Tommy Oeffling pushes the sonic limits on “Psycho”

It’s no accident that Tommy Oeffling’s new song “Psycho” has an aggressive punch. The new single is taken from the Milwaukee-based artist’s upcoming full-length Neighbors. It’s an album inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses. Mimicking Joyce’s day-in-the-life approach, the record takes place from 8am to 2pm on a Saturday in Milwaukee’s Avenue West. 

Neighbors is Oeffling’s eight full-length album. Taking nine months to write, he challenged himself by taking on different songwriting methods. “Every song had to be in a different style, but still had to sound like I made it,” he says. Oeffling wrote, performed and recorded the album’s entirety.

The song’s muddy overdrive tones run across the entire sonic landscape, over-saturating every texture. As Oeffling explains, "The album version is the first recording I ever did of the song; it was so blown-out and so funny I thought it had to be the final recording. We are completely unable to play this song live and it doesn't sound good at all. Maybe it's a bad song and it's only good on the album because it's obliterated with distortion. Who knows?" The same raw energy found in the song mirrors quotidian life. Real life isn’t polished or perfect. It’s raw and most of the time you can’t escape it. Regardless, the song is a bop. 

Watch Tommy Oeffling plate it up in the music video for “Psycho.”

Neighbors is out 10/30 via 22TWENTY. Follow Tommy Oeffling on Instagram.

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