'60s/'70s-influenced psychedelic power-pop & folk rock

2 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Psychedelic, ROCK: Folk Rock

Show all album songs: I Spy Songs


Details:
Orange Sunshine Superman is the brainchild of Will Psoma. A public apology for the choice of name is forthcoming.

A true child of the Sixties, Will Psoma was born on Jerry Garcia's birthday just a few months before JFK was slain (the math is left as an exercise to the reader). He cites his earliest musical experience as being in the womb of his teenage mother at the Hollywood Bowl as a young Bob Dylan opened for Joan Baez. Shortly after Beatlemania infiltrated America, the young Psoma was often found toting about his favorite "toy," a carrying case full of seven-inch 45 rpm singles. Among the box's contents were several obligatory Beatles and Doors classics; Peter, Paul and Mary's version of "Puff the Magic Dragon"; The Ventures' recording of "Telstar"; and "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Ha" by Napoleon XIV (the B-side of which consisted of the same song played backwards in its entirety).

In the 1970s, Psoma's family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area where as a teenager, as he describes, "my ego was obliterated and reassembled through some particularly heavy experiences" led by the likes of Hendrix, Syd Barrett (and post-Syd) era Pink Floyd, Todd Rundgren, Gong, Steve Hillage, Ron Geesin, Terry Riley and countless others. While in high school, Psoma taught himself keyboards and guitar and became obsessed with making crude multitrack recordings by dubbing between two cassette recorders, adding additional tracks with each pass. As he recalls the day he unexpectedly stumbled upon tape phasing, "I think I felt the same God-fearing sense of awe Brian Wilson must have felt the first time he heard a theremin!"

Psychedelic-era production techniques have been among Will Psoma's identifying signatures ever since. In the early '80s Will continued experimentation with his first multitrack recorder, a Tascam 22-4 reel-to-reel 4-track. Throughout the '80s and early '90s he wrote and recorded songs in and out of various bands and engineered others with an oft psychedelic bent. In the early '90s his humble 4-track setup grew into an analog 16-track studio for hire, but due to economic instabilities, a regular paycheck became all the more desirable.

The economic turbulence was partially stabilized in late 1991 when Will was broadsidedâand lovestruckâby the burgeoning San Francisco rave scene. One experience was all it took to transform Will from spectator to convert. Will became heavily involved with the underground dance party scene, regularly gigging as a laser show operator, through 1994, and remains connected to the scene to the present day.

However, seeking ever more financial regularity, in 1995 Will joined computer game publisher Drew Pictures (later to become Pulse Entertainment) as Audio Engineer, where he brought some of his audio production techniques to the digital desktop domain for the Bad Mojo PC game and soundtrack. As Pulse got out of the gaming industry and spun off the fledgling Jinx Entertainment, Will remained at his post as Manager of Music and Sound for Space Bunnies Must Die!, contributing to the musical score along with Mojo composer Peter Stone (a/k/a Bat of electro-goth/darkwave group Xorcist).

Since 1999, Will has worked by day as an audio software tools programmer, music composer and sound designer in the electronic toy industry. He has authored many custom audio-processing utilities for the Mac and PC, and contributed to a myriad of products from Fisher-Price, Mattel, Hasbro, LeapFrog, Irwin Toy and Blue Box Toys among others. He resides in San Francisco with his wife and daughter.