Pretty Addicted

Pretty Addicted came out as a surprise hit last year in June with Filth. With raunchy lyrics and a foul, perverted mouth, some may have even guessed the act would fail. Perhaps they spoke too soon; Vicious Precious frontman for the group has been pushing and steamrolling this year to release the new album (Pre-Order here: http://prettyaddictedofficialstore.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-it-all-stems-from-childhood-the-brand-new-pa-album) with new imagery, new tunes, and an addition of two new live members. With that said, I was lucky enough to get an interview over the Skype with Vicious for an in detail talk about the new album, the heart attack that occurred earlier in the year, as well as other odds and ends.

In case anyone missed all the reception, tell us who you are and what your project is.

Vicious - "I'm Vicious Precious from Pretty Addicted and we're fucking awesome."

That's a good way to start the interview. Since Filth has been released, how has everything been? Has the reception been good, has the fanfare been good, and have you built a bigger fan base since then?

Vicious - "So much shit has happened since then. It's crazy. The members changing around, a new kind of approach; I thought people would not care anymore, but it turned out the opposite and people care more. Cause I think they see how passionate I am about it, so they're with me constantly. But, obviously, in Filth, it was a compromise between two people; two people's vision coming together and this is all by myself. So, it's changed in that the tone of what everything is. But, people have seemed to follow me. So, it's good."

In terms of how you said the tones have changed since Filth, do you mean instrumentally, or both thematically, as well?

Vicious - "Everything. The concept, the dynamics; before it was obviously two people. And now it's obviously one person. Everything's gotten more of a concept now; everything's linked to an idea rather than just experimenting with things that might work as image, as a brand, and as music. So, everything has changed direction. Definitely the music for sure. 'Mania' is definitely different; it's more mature, I'd say."

As you said, with maturity, a lot of your drug references, or almost completely gone, and I think that has to do with the heart attack you suffered, if I'm not mistaken.

Vicious - "The thing is drugs are fun as shit, but you can't use them as a crutch or an escape and I did. So, all my songs were about them because I was on them a lot. But, no, there is a couple of references to them in new songs; the one song 'Monkeys In Space' is all about being fucked. I guess I'm not promoting it anymore in the same way. Before it was like, 'Yea, do drugs!' and I didn't realize I came across like that, but it really did. Whereas now it's like, 'Drugs are fun, but don't take the piss.' And, yes, heart attacks will happen if you don't be careful."

Now, on a criticism level, there have been a few people out there who have been bitching and complaining about how you show yourself off. They say that, for example, there was some guy on Facebook saying that you were a very pretty and beautiful girl, but your lyrics were just absolutely horrendous.

Vicious - "Well, I would argue for a start that I don't consider myself female. I consider myself genderless. I don't really believe in gender, but the thing about what people say is that I don't hear it because I don't fucking care. It's a waste of their time to even think about it because I really don't care. I'm not gonna change because they said, 'Hmmm, let's look at this intelligently. This isn't responsible.' And I'd just be like, 'Fuck you, go listen to something else.' There was blog about my profanity and I was like, 'Whatever.'"

I noticed that Pretty Addicted just seems like more of a fun outlet than anything, and you really just don't give a shit about other people's opinions.

Vicious - "I don't give a shit about other people's opinions, but I wouldn't call it a fun outlet. It's supposed to be fun, but it's my heart and fucking soul, man. Especially with the new songs; everything's deep as shit. Everything was written post heart attack as well. But, yea, the songs are fun. I kinda wanna be that person that you go, 'You know what? She's saying some fucking truth, but, boy can I dance to that beat.'"

Now, there has been some controversy over your song titles; for example, even on the site, there was another artist complaining that he got a lower rating than you, complaining about your song titles; he pointed at "Slut Junkie" as an example. What do you have to say about that?

Vicious - "I bet it was no one important. Okay, well, 'Slut Junkie' was about this club in London called Slimelight where you go there and all people wanna do is get fucking high and fuck each other in the toilet. And it's just so disgusting of a place that you're like, 'I'm a slut junkie, lemme go to Slimelight and fuck bitches.' It was really a reference to that. It was the first song we ever wrote and we didn't think we were gonna be taken seriously as a band and we just wrote this fucking song. We were like, 'This is cool. Let's carry this on.' I really wasn't thinking too much as I ever don't."

I know you try and stay genderless, but, from what I've seen, a lot of your fans consider you female and a lot of people say that a lotta of the attraction from Pretty Addicted comes from you because they think you're hot and sexy. Do you ever find it disturbing that your fans pay more attention to your body than your music?

