| Interview done by Burt Wolf with drummer Dave of PSYCROPTIC. Interview done April, 5th 2002 |
| COULD YOU START AT THE BEGINNING & TELL US A LITTLE BIT OF THE HISTORY OF PSYCROPTIC? Well, PSYCROPTIC formed out of the remains of 3 Tasmanian Metal bands-DISSEMINATE, HEMLOCK & MAGORIA. These 3 bands were splitting up at around the same time, so myself & Joe (who is my brother & played in DISSEMINATE with me), wrote some new material & asked Matthew (HEMLOCK vocalist) & Cam (guitarist for MAGORIA, who plays bass in PSYCROPTIC) whether they would like to have a jam on the new material that Joe & I had written. They both did & liked the music so we started a band. After starting the band, we wrote about 7 songs & played our first gig. The reaction was great, so we continued to write & after about 18 months of being together & played a fair amount of gigs, we decided we needed to record. We went into the studios in October 2000 & from that recording session came "The Isle Of Disenchantment". This was released in Jan. of 2001 & it has done fairly well for us. We've distributed about 1500 copies around the world & we've played gigs around Australia, including a spot on the biggest Metalfest in Australia, Metal For The Brain. WHY WAS THE NAME PSYCROPTIC THE CHOSEN NAME FOR THE BAND? We couldn't think of a band name at all...we looked in all these books about mythology & demonology & all that crap, we just couldn't find anything suitable. Matthew told a friend about our problem & he just said "oh, coming up with a name for a Metal band is easy...ahh, PSYCROPTIC, there you go". Matthew came & told us about it, we all liked it so we used it. The name doesn't mean anything, so I suppose people can make up their own defination about it. WHO OR WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR INFLUENCES IN HELPING CREATE YOUR AMAZINGLY GOOD MUSIC? Thanks for the complement. I would say that basically our influences come from all styles of Metal. We listen to all styles of Metal & just combine the shit we like into one. I wouldn't say any one band influenced us more than another. We also listen to stuff outside Metal like PLANET X, Dave Weckl Band & various other progressive styles of music. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BANDS THAT THE MEMBERS OF PSYCROPTIC WERE IN BEFORE? Yeah, as I mentioned before, we have played in bands such as DISSEMINATE, HEMLOCK & MAGORIA. These were all tasmanian bands & are basically unheard of outside the state. PSYCROPTIC HAS A DEFINATE MIXTURE OF METAL STYLES IN THE SOUND AREA. WHAT ARE SOME OF THESE STYLES & HOW WOULD YOU BEST DESCRIBE YOUR MUSICAL STYLE? Well, I would say that we play fairly dark & fast Death Metal, with some elements of Black & Melodic Metal. It's brutal, but varied...I don't know...it's really up to the individuals who listen to our music to decide. I've heard people call us Death/Grind, Black Metal & even old school Death! We just play what we love. YOU GUYS ARE A FAIRLY YOUNF BAND. DO YOU FEEL A LOT OF PEOPLE DON'T TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY CAUSE THE AVERAGE AGE OF THE BAND IS SO YOUNG? No people have been taking us quite seriously, because we try to be as professional as we can be. Most people hear our music first, so they don't know our average age is 20...but we're getting on a bit now...haha. I've just turned 22! It hasn't been a problem for us, even when we first started, because we've all been playing in bands for years & we're not new to the scene. YOU GUYS SOUND LIKE VERY EXPERIENCED & HIGHLY TALENTED MUSICIANS AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE. HOW LONG HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN PLAYING MUSIC IN GENERAL? ARE ANY OF YOU PROFESSIONALLY TRAINED? We've all had formal lessons at one point or another, but to varying degrees. Joe (guitars) still gets lessons & is applying to go to the conservatorium of music in our city. I had lessons for several years on drums, Cam had guitar lessons for a little while, as did Matthew. We've all been playing for at least 7 or 8 years...some of us up to 10 years. YOUR SELF FINANCED DEBUT CD "THE ISLE OF DISENCHANTMENT" HAS BEEN OUT FOR A LITTLE WHILE NOW. HOW WAS THE UNDERGROUNDS RESPONSE TO THIS GREAT CD RELEASE? The reaction to this release has been great. We've distributed about 1500 around the world, which has been really good for us & we've gotten some great reviews. We've done a lot of interviews too, which is great for promotion. we're working on a new CD at the moment, so I think "Isle..." has help get our name out a bit. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO ONLY RELEASE 9 TRACKS ON THE CD OF THE 10 TRACKS YOU ACTUALLY RECORDED FOR THE CD? Because the 10th song we recorded came out badly. It was the last song that I was recording on drums & I just played it very badly...I only had two sessions of 3 to 4 hours to get all the songs done, so I didn't have time to go back & fix it. So, that's why it was left off. Hopefully, it will be on our new disc. THE ARTWORK FOR YOUR CD IS VERY WELL DONE. COULD YOU EXPLAIN SOME OF IT & WHO WAS THE ARTIST? The artist is a friend of the band. His name is Bill Dean. he does some really great stuff. matthew just told him about the lyrics for "The Isle..."& the front cover is what Bill came up with. It was just a draft of it, but it came out well so we decided to use it. |
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