Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
“It is not easy to classify Optic Rose. Their multi textured sonic offerings are influenced by many different artists, from the mechanized textures of acts like Skinny Puppy to the lush soundscapes of Portishead. At times, Optic Rose even ventures into more psychedelic musical terrain. Mary performs several different instruments, including guitar and synthesizer. Some of her sonic choices are decidedly industrial while others are more organic. Mary is a musical alchemist, bravely mixing atmospheric sounds with echoing samples and fierce electronics. ...heavily distorted guitar meets with relentlessly pounding synthetic percussion to form an aggressive and direct sound. It is contrasted with an underlying layer of keyboard ambience.
Walters vocal style complements Marys intricate musical creations. ... his voice is appropriately understated and intimate, but he belts out a menacing yet tuneful growls. Invariably, there is an emotional immediacy to each of his vocal personalities, which matches his dark lyrical choices. Frequently, he layers these vocal personalities on top of one another, which makes for a busy listening experience. ... he jumps from one personality to another as Mary plays a pumping, carnivalesque keyboard passages..."
by Steve Eaton - MR. Zibbywibble.com:
Discography
2005 “Whitechaple” Ominous Collective/ Bluntface Records
Live performance on WMFO’s “On the Town With Mickey D” hosted by Joel Simches
Interviewed on WUNH
Interviewed on WSCA
Local Licks on WHEB
Mojo Radio, VT
NPR’s “Bats in the Belfry”
Brazil’s “radio alternative”
Live performance on UNH’s Scan TV
2003 “Optic Rose” Victim Productions
“Aphelion Murders” on rotation for WFNX “New England Product
WUNH, WHEB
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Optic Rose is musical alchemy, tip- toeing the rabbit hole of performance art. Musically they can be found somewhere between Marilyn Manson and Raidohead, or Skinny Puppy and Portishead, a death- folk- texture-core- gothic- ambience or Organic Industrial. Fans, DJ’s, reporters and industry professionals find Optic Rose is in a genre by themselves.
“Whitechaple is weird. Weird in a good way. Weird in a great way actually.”
-Otto Kinzel IV president Bluntface Records
Walter Sickert (vox ,guitar, programming) and Mary Kelly(guitar, bass, keys, samples) comprise Optic Rose. The pair met at when they were fifteen and have been inseparable ever since. In Mary’s words “He is the morphine of my heart, a euphoric addition- need -substance, our slightly disturbing (but wonderful) co-dependancy is far more addictive than nicotine, or candies... At times I can feel like Lucretia Borgia, the taboo thrill of an incestuous relationship, for we are as close as brother and sister, but it is more than that, we are one person, the “conjunction of opposites”, red rose meets white rose, we are the androgyne of alchemist lure. ‘The hermaphrodite, like a dead man in the darkness, needs Fire’...and do we have our fire, our music, art and theater. Our ambition knits us even tighter...we recognized our focused desires as children, and as ‘adults’ we bound after them like head hunters, archaeologist and kittens after string”.
The band was on a path of heavy industrial music,(debut release “Optic Rose” under Victim Productions) When they embarked on a trip to London. In their little hotel room in the Whitechaple District , a new Optic Rose was born. As Walter puts it “When we finally got to Whitechaple, England it was like we split our heads open and new ideas were pouring out all over the place. Each one made of ghosts, flesh and wires... thoughts became spider legs, each one convulsing with it's desired command... Once the record was finished we were throughly convinced we were possessed." Whitechaple will be released by Bluntface Records this fall.
The Optic Rose stage show has been praised as "intense" and "food for nightmares." The stage is lined with various antique dolls, and Mary and Walter's antics are inspired by the Victorian theater "Grand Gringorie."
"Unf***ing believable, I was repulsed and turned on at the same time...When I got home I didn't know wether I should masterbate or cry in the shower...real rock and roll should be dirty and scary and make people think, and you guys are real rock and roll!" -Matt of Senator Whatley
Since their first public performance Optic Rose has been featured on the radio (WFNX, WMFO, WHEB, WUNH, WSCA, NPR's "Bats in the Belfry", Mojo radio, Brazil’s "alternative radio") TV (SCAN TV) and print (cover of Foster's Showcase Magazine) recently they were asked to join Boston's elite "Ominous Collective"; A group of musicians, artists and actors dedicated to " Make art which is different, interesting, and potentially dangerous to the status quo"
Optic rose is a musical portrait of soiled childhood dreams, degradation, murder, and all of mans most hidden thoughts. A place were the audience meets them selves... "hell and the 21 century"
CONTACT INFO:The Web:mary@opticrose.com
www.opticrose.com
www.myspace.com/opticrose
Phone: 603 661 1580
Mail: Optic Rose
89 GArland RD
Nottingham, NH
03290
Links
