Two years ago Trakheadz attended the USA Music Festival and were blown away by Psyche of Sound one of the hottest multi-talented artist on the scene today. Not since Michael Jackson, Prince even MC Hammer, have I seen a show so spectacular that it left you in your seat wanting more. This show was high energy, high impact- everything you want when you go to see an artist perform live. He was accompanied by his live band, hip-hop artists, backup singers, and the stage was lit up “literally” with dancers and acrobats that had glow in the dark costumes! We caught up with Psyche to find out more about his new CD single “Back 2 Cool” he’s about to drop.
Trakheadz: So what’s been going on, it’s been a while since we last saw you at New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the USA Music Festival? Is this your sophomore CD because I know you’ve been out there for a while performing?
Psyche of Sound: Probably my senior album. (he laughs) I just went about things kind of backwards—not for industry standards, but I just went the ‘show’ route. Did a lot of shows and it got to the point that I would write a song today and just perform it and didn’t even record it. The band knew it, the fans knew it, but it wasn’t something tangible that they could take with them home and play it on a CD player. So I got to a point where I wanted to take the time and go into the recording studio and create it. So what I have right now- I’m looking at a double CD. Some of the stuff that I’ve been performing is new and I never performed it before. We have some phenomenal music and that’s pretty much what’s been going on.
Trakheadz: Yes, you do have a lot of songs. I’m not sure which is my favorite there is so many! So this whole concept is it “back to cool” or is that just one of the songs?
Psyche of Sound: That just one of the songs like Michael Jackson had thriller or Smooth Criminal, this is just one of the songs—it’s a great concept. My album is currently untitled so I don’t know what’s it going to be yet, but “Back 2 Cool” is one of the top singles that we are going to be releasing off this project.
Trakheadz: How did you come up with that concept because it is almost like a High School High?
Psyche of Sound: Yeah, the high school musical is huge, I was even in a high school musical when I was in HS, but the concept of that came from ‘everyone who is in relationships and have learned throughout life from their mistakes’. I thought it would be a good concept of getting back with someone and being cool again—you know like, you’re not cold with one another, you’re speaking and everything is okay.
Trakheadz: Let’s talk about the music, we’re saying high school high but we can take it back a bit farther than that, to the 50’s or 6o’s.
Psyche of Sound: Right. The music was something that was in my head. This song has been in my head for about 2 years. It was something that I always wanted to do but never got around to it, but with that particular song I visualized it so much, you know like a full high school band doing the full horns and things like that. But musically I think of school house rock. I got together with Tommy K, he’s a guitarist that I‘ve worked with for a few years now, and me and him just knuckled the guitar parts out and it is what it is. Then I got Pop on the organ, which gives it a whole different feel—especially with the baseline. So it goes from Rock to Church to Disney (ha, ha) it’s all over the place and we are able to touch different boundaries and that’s what make it such a beautiful song.
Trakheadz: The interesting this is that you always consider yourself unclassified but you have this eclectic mix with this group of songs that actually indentifies several different genres, Rock, Hip Hop, R& B, Pop, I mean one of the songs “Heart Attack" it sounds like we’re surfing, like the Bee Gees, so talk about that, this whole new vibe that you’re bringing out.
Psyche of Sound: Yeah, it’s funny because I done a lot of shows and this vibe that your mention is totally me. I have so many different aspects of me that sometimes it’s hard to explain when people ask “what type of music do you do.” The music industry has changed so much over the years that the music is not so much in a box anymore especially with artist like Andre 3000 who is just kicking the box all over the floor! I often get compared to Prince a lot. I think it’s because he’s done everything. I mean there’s nothing the man hasn’t done, but for me it all goes together. But I would say “Rock R&B” before I would say I’m “Straight R&B.” I mean I rapped for years, that’s what I did for 10- 15 years. I was in a rap group since I was a kid, but I put it aside because it was no inspiration for me, but for the past two years I’ve had tons of inspiration and my notebook is filled with it. It’s just a melting pot of what I was exposed to. My father was listening to Rick James, Kool & the Gang and Cameo and my mother listened to Mellencamp and Rod Stuart. This is stuff I used to listen to everyday in the car or in the house. My brothers and I were into hip hop—the Run DMC’s, the Fat Boys and as time grew we were sneaking NWA records in there. But it was a big melting pot of music and I was exposed to it all and lived it from day one. It’s been a constant tumble of music throughout my whole life and I put a lot of time and energy to helping other people but now it is time for Psyche to evolve and go to that next stage.
