The Hiss is one of those upcoming THE bands that plays modern rock with a classic twist like The White Stripes, The Strokes and The Von Bondies. But lead singer/guitarist Adrian Barrera is coming at it from a fresh psychedelic angle. Lyrically their record, The Panic Movement, is of a world of ghostly motorbike gangs, deserted gold mines, gathering wolves and teenage escapism.
Check out the official website of The Hiss
Daniel Robert Epstein: What does The Panic Movement mean?
Adrian Barrera: It goes back to the same time when we were forming ideas for bands. We were influenced by a lot of movies and such. Living in Florida we had reached that point where we were growing up but really super immature. We were energetic and artistic and we were exposed to these different ideas and movies. One of those movies was The Holy Mountain [directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, released in 1973]. Its in a mindfuck of a movie and its always stayed in the back of mind. This is a super cool collection of iconography, the heavy handed symbolism so when it came to do the record, the situation we were in was great but the actual recordings at the time were frustrating because we had this weird chaos going on. We went from playing in front of a couple hundred people in Atlanta to going to England and being locked away in this mansion for three and a half weeks without any outside contact other than Worldwide CNN. We didnt even know if we were going to get home.
DRE: What was the recording process for the record?
AB: It was fairly worked out beforehand, which was good because we lost a member during that whole process. In fact all the press we got in England was about our bass player. Our sessions took its toll on her and she had a bit of a nervous breakdown.
DRE: What did you do to her?
AB: [laughs] We didnt do anything to her, that was the thing. She just lost it. That was a bit stressful but it was a bonding experience for everybody. Shes doing fine now. Shes living in a Chicago and in a new band.
DRE: If you watch too many Jodorowsky movies it will really screw you up.
AB: Yeah you become the clichd stoner guy who sits around watching psychedelic movies. The imagery he uses is so musical to me. Its like filmmaking from a really super intelligent childs perspective.
DRE: Have you read his comics?
AB: Oh yeah.
DRE: Hes got more ideas on one page than other people in their entire books.
AB: Im jealous of him. It's things like that which inspire me. I would be barely scribbling the alphabet if it wasnt for stuff like that.
DRE: A lot of people say that the way The Hiss went over to England to garner some good press mirrored what The Strokes did. Was that the idea?
AB: We were coming into it from the second phase. Many people had come in that way and have been successful. It was already starting to backlash against people. A lot of people said we should do it anyway. We thought it was so clich to do that because it felt like a formula. We spent a year traveling around the States meeting American music guys and they ended up being jerks. Nobody seemed to care about the music but how they could package us and say we were just like another band. When we met James Oldham who runs our record label [Loog Records] he came at us and said Ive heard your demo and I think its great. We were taken with him instantly. He gave us a lot more resources to do stuff. We didnt have the same kind of spotlight that The Strokes or The White Stripes had which is cool because are down for the slow burn. We got to go over to England to hone our skills a little bit.
DRE: You played some huge festivals over in Europe like Reading and Leeds.
AB: It was a mind-bending great experience and were dying to play some more festivals. Playing festivals is like getting a tattoo, its just the way to go and you want more.
DRE: How long ago did you record The Panic Movement?
AB: March and April of last year.
DRE: Are you ready to do a new one?
AB: Yeah were gearing up to stay ahead of the process by recording little bits here. We also want to find time to tour in America which weve never really been able to do.
DRE: What was it like working with Oasis producer Owen Morris?
AB: Owen is a genius. It seems like Im only aligning myself with these childlike geniuses. He is one of the most immature crazy people ever. There is no one else like him. Hes a big log of a Welshman. I'm dying to work with him again.
DRE: So to him being called immature isnt an insult?
AB: No hell take it as a compliment.
DRE: Do you have to be a little immature to be in the music business?
AB: I think so. Too much responsibility is sometimes labeled as maturity.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official website of The Hiss
Daniel Robert Epstein: What does The Panic Movement mean?
Adrian Barrera: It goes back to the same time when we were forming ideas for bands. We were influenced by a lot of movies and such. Living in Florida we had reached that point where we were growing up but really super immature. We were energetic and artistic and we were exposed to these different ideas and movies. One of those movies was The Holy Mountain [directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, released in 1973]. Its in a mindfuck of a movie and its always stayed in the back of mind. This is a super cool collection of iconography, the heavy handed symbolism so when it came to do the record, the situation we were in was great but the actual recordings at the time were frustrating because we had this weird chaos going on. We went from playing in front of a couple hundred people in Atlanta to going to England and being locked away in this mansion for three and a half weeks without any outside contact other than Worldwide CNN. We didnt even know if we were going to get home.
DRE: What was the recording process for the record?
AB: It was fairly worked out beforehand, which was good because we lost a member during that whole process. In fact all the press we got in England was about our bass player. Our sessions took its toll on her and she had a bit of a nervous breakdown.
DRE: What did you do to her?
AB: [laughs] We didnt do anything to her, that was the thing. She just lost it. That was a bit stressful but it was a bonding experience for everybody. Shes doing fine now. Shes living in a Chicago and in a new band.
DRE: If you watch too many Jodorowsky movies it will really screw you up.
AB: Yeah you become the clichd stoner guy who sits around watching psychedelic movies. The imagery he uses is so musical to me. Its like filmmaking from a really super intelligent childs perspective.
DRE: Have you read his comics?
AB: Oh yeah.
DRE: Hes got more ideas on one page than other people in their entire books.
AB: Im jealous of him. It's things like that which inspire me. I would be barely scribbling the alphabet if it wasnt for stuff like that.
DRE: A lot of people say that the way The Hiss went over to England to garner some good press mirrored what The Strokes did. Was that the idea?
AB: We were coming into it from the second phase. Many people had come in that way and have been successful. It was already starting to backlash against people. A lot of people said we should do it anyway. We thought it was so clich to do that because it felt like a formula. We spent a year traveling around the States meeting American music guys and they ended up being jerks. Nobody seemed to care about the music but how they could package us and say we were just like another band. When we met James Oldham who runs our record label [Loog Records] he came at us and said Ive heard your demo and I think its great. We were taken with him instantly. He gave us a lot more resources to do stuff. We didnt have the same kind of spotlight that The Strokes or The White Stripes had which is cool because are down for the slow burn. We got to go over to England to hone our skills a little bit.
DRE: You played some huge festivals over in Europe like Reading and Leeds.
AB: It was a mind-bending great experience and were dying to play some more festivals. Playing festivals is like getting a tattoo, its just the way to go and you want more.
DRE: How long ago did you record The Panic Movement?
AB: March and April of last year.
DRE: Are you ready to do a new one?
AB: Yeah were gearing up to stay ahead of the process by recording little bits here. We also want to find time to tour in America which weve never really been able to do.
DRE: What was it like working with Oasis producer Owen Morris?
AB: Owen is a genius. It seems like Im only aligning myself with these childlike geniuses. He is one of the most immature crazy people ever. There is no one else like him. Hes a big log of a Welshman. I'm dying to work with him again.
DRE: So to him being called immature isnt an insult?
AB: No hell take it as a compliment.
DRE: Do you have to be a little immature to be in the music business?
AB: I think so. Too much responsibility is sometimes labeled as maturity.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
missy:
The Hiss is one of those upcoming THE bands that plays modern rock with a classic twist like The White Stripes, The Strokes and The Von Bondies. But lead singer/guitarist Adrian Barrera is coming at it from a fresh psychedelic angle. Lyrically their record, The Panic Movement, is of a world of ghostly...