Over the past month Paranoid Alice have been in Electric Fields studio with Chris White recording their debut ‘Mental Illness For The Masses’. After a tense first few days of inner band fights ”stop fucking smiling”, “more reverb!!”, trying to record haunted accordions, ‘5-6-7-8’ count in’s, & demands for more cowbell, the album is a mix of dark psych/punk & anthemic grunge rock. Spidery psych guitars were whipped & wah-wah’ed, bass FX’s were pushed to 11, while killer drum heads were smashed. The band combines a wild guitar thrashing stage act with dark poetry, chemistry, and sexuality that delves into a twisted Alice In Wonderland cinematic dreamscape.
This album comes along as an exciting line of new rock bands such as Black Midi, Squid & Dry Cleaning have appeared; but Paranoid Alice is their psychotic glam sibling. While band members Fab (guitar, sitar, vocals), Luca (bass, vocals), Mat ‘Krug’ (drums, screams) have been gearing up for more live gigs, heres what they have to say about the album so far:
Fab: ”We’ve made a special unhinged schizophrenic album, I wanted to mix acid-rock, and grunge, where every song has the potential to be an anthem and to infest different genre’s. Some songs have catchy psych/grunge choruses & Oasis melodies, but others will rip your brain out like In Utero, or are experimental like Sonic Youth. We’re a gang and these songs need to be played at maximum volume. You’ll also hear new guitar moon sounds that have never been heard before. I've been listening to Joe Meek, Delia Derbyshire & Martin Hammett productions, mixing them with electric ragas, reverse solos, and sound collages of dictators, plus an evil cat recorded in a graveyard.’
Luca “This album is gonna be some of the wildest shit you’ve ever heard. Punk rock aggression, crushing riffs, blistering solos, whiplash genre changes… we just let our imagination run riot for 12 tracks. Some of the songs are deeply meaningful, some are just dumb stupid fun. Please keep your arms, legs, ears and minds inside the ride vehicle at all times.”
Mat: ”I’m so excited about this album. Its come together really nicely. To say that we set out on a tight budget, been hit back so many times because of COVID, it’s nice to see it all come into fruition! What really makes this album so good is that we all have such varied tastes, and influences, in our own personal style yet it all blends together so seemlessly! It’s time to get proper music back out on the scene and shift away from samey manufactured drivel that has plagued us over the last decade and we are going to rock, riding the crest of the wave, as we bring that back!”
