The Skitzofrantiks
About The Skitzofrantiks from Queenstown
The Skitzofrantiks
BIOGRAPHY By Lou Healy
Eclectic. Discordant. Melodious. Crass.
The Skitzofrantiks aim to send their listeners into a spiral of disarray. So expect the unexpected. This band can’t be boxed in and they can’t be labelled.
Inspired by the disparate sounds of Drum and Bass, Indie, Jazz, Metal, Gypsy and Folk music, The Skitzofrantiks deliver an eclectic mix of the unconventional. Established in 2009, The Skitzofrantiks started out as a folk rock band but quickly transformed into a fast moving unidentifiable genre. The band has lyrically been spearheaded by Scottish front man Liam O’Connell but musically it’s a collaborative effort, with all three band members having a pivotal role in the songwriting process.
O’Connell started out writing mainstream folk rock but when Kiwi drummer and producer Tahne Brown came on board and splashed his influence, the music soon transformed into a “bigger, louder experience”. With the addition of “the doctor of split minds”, Ben Armour (UK) on bass, the sound soon became layered with deep undertones and diverse synth mixes.
The influence of Jeff Buckley, Queens of the Stone Age, Mr Bungle and Radiohead combined with the three different styles and forces of the band has led The Skitzofrantiks to produce a varied set of progressive and unconventional tracks on their debut EP. “We like the idea of giving the listener something they expect to hear and then turn it into something they really don’t expect to hear,” says front man Liam O’Connell. “We see our music as being ‘schizophrenically’ inspired--- It’s always fast changing, it goes from heavy to jazzy to light and it changes quite fast through those various sounds. In that respect it’s quite frantic and that’s what makes our music what it is.”
Whilst playing with British Indie rock band The Veils, Dunedin’s Julian Temple Band and Auckland’s Motocade, The Skitzofrantiks has evolved and developed a style based on a new departure into experimental noise. “We like to use a lot of noise feedback in our live gigs,” says O’Connell. “We started by using waves of feedback and then tuning it to use as background music that creates and builds an immense atmosphere. Sometimes we like to build it into the same riffs and at other stages we just like it to stand-alone. Either way it creates a huge amount of energy which is extremely important to us for recordings and for building momentum in a live show. “
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