Adrian Smith - Psycho Spirit Still Burns Bright Page 3
By Martin Popoff

Which is the point of this story, Adrian's two albums as Psycho Motel, State Of Mind from '96 and Welcome To The World from '97, having recently been reissued on Sanctuary Records.

Adrian describes the philosophy behind these records. "I wanted it to have classic influences like Zeppelin and old Sabbath and Solli was more into the modern side of it. I also like bands like Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. As far as I'm concerned, they were just damn good rock bands. So there's a bit of that in it as well. And there's a lot of tradition in the sound simply because of my guitar style, my lead style. And the title track has almost a Hendrix influence. Old rock meets new rock basically."

How was assembling that first Psycho Motel album different from working with the other projects you done? "The budget (laughs). Actually, I pulled a few favors and put some of my own money into it. We did half the album in sort of a rundown studio with very good equipment. I remember it was summer, the hottest summer we've had in Britain for several years, and there was no air conditioning in the studio so you can imagine what it was like. But I had a great time. I actually sort of produced that album as well. I had a great engineer, but as far as doing the vocals, I was right there with Solli. I really enjoyed doing that. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience."

Adrian Smith - Psycho Spirit Still Burns Bright Page 4