"Hallucinations" by Pvris, Friday, January 21, 2022

There's always a certain level of trust an artist has to have in a producer. Pvris had worked with one producer, Blake Harnage, on their first two albums and EPs. But after recording with Paper Route's JT Daly, the band decided to finish their third album, Use Me, with him. The result was a hookier, poppier, vibier version of the group. This met with some backlash with some of the fans of the band's older material; however, lead singer Lynn Gunn told Alternative Press, "We've always been kind of a pop act." The first single from the Hallucinations EP "Death of Me" helped to bridge the old sound to their second single "Hallucinations," which sees the band flirting with EDM production, yet in the haze and psychedelia, it's still clearly rock.

MY MIND IS RUNNING WILD.  Gunn had had a songwriting session with Marshmello and Amy Allen, but she didn't think anything from that session fit her band. JT Daly told Gunn, "Seriously, trust me. We can really transform the song and make it something really cool." Gunn talks about the lyrics of the song being influenced by a book she read about hallucinations. She applied this concept of the mind tricking itself when thinking about a break up. The psychological effect of the mind saying it's over one minute, but the feeling creeping in the next. It's a temptation to call off the break up. Gunn also dug into her love of the supernatural. She said that this song shows the "supernatural versus reality verses the physical world." The music video was directed by Yhellow, a visual arts company in Los Angeles, and is visually stunning. The company has made videos for the Deftones, Mastadon, Neck Deep, Nessa Barrett, and Santana ft. Young Jeezy. Pvris worked with the company again for other videos during the Hallucinations/ Use Me album cycle to create trippy videos.

NEW SENSATIONS, SWEET TEMPTATIONS. When I was in high school, our pastor brought in a "former rock star" to speak to the church about how everything in rock music is satanic, even Christian rock. This probably failed musician showed slides of stills from music videos and concert footage from the '70s and '80s and pointed out the satanic symbolism hidden in plain sight. There was a story about getting high and meeting with some manager who happened to be the devil who made a promise to "make him as famous as Ozzy Osbourne." He didn't get into why Christian rock was evil, he just said, "they use the same beats. You see, it's the syncopated rhythm that hypnotizes you." He went on to explain syncopation. I just left the church service angry. Having studied some music theory, I wondered, at what point in music history did music become evil? The video for today's song uses a lot of occult symbolism. It would have scared the hell out of me from enjoy this band's music if I saw this video in high school. From Pastor Jim's polarizing sermons on everything from Harry Potter to Pokemon to not voting  that I grew up listening to made me think that the world was more nuanced. Or we can just start a Marie Kondo-style spiritual purge, throwing everything away that might be evil. 

Check out my updated 2022+ playlist, substituting Pvris's "Death of Me" for "Hallucinations."


Acoustic version:
Stripped down version:

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