Singled Out: VATTICA's Back To Life

Keavin Wiggins | 02-24-2023

Back To Life cover art

Los Angeles alt-rockers VATTICA recently released their brand new single "Back to Life". To celebrate we asked frontperson Alexander Millar to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

My latest single, "Back To Life" is about my struggles with mental health, particularly with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).The first 2/3 of the song are written from the perspective of my OCD, with the last chorus written as me reclaiming my own mind.

I know from personal experience how agonizing it is to be tormented by your own brain. I live with it every day. I've had OCD and anxiety ever since I was young, but I'd been through treatment before and it was sub-clinical for decades. One year into this ongoing pandemic my OCD skyrocketed to levels I hadn't experienced since I was a teenager. I had to get back into treatment and change medications. I think that the worst part about OCD is that it affects everyone in your life, not just you. Everyone can see that you're suffering and feels bad for you, but also you drain them by obsessively checking with them about things that, to them, often seem totally innocuous. And that's before you get to all the dark sh*t in your subconscious that OCD grabs and uses as fuel to torment you!

For me, when things are really heavy, music always helps. The other thing that helps me is talking about it, finding community and support. I started posting about it on my TikTok and it's nice to hear from folks who are struggling too. It reminds me that I'm not alone, you know? Mental health stuff can be very isolating for me because it's all happening inside my mind, it's taking up so much of my bandwidth that often I don't have much spare energy, which really affected my artistic practice. As I started writing again "Back To Life" is one of the first things that I made. I hope that folks going through their own mental health journey will find some comfort in this song.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the band here