Trakheadz: Another interesting thing is that there is a softer side of you. We are used to Psyche being that hard rock edge and now I see a softer Rock edge.
Psyche of Sound: Yeah, the funny is thing is that, like I said, I wasn’t recording only performing and so everything was just energy, energy, energy, but now that I have the chance to sit down and record the emotion is there and along with a lot of things that you weren’t hearing for the past 2 years. The funny thing is I remember there was a time probably from third grade to senior year I couldn’t write an upbeat song at all (ha-ha) it was all love songs, slow, and falsetto, and it’s funny that now that I am singing those on this project people are looking like, “Oh, I didn’t know that you did that” but it was something that was always in me, but I just put it aside because I was so happy that I could write an upbeat song. Everything you hear is all me, I wrote all of the songs on the project—co-produced some, but this is all Psyche of Sound 120%
Trakheadz: But it’s clear that you’ve been going through some things and you can hear it like in the song “It’s Over”
Psyche of Sound: “It’s Over” is something I wrote when I was at a point where I was just tired of a lot of different things going on in my life and I didn’t have any answers and felt like being in a box and your back is against the wall. You’re like, “I’m done with this” – not necessarily with that person you’re with but with the situation and so “If you didn’t want to move forward with me this is the direction I am going in.” It was just like the “Getaway” I was in a different place and I had to get away.
Trakheadz: Talk about “these 4 walls & me- it’s over” I love the arrangement, it starts off with a soft piano and by the time you are finished you are belting out this hard rock sound, strong guitar…
Psyche of Sound: Yeah that was one of the earlier songs I did on this project like in the first two or three days of writing, that was just something it just came right out, the song was probably written in like 20 minutes, it just came right out like water.
Trakheadz: That long note was that like a release?
Psyche of Sound: It funny because I don’t sing falsetto a lot… well now I do, but that particular song was the first time people actually heard me sing in falsetto. Recording it came at a very good time because it was something I was actually feeling at that time. I felt like it was like a Grammy song I thought of the Elton John’s and some of the icons before me and I visualized a choir singing “It’s All Over” (he sings) and you hear all that stuff in the background, and I visualized myself sitting in an empty apartment on a box and revisiting the past… an argument here in there and I’m like, “I don’t want to be here anymore- if this is how it s going to be,”—I don’t want to be around it.
Trakheadz: But what about “I Hate You”, your mother, your brother, your
dog (ha, ha)
Psyche of Sound: (Psyche laughs) “That was a fun song, but when I did Hatred” I was probably frustrated over a lot of things musically, personally, but there is no autobiographical thing to that song whatsoever. It started as a joke at first, and the producer that I am working with now said go ahead and do it. He had some beats and we laid down the guitar and that song was produced in all of 10 hours—three of them making the beat, humming along to it, writing the lyrics, going to bed, and getting up and recording it in the morning. It was that serious.
Trakheadz: Who did the rap on that song? You?
Psyche of Sound: No, Shaun Rich, but at the time he went by the name of The Author. He wrote that rap, no lie, in all of 5mins. I told him the concept of the song, went out to get something to drink, held a brief conversation with someone, and when I came back he was in the booth recording—no lie. One take! He’s that talented!
Trakheadz: But you’ve rapped on some of your songs?
