, and Psychocide is also working on new materials this coming weekend. So I guess our second record is already on the way.”
Make the long drag to spring a bit better with some stellar tunes from Psychocide. Their song Mr. Suit is a perfect glimpse into their exuberant style. A wild and exciting mix of genres is pure joy for the ears. Fans of hard rock will be pleasantly pleased all the while. Enjoy their new album and get down with it.
Jam on.