Vicious - "Do they pay attention to my body? I'm a weird looking person. I really don't notice that if they do. When people say I'm hot I think they just wanna fuck me over the stuff I say. For example, some people have the whole angle that they wanna be pretty. That is what people look at. But, I don't really think I put that across cause I like being scary. You know, with the clown thing. That is beautiful to me, though, stuff like that. I don't know, it's kinda hard to answer that question because I don't know if that's the case, and they're not really saying anything. I don't really hear it, I guess."

Now, that we have that all covered, you were signed to DWA.

Vicious - "Oh, yea, let's talk about that."

Yea, I did want to. Because I didn't hear anything about that this; I actually heard about it from another one of the writers, Miles.

Vicious - "Miles! My dude!"

Yea, he's awesome. But, I heard from him that you stopped working with DWA. What happened with that?

Vicious - "In the most diplomatic way I can say...I don't know how to say this; I don't want to work with them anymore and they don't want to work with me. On their part, I have no idea what their reasons were. On my part, I still haven't received a single penny from Filth and probably never will. They didn't promote us at all, there wasn't any PR. I did it all, and I thought, 'What's the point of having a label where I could do all this myself.' But, there were no lyrics with the album which annoyed me because they didn't put them on. Things weren't done in the way I wanted so I just thought, 'Alright, forget this.' They told me they kicked me off when I quit and I didn't even know."

Since you stopped working with DWA, are you planning on signing to a new label?

Vicious - "Absolutely not. I just think if you can do it yourself there's no need for a label. All people need a label for is capital that they don't have initially, but, I found a way to do it myself. And I can do PR like the back of my hand, so there's no point. Unless it was getting with one of the big ones that could really do something for me."

Speaking of that, did the Kickstarter help out a lot with releasing the new album?

Vicious - "Oh, yea, I was actually unemployed at that time and it allowed me to get into the studio as I looked for a job, and then I managed to do the rest myself. That maybe covered a third of what the album cost so that was a big chunk off my mind."

As far as the Kickstarter went, did you have any problems with that, or was it all just a success?

Vicious - "It was all just awesome. There was a moment when I put it up and was like, 'Am I just gonna end up a loser and no one's gonna pay anything and everyone else is gonna laugh at me and everyone who hates me already is gonna go 'Haha!'.' But, in the first day it went up to five hundred fucking pounds and I was overwhelmed. Obviously, the ending fees were a bit annoying."

I was actually kinda shocked to see that you sold your CUNT necklace on their.

Vicious - "The thing is I stated I was buying a new one and it was broken. But she still bought it."

Your overall image seems to have stayed the same. Let's talk about what you're putting out for the new album. From what I've seen, you have a lot of clown shit going on with like Mickey Mouse ears and the face paint. Is that because of the theme of the new album? I know that it's called "It All Stems From The Childhood" if I'm not mistaken.

Vicious - "I always dress like that, actually, that's just a normal clothing outfit. I specify to a certain type because of the concept. I'm gonna be doing a circus type of look and maybe the braces with the bow ties. More of like the child like outfits. I was liked taking inspiration from Manson. Every album he has a different concept image. And I always wanted to do that. Because then fans could be like, "Oh, that's Vicious' era of Filth and that's Vicious era of whatever.' So, they can assign different looks to different eras. But, yea, it's an outfit for the album."

Since we've started talking about the new album, let's get a bit more dirt on that. When's the release date, what's the overall concept?

Vicious - "'It All Stems From The Childhood' is the album. And it's out August 6th, 2014 on a Wednesday. Which is three weeks or some shit like that from now. It's one of those albums you become emotionally attached to or you'll fucking hate. It's written in a way that's either gonna draw you in or push you out. and I really wanted it to do that. I wanted people to either really love me or hate me after this because I'm that kind of person. I wrote the exact album that I set out to make so that's always a good thing. There's always a feel of pride at the end of it knowing I did exactly everything I could. At the moment, everything is in the mixing stages. AB's been doing my mixing and he's been circling it about and it's just weird to hear it finished. Then the next is the mastering stages next week and then it's fucking done.

But, yea, the whole overall concept is basically about everything coming from your childhood and effecting your adult life. So, how you were treated as a child, how you felt as a child, what events happened to you as a child, you carry on into your adulthood and helped define the person that you are. And, where I had a difficult one it's kind of me getting back at people or saying my feelings on people, just tying to be heard. And, I like to think that anyone going through shit times and they're younger can relate. And maybe get something out of it. When I was a kid, Eminem and Manson, weirdly, were my idols and they both had crappy childhoods and they used to talk about it in their songs. I used to hold onto them because I thought, 'They understand! They're there and that's my road. '. I kinda always wanted to do that for someone else."

I think another thing I noticed when it comes to your concepts is that you're very open to sexuality. Do you ever get any bullshit for that, or no?

