Special Report by antiGUY

11-26-00 This week marks a special event for Neurotica. The band will be playing their very first  show in the L.A area! While Neurotica invades L.A. we decided to throw antiMUSIC open to the rockers from Florida to celebrate this momentous occasion. Therefor this officially kicks off Neurotica Week here at antiMUSIC!

Our relationship with this band actually predates antiMUSIC. Our sister site Rocknworld.com was first exposed to their incredible sounds when they released their debut album, Seed in 1998. Lead vocalist Kelly Shaefer was kind enough to send our managing editor a copy of the CD and this band has been a favorite of ours ever since. 

In 1999 they released their sophomore album Living in Dog Years, which simply blew us away. So much so that in our year end special at rocknworld.com, Living in Dog Years was named the best album of 1999! 

This Wednesday the band will make their L.A. area debut. We here at antiMUSIC are excited because no one here has ever seen these explosive hard rockers live! Add to the mix the fact that the band will be showcasing for several record labels at this show, which is sure to lead to a major bidding war! 

So we invite all of our Los Angeles Area readers and friends to join us at the Viper Room in Hollywood - Wed Nov. 29th at 10:00 to see Neurotica in their Hollywood debut! We will be on hand, watching the show plus giving away t-shirts and other cool stuff! Don't miss it, because this may be your last opportunity to see this band before they launch into super-stardom. 

Now kick back and read a quick history of the band, hear some words from lead vocalist Kelly Shaefer, and then check out some cool sounds. 

We'll see you at the show!

antiGUY

aM: What has the band been up to lately? 

Kelly: Oh man we have been very busy writing and playing out a lot, gearing up for the big debut LA show and for the new York show in Dec. things are really looking good these days!

 aM: How far along are you on the new album? 

Kelly: Well we actually have about 23 skeletons of songs and we have just demoed 4 of them, and man its thick, we have been so busy shopping this to majors that we have not had the time to get in the studio to get some more finished, but we are stoked about the 4 we have done.

 aM: What can the fans expect from the new songs? Any new approach in the songs or
 song writing? 

Kelly: Well its the same formula, just more defined, we are working again with producer "Doug Kaye" and we have really gelled a lot this time around, cause there is less resistance from us hahahah, its very hard to have a producer, but its very needed, we tend to get very "jammy" so it helps to have someone trim stuff up for us, our current fav has got to be this tune called "ALL MY FRIENDS CRUSH YOU" its over the top cool, I cant wait to get it out, also another tune called "CAN YOU FEEL THIS� which has been in our live show for some time now, and another called "RED ROOM"  we could not be more happy with the results so far, its very heavy, but very catchy!!

aM:  You�re coming to LA for the first time to showcase for some labels. If you nail  the deal, are you going to re-release any of the tracks from Seed or LIDY on the major label debut? 

Kelly: Well that�s what we hope, we feel like to waste the dog years record and the tunes on there would be a shame, so we hope that they will pick all the good tunes from each record and then throw in some new stuff with it to make a virtually unstoppable major label debut, that would the perfect scenario for us we think!

aM:  I notice the band opening up for you guys at the Viper Room is a Christian band. 

Kelly: That should be wild, once those people get a load of Neurotica! yeah I did not even know that until you told me about it, actually they are having there own little showcase there for some Christian labels as well, we each will only play maybe 6 or seven tunes, but yeah that should kind of odd, I wish them the best of luck, they better eat there wheaties though cause we are coming out west with a vengeance hahahah!

aM:  Have you guys done anything lately with Brian Johnson from AC/DC? Any chance of you guys opening for them when they return to North America next year?

 Kelly: Brian has been super busy touring as of late, he stopped over right after the first u.s. leg of the tour to see what was going on, he is very excited for us right now, we have been building this ship for some time and we owe a lot to him, you and many others that have kept us afloat thus far. I am not sure if we will be able to make it on this upcoming leg of the tour, but anything is possible, rest assured there will be at some point a date we will do together I hope! 

aM:  I heard rumors of an Atheist Reunion. Is this true? 

Kelly: Well, I have chatted with the atheist boys and they are into it, it will take some time to get it done, but yes I think it will happen, it takes an enormous amount of time to write songs that complicated, so I will have to try to fit it in with all that is going on with neurotica at the moment. We have begun jamming together though, and it went really really well!

In 1994 Neurotica was born out of the ashes of the progressive death metal band Atheist. Vocalist Kelly Shaefer formed the seeds of Neurotica after the tragic death of Atheist Bassist Roger Patterson on February 12th 1991. Atheist attempted to carry on after the tragedy but without their friend and bandmate, the band decided to call it quits in 1992. 

Two years later Kelly joined forces with guitarist Shawn Bowen, drummer Jason West and bassist Migwell Przybyl and Neurotica was born. The band paid their dues for the next few years, developing a distinctive sound and a loyal local following in Florida.

In 1998 Brian Johnson of AC/DC discovered the band.  The band's original bio told the following story: Playing a routine gig in an itty- bitty punk orientated sandwhich shop called the Monterey Deli, in Sarasota Florida, Neurotica suddenly found themselves in the situation most bands dream of: on stage with a rock icon in the audience. And they rose to the occasion�. We had a really good set that night says lead singer Kelly Shaefer. �Brian� bought us a round of beers and split�.  But Johnson�s admiration did not end there. The following week the band received a call from NMG Entertainment President Doug Kaye, expressing his interest in signing the band, and relayed Johnson�s interest in producing. �It was like we won the lottery,� says Shaefer.

The Brian Johnson produced Seed was released later that year earning the band critical praise and a larger audience. Unfortunately due to snafu�s with the CD�s distribution, Seed never received the widespread attention it deserved. 

In 1999 Neurotica returned with their explosive sophomore effort, Living in Dog Years. Doug Kaye produced this time around and the album justified Neurotica�s critical acclaim and earned them the 1999 album of the year from Rocknworld.com. 

In 2000 the band embarked on a North America tour taking their legendary live shows to audiences across the United States. As the band returns to the studio to record new material, they are about to take things to the next level as they showcase their music to several major and large Indy labels. 

The music speaks for itself; Neurotica is one of the best hard rocking bands on the scene today. It�s just a matter of time before they become a worldwide success! Get ready for the ride of your life and Neurotica takes on the world and spreads their infectious sounds to the masses. 

Click here to download the MP3 for "Ride of Your Life" from the Living in Dog Years CD. 

Visit the official Neurotica web site for more MP3's and Real Audio.