Platypus: Frigid But Not Rigid Page 3
by Martin Popoff

Musically the album is a much rockier, almost grinding affair, Morgenstein all too ready and willing to turn up the volume. "You know what? A lot of my approach to playing drums in the last ten years has really been a result of my Winger experience. Just to backtrack a second, my career started as an instrumental fusion drummer. And a lot of times when you're not that experienced, all you are concerned about is the other musicians checking you out. And being a drummer, it's like, 'oh my God, what are the drummers going to think? I have to get the kitchen sink in there.' So for many years until I had the straight-ahead rock experience, I didn't really think about the importance of just coming up with the right drum part for the song, and was more concerned with having to show off to people who might be in the know. So I hope that people perceive my drumming in terms of the balance of backbeat and over the top, off-the-wall chance-taking. And with this record I tried to achieve that. There are songs where hopefully the headbangers are out there just doing their thing, as with 'Oh God', which opens the CD with a vibe where I just always wanted to open an album just riding on a crash cymbal? Like balls-to-the-wall style, just really simple and hard-hitting."

"And then the track 'Cry', that's a similar heavy, headbanging kind of song, but on that one I took a different approach. Especially in the end where the chorus is kind of going over and over. 'Cry' to me is like, not that I think it sounds like a Kiss tune at all, but I can see Gene Simmons, The Lizard, sort of moving through the forest after his next prey. And as far as the drumming on that goes, I think that is the first time I've ever played something in a double half time to really cut the drum part in half. And that might have been a suggestion by Ty. I just took the drumming out more like a jazz fusion player would do it. So that is the approach I like to take: working within the confines of vocals-oriented music, but sort of going out on a limb and stretching the boundaries beyond what a more bonafide rock drummer would do, while sort of approaching it with the intensity of a rock drummer."

Ty underscores the dark, doomy metal drive of the record, again, relaying the foreboding musical power of the thing to the lyrical matter. "Well, the subject matter was definitely more serious. First time around it was more tongue-in-cheek and we were doing a whole lot more goofing off (laughs). And there is some of that also on this one. There kind of has to be with us. When we get together it's easier for us to get kind of whacky and start cracking up and having a good time. But when it comes to doing the songs with vocals, because I'm the lyricist, it just happened to be a real tough time in my life. So pretty much the subject matter was quite unfunny. It definitely took on more of a serious nature. And it was really enjoyable to take it serious too. It's best left up to interpretation (laughs). I usually am better at putting something down in lyrics than I am talking about it. It just was a tough year and I tried to express it in the lyrics."

And the title of the album, Ice Cycles? " It's a description of one cycle of life that I think everybody can relate to at some time in their life. But it IS a cycle and it isn't something you stay in forever, hopefully. But definitely it's a real part of life. It's just a picture of this record I had in my head. Lyrically it definitely speaks to one of the darker cycles of life."