Former Final Spin drummer, Todd Sears, was enlisted in the project and Slychosis
was born. The Fall, 2006 S/T debut cd was
more prog focused, yet eclectic. This disc was also an homage of sorts to
classic prog influences while forging the Slychotic sound.
Johns was living on the grounds of the psychiatric hospital where he was employed
and the cd was recorded in the often flooding
basement with the buggy ST Audio soundcard. The name Slychosis came together
from the setting of the project, Johns’s day job
as a psychologist and humor associated with the phrase “crazy like a
fox.” The Johns photoshoped cd cover was another area of
confusion. People just didn’t get it. It was pure gonzo humor! The bizarre
butterfly was composed of headshots of band members.
The head of the butterfly is that of Sears with drumsticks for antennae and
the wings are the headshots of Johns and Walker. It was
given a psychedelic Rorschach look set with a humorous parody of The Silence
of the Lambs promotional poster. There is a huge
degree of dark humor in Slychosis! The cd received very encouraging reviews
and reception given its meager production resources.
With new found motivation and a Layla soundcard, Slychedelia was begun. However
this project would prove a difficult venture in
reaching completion. Not long after initial writing, Johns would have to move
very quickly due to structural issues with housing. This
delayed progress by a couple of months and a studio was setup approximately
45 miles away. Sears was gigging regularly with
Jackson staple bands A Bitter Sunday and Supernoise and going through a less-than-amicable
divorce and became MIA for a while.
Johns and Walker continued writing and recording with MIDI drum programming.
Singers and drummers were auditioned to no avail.
Recording and writing continued with Johns continuing vocals. Longtime friend
Ceci Smith-Whitehurst was brought in on Cosmic
Irony to give a female perspective on the track and Vocaloid Miriam software
was also used to provide additional vocal textures.
Chip Griffith was brought in to add saxophone lines to Cosmic Irony and Metaphysical
Fitness. Jeremy Mitchell, a music store tech
acquaintance, was brought in on drums during the latter part of writing. Before
long, the distance and creative and personal differences
began plaguing Johns and Walker leading to Johns setting up a home studio
and assuming bass duties. Given the response of Wild Night
in Calcutta, the humorous Todd Sears track on the first cd, Johns tracked
down Sears and Crimson Fields of Glory came to life with
Sears’s idea for a lofty Scottish battle epic. Walker came back in to
refine the bass line on Distrust and added his stylings to St. John’s
Wood. Mitchell completed drums in quick setup on the non-MIDI tracks and the
cd was complete. Johns and Walker then headed to
Memphis for mastering services by L. Nix. It was also during the Slychedelia
period that Johns established a correspondence and
creative relationship with Ukrainian surrealist artist, Vladimir Moldavsky.
Johns was immediately caught by the unique creative vision
of Moldavsky on the Surrealists.org site and arrangements were made for artwork
on Slychedelia. Moldavsky proved to be a creative
muse for Johns in that his visuals inspired writing themes as well as Moldavsky’s
critique of pre-production tracks given his ear as a
guitarist. Thus, Fall, 2008, Slychedelia was released with a generally favorable
reception.
Around the latter stages of completing Slychedelia, Johns began conversing
with Jeff Hamel of Majestic via MySpace and the pair
found a mutual respect for each other’s musical projects and a complementary
style to progressive music. These kindred spirits struck
up a collaboration and Proximal Distance was born. Through the wonders
of internet, Johns and Hamel have been co-writing, recording
and sharing guitar, keyboards and bass duties. Hamel brought in Jessica Rasche
from the Majestic Arrival disc for vocals and Johns
brought in Jeremy Mitchell and Todd Sears from Slychosis on percussion. This
has been an exciting and rewarding project and is nearing
completion. We hope listeners love the tracks as much as we do because WE
ARE SERIOUSLY PUMPED!!!! I will keep you posted
and meanwhile, here is a link to http://proximaldistance.com
for more detailed information. Vladimir Moldavsky will be contributing his
awesome graphics for this project as well.
Slychosis? The writing is underway on disc 3. With Jeremy now in Nashville,
Todd Sears is back on the skins and new bassist, Clay Pale,
is now onboard. Vocally, Bridget Shield, has joined the lineup and will provide
a new dimension and artistry to the Slychotic sound. This
disc is planned to be a more group driven and focused. Johns is excited about
his new studio setup with MOTU 24 and URS gear and
stationary Tama kit with drumbooth. Not to mention
all of the boutique guitar gadgetry recently acquired.
- GJ - for now