Psyche of Sound: Yes, “Heart Attack” is an example of me because you get 3 different aspects, you get Rock, a little R & B vibe and I rapped two verses. That’s a perfect song of me.
Trakheadz: Yeah because once again you belt out the lyrics. At first your voice is all nice and smooth and then “How Could This Be” with that big guitar… that’s Psyche?
Psyche of Sound: Yes, all day, I love to build up my music. If I had to pick a song that said what is Psyche, that would be one of the songs I would say "that is me". It’s Pop friendly, Rock friendly, something I could see playing on all radio stations.
Trakheadz: You actually even have a female singer singing with you—beautiful voice, Keisha Star?
Psyche of Sound: Yes, she sings on the song “Just Ain't Working.” That song was something that just happened. Keisha was recording at the studio and you know we were joking around back in forth saying “I want to do something with you and my man Pop put a track together, I wrote the verse and its history.
Trakheadz: Uh oh, uh oh, ooh ohh oh oh, where did that come from?
Psyche of Sound: I do a lot of Ooohs!
Trakheadz: That’s true! But how was that working with another artist when it is usually just Psyche?
Psyche of Sound: There’s a lot of different cameos you will find in this particular project alone. Different rappers, there’s a girl name Aria who actually sang some background in “Heart Attack” and did the song “Run Away with Me” and we will probably do another song soon. And of course the same with Keisha Star, but you will find a lot of collaborations on this project.
Trakheadz: Is that a part of your growth – sharing?
Psyche of Sound: N No, I always wanted to work with other people but I’m so independent and I work so fast, I’m used to being in a room making a track, recording it and it’s done, but now being around people who come into the recording studio makes me want to branch out.
Trakheadz: Interesting, for the most part you are an entertainer first?
Psyche of Sound: Yes, you have to be an entertainer in this business—I mean there are still a lot of people that will put their money behind you but there are some who will not especially if the person is not going to work. There is a lot of money being lost today in the industry with the downloading, bootlegging and so you have to be smart. The industry is hurting but for the artist, there is a lot of different ways to make money like ringtones. Who would have thought about making money off of ringtones, TV shows, commercials, and stores that use music like The Gap, or Starbucks. When Prince left he couldn’t get his stuff in certain stores, but he sold his music off of his website, at concerts. With the Musicology Tour every ticket bought was a CD purchase and he even placed a CD in the Sunday newspaper overseas charging $3 and probably sold over 1 million CDs in one Sunday. You know I am not anti-industry, I would love to be apart o the mainstream but I have no problem putting up my own flyers etc. This is my career this is my life and at the end of the day “I’m Psyche of Sound” no one is going to work harder than me.
Trakheadz: You sort of deviated a bit from the Rock, R&B sound and wrote
a tribute to Amadou Diallo the song entitled “Ama-do-Something” talk about that.
Psyche of Sound: I actually wrote the concept of that song in 2005, after being privilege to see some of the footage Veronica shot for the film “365 Days of Marching-The Amadou Diallo Story, and being in the New York area (although you don't have to be there to hear about it), I just visualized something for the closing credits. I actually thought the film was done but she had asked me to do a song and I went back into the studio to record it and wrote the second verse and actually did some of the harmonies then. Throughout history police brutality, even with the Rodney King thing and Abner Louima, someone needs to do something about it. His name is Amadou Diallo so as I always do with word play; I came up with “Ama-Do-Something.” “I’m a do something about this problem” and all I could do was speak about it and make people aware what was going on and that’s just the power of music. Music has brought countries together and wars to end. We did not know what was going on with gang activity in Compton until NWA told us through their music, and the Diallo shooting of 41 shots was such a horrible thing that happened and this song was my contribution. It was something that just came out like water. “I’m a Do Something”
Psyche's future projects are to host the USA Music Festival again and to continue
recording songs. If you want to hear more from Psyche of Sound go to www.myspace
