Sicksense: We Will Be Kings Today
Nobody can argue nu-metal isn’t having a renaissance; the once-maligned genre has seen a surge of interest the past few years, with KORN continuing a late-career comeback after their forays into electronica and dubstep and LIMP BIZKIT seeing something of a reappraisal with many finally admitting that maybe, just maybe, the Floridian outfit had some good songs. The latest band to don their baggy jeans and wallet chains again are Montreal-based SICKSENSE, who marry the bouncing grooves of the genre along with their own personal stories and social commentary on the world around them on debut EP Kings Today. We sat down with co-vocalists, and husband and wife duo, Killer V (Vicky Psarakis of THE AGONIST) and Rob The Ripper (Robby J Fonts of STUCK MOJO) to talk all things SICKSENSE, Kings Today and what it means to be DIY in the modern industry.
“It started from before [the band] was even a thing,” Fonts explains of the band’s origins. Originally starting life out of the ashes of KEYCHAIN, the band originally only featured Fonts on vocals, a lineup rounded out by drummer Cody Taylor, guitarist Bran Panic and bassist Sam Bedard. They found, while Fonts was a fit for the band, that they wanted to expand and utilise two vocalists. “I would just want to be working with another vocalist who respects what I want to be doing with the lyrics and the storytelling because I can envision doing it in a way that is seamless,” Fonts remembers telling the band. At that point, Psarakis, who had been helping Fonts out with backing harmonies on some demos, was invited to give things a go with the band. “I’m more of a rapper/screamer,” he says, while Psarakis both screams and utilises clean singing, which allowed them to explore not only introducing singing into the songs, but also different ways of storytelling.
Bringing Psarakis in allowed them to explore those new avenues, introducing not just a new vocalist but also new characters into songs and changing them into lyrics that could be far more conversational. She says of the way in which they found themselves writing, “the biggest difference when you have two people doing vocals and you want to have multiple characters, you can really utilise first and second person narrative and you can make it more personal.”
Fonts expands on this, noting they both have a good understanding of how the other approaches songwriting and lyrics, “so I know how to utilise her voice and how she writes to complement the music we do.” That comes out in particular songs like Forgotten Days, a personal number Fonts wrote about his own struggles with mental health, where “it’s very apparent that one person is trying to talk to the other to console them, and the other is expressing themselves, what they’re going through.”
Introducing themselves to the world with their debut single Make Believe was bold; a song featuring the lyrics ‘did anyone tell you rules are make believe? / You’re anything you want to be’ is a sure statement of intent and encapsulates not just that one song, but their own attitude to the band, in many ways. Nu-metal was often known for its groove and sense of fun but SICKSENSE wanted to be more, and to have something to say for themselves. With that in mind, lyrics often focused on his own experiences (Forgotten Days) or division such as that enabled by social media where it seems everyone only wants to argue (Kings Today). The latter of these was accompanied by a video featuring both a food fight, and a large bear that went on to become their mascot. The food fight itself was the idea of videographer Chris Kells, who’d had the idea for years but never found the right song for it. As Psarakis tells us, “Kells and I will sit down sometimes and talk about cinematography, movie moments. We’ve both agreed that we love it in action movies where there’s complete chaos happening and you have serene music, almost classical, playing, it’s a beautiful contrast. So I feel like the food fight is the perfect representation for Kings Today. It has its heavy moments but it has a lot of serene moments, too. The chorus is me, singing in my mid-range and it’s more chill, and I thought it would be cool in those moments to have food fly all over the place!”
The bear that features also earned the name Deli and has become something of a mascot for the band; originally picked as an elephant in the room (“well, bear in the room”) that represented something far more important that everyone ignores to simply argue instead. But when the video debuted, viewers immediately picked up on it and some of the things it represents. “To me it represents the silent observer, the outsider looking in. But he’s also the thing you don’t want to be talking about, he’s just there,” Fonts describes of the multiple aspects to that one character. “I like that he is subjective; we may have written the songs n a certain way with a meaning in mind, but you can interpret it however you want. Whatever the music means to you, I think that should be valid.” One thing’s for sure; with mammoth grooves, serious lyrics and smiles on their faces, SICKSENSE have well and truly arrived.
Kings Today is out now via self-release.
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