PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
PlanetMosh recently had a chat with Irish Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses winners Psykosis about their upcoming show at our favourite festival. Here is what the lead contender for “Sexiest Drummer at Bloodstock”, Shane (The Sugar Foot) Byrne had to say.
Can you give the readers and people heading to Bloodstock a quick introduction to Psykosis? Who you are, when you formed the band and a description on your sound?
Hellooooo!!!!! Psykosis are a four piece Thrash Metal band made up of the sexy stylish Grant Walsh on lead guitar and lead vocal, The craaazzy stylish Tony Corcoran on rhythm guitar and backup vocals. The smooth, sleek, stylish Jay Shaw on bass guitar and more backup vocals and Shane (The sugar foot) Byrne on drums. We have had this line up now since about 2010 and we like to focus on playing music that gets the crowd involved as much as possible and ensuring that when we write the tunes we know that when we play it live it is gonna make people in our crowds want to down a bottle of buckfast and dive head first off the stage.
PlanetMosh was at the Dublin final and we loved every second of the evening. How was the whole M2TM experience? What was the best and worst part of the competition for you?
Glad you enjoyed it! We had a blast, It is always so good to meet folks involved in the Irish Metal community and get to see some top class bands that we may have missed seeing if competitions like M2TM weren’t around. To be honest I don’t know if there was a “worst” part of the competition but if we have to say something then I would have to say…When we had to go home at the end of every gig….
When Simon Hall announced you as winners, how did it feel?
Great! We wanted this so badly you wouldn’t believe it so when Simon announced us that feeling of joy was indescribable I think a lot of that was sheer relief as well. Every band that played that night played so well that we felt it was anyone’s to win so to be announced out of all those amazing bands felt really special for us and we are honoured to have been chosen to represent Ireland at such a great festival
And since then have any doors opened for the band?
It has certainly attracted a lot more interest. We have had to do a lot of interviews such as this one and we were asked to play with Trivium in the Academy shortly after, which was great. We have had a busy summer anyways with our album coming out soon and putting together a new line of merch such as t shirts and patches etc. We always have metal heads, promoters and press types emailing us wondering about whats going on with the album and when can they get a T shirt which is really cool.
Would you recommend entering the M2TM competition to other bands? Any hints/tips for bands that are looking to enter in 2015?
Yes, Do it!!!!!! It opens up so many doors for you and you can make so many connections and friends by doing gigs like these. Everyone has to remember that metal is a community and in Ireland it is relatively small, It is important to get great bands to play these shows because it brings everyone together and will show the rest of the world that Ireland is not to be messed with and that there is so much great talent here…As for tips, Just be yourselves and remember that this is a chance to get more internationally recognised as a nation and although it is amazing to be chosen to go to Bloodstock we are all in this together.
What can the Bloodstock audience expect from you at on the New Blood Stage and when can we see you tear it up?
We are literally going to rip the place a new one!! We will play better and harder than we have ever played before and will do our nation proud! With so many people putting their faith in us when it came to crowd votes during the competition we would never let them down. We also have a few Psykosis style surprises for everyone who watches the shows, I can’t say too much right now but come to the show and you will not be disappointed
What has been the band’s biggest achievement so far?
Probably this…Although playing with the likes of Trivium, Sacred Reich, Onslaught and Evile in the past was pretty awesome too!!
Have you ever been to Bloodstock before? If so when and what did you enjoy most about it?
Yes, myself and Jay went last year and had the time of our lives!! It was awesome to meet people from different countries and the whole friendship through metal idea was really strong there which was awesome! Sitting on top of giant bins totally hammered and jousting with other bins was the best time though……and Slayer!
What is your opinion of the BOA line-up and what bands will you be making a point of seeing?
Its Grrrreat! It’s quite a diverse lineup so there is a little something for everyone which is KICKASS! As for myself I can’t wait to see Carcass and another thrash band Incinery, Flotsam and Jetsam and of course….Evil Scarecrow!
You’ve recently been working on your first official promo video for ‘Driller Killer’. When can we expect to see it?
Who told you that!!! It was the Russians wasn’t it!! Yeah the video is almost done, there has to be a few finishing touches added to it to meet expectations but I can tell you that it is amazing and it will be out very very very soon…. Maybe even before this interview goes public ha ha
How is progress on your debut album ‘Welcome To The Psyko Ward’ and when is it scheduled to be released? Can you tell us any details about it?
It is going good, We had a couple of hiccups that we had to iron out as we want this album to be amazing. We have finished the artwork though which looks incredible and we are very excited to release it. As for a release date….. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the end of September.
Where can we find out more about Psykosis?
You can like the Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/Psykosisthrahmetal you can also follow us on Twitter and Soundcloud: We are also on Youtube and if you type Pyskosis into google images you can see our sexy mushes! Also, just come to a gig man, the best way to find out about us it to come and just have a few beers!!
Finally, have you any message you wish to pass on to the PM readers?
We are honoured to be going to Bloodstock! We are so excited and are working very hard to blow the roof off the place, there is a lot more in the pipeline for Psykosis such as the album “Welcome to the Psyko Ward” coming out and loads more great merchandise so keep your eyes glued to the Facebook and other social media sites for updates and some awesome gig news!!
Thanks a million for everything that everyone has done for us and we can’t wait to see you at Bloodstock or when we support Evile in September!!
Psykosis play the New Blood Stage on Sunday August 10th
Need a ticket for Bloodstock? Click Here