Vicious - "No, cause you know what? Disappointingly enough, no one in this scene has slept with me. There's a song on the new album called 'Filthy Whore Mouth' and it's such a dig at people who would say shit like that. There's a line in it about how they really just wanna hate fuck me and that's why they're pissed off. Because, you see these dudes talking about it and they really think, 'Oh my God, can she say that?' and you're like, 'Yea.' Again, I don't really here stuff like that. Whenever people say something bad like that, it's just in one ear and out the other."

I'm pretty sure you stated that on Filth, the one song was dedicated to your mother titled "You make Me Sick". Is that explored more in "It All Stems From The Childhood"?

Vicious - "Oh, yea, there's a song called 'Scapegoat' for her about how she uses me as a fucking scapegoat her whole life. My mother doesn't like me very much, I don't like her. We just do not get on. I'm actually gonna send her a copy of an album with a lyrics thing on top of it and it's gonna say, 'Thanks for the material, bitch.'"

Along with your mother, you said you have other people that you wanna kinda target with this album. Is there anyone else that you wanted to specifically mention or shout out to?

Vicious - "Most of my family. And, I was bullied out of school, I had no friends. I was that dude. I was that guy, I had no friends. I just talked to myself all the time and everyone hated me and I was the black sheep in my family because I had all these ideas and I was creative and they didn't get me, and they still don't get me. But, still, to this day, I'm very much segregated from the rest of the family. So, this album is really my kind of therapy where I could either pay for a counselor or make the album that gets it all out. And I feel like I can leave it behind me now."

I'm pretty sure I saw your father at one of your shows, though. Are you on good terms with him, at least?

Vicious - "Yea, he's in the next room, actually. He's more like a friend. He's not really an emotional person. He's the guy who goes to my shows and knows the words to my songs but he doesn't know what's up. He's just there."

Is there anything else you'd like to say about the new album other than what we've already covered?

Vicious - "I hope everyone who fucking hates me eats their words. Because there are a lot of them."

Also, something else that I wanted to cover was that you have two new band members with you, correct?

Vicious - "Yea, live members."

That was what my next question was gonna ask, "Are they live members?" But, who are they, and what do they do with the band?

Vicious - "Dan Heard is my drummer and I've known him for many years. He's a really good drummer; metal drummer, actually. And Charlie Lord is the bassist. I wanted to make a unit of us three and we're doing really well, actually on our own. We're working on a few songs just for that extra oomph, like 'Slut Junkie' and 'You Make Me Sick' like some of the older stuff that needs a bit of an extra kick. And they're both bringing something cool. Cause they're both from metal backgrounds and they don't really know much about electronic music which is good because they're not bringing that whole, 'Oh, let's pretend to play an instrument' thing, they're actually bringing that rock vibe to it."

Along with those band members, I know that with Filth when you were playing with that, you actually had the clown. Are you still going to have that available?

Vicious - "We are still having that. My clown last time wanted to fucking watch the show cause he says he never gets to watch it. So, he wasn't in our show. But, yea, I got the same person who does it every time that will remain nameless because it's cooler that way. But, yea, he's very committed to that role. I kinda like how he's a bit of mascot. I don't really like Iron Maiden, but I get that whole thing."

Since we're talking about playing live, are you going to be touring or playing live more to promote the new album?

Vicious - "Oh, yea, the plan is to do a small UK tour in September. I'm talking to America and doing a couple of dates there. I don't want to say anything yet, cause it's not planned. I'm also talking to Sweden to possibly go back there, possibly Amsterdam. I just wanna do UK and Europe and fucking get that out of the way. And then, hopefully, take the funds and do an American tour next. And Miles is gonna fucking help with that."

Is Pretty Addicted your sole musical output? Do you have any side projects?

Vicious - "No, that's it. I find it weird when musicians, when you take one thing seriously, you have other musical outlets. I don't know."

Do you have any plans to collaborate with other acts or bands?

Vicious - "The problem with that is I'm trying to eliminate myself from being called industrial at all. Because there are a few who consider us industrial and we were kinda lumbered in because of the whole DWA thing. So, all the artists that I would, I wouldn't because they are industrial. There are the dream collabs, but they're all people in the dance scene. Like, The Prodigy or Pendulum, things like that. Dance based, even more electro artists I would. Oh, and in the free form scene. Me and AB planned something and me and Lost Soul did something."

I suppose this will be the final question. Do you have any final words, message to give out or anything like that?

Vicious - "Well, where to begin. I don't know. Just thank you to everyone who's supported me so far and kept supporting me even with the fucking heart attack and me being off the grid for a while and my former bandmate leaving and changes - everything. There were a few shows where my bandmates at the time fucked me over and I had to do them with a backing track and I felt like a dickhead but I got an encore and people really fucking responded to me and I guess thanks to everyone who's stood by me through everything."