By Nick Christophers
Veteran rock singer / songwriter Matt Tantrum who founded the rock band Vicious Kitty has a rich history of musical experience and has proven it time and again. Before he formed the band he played bass in several bands. One of his first projects was with the band “Cry Action” which he began with bass player Tony “bones” Terlicker. Together they released an independent record at a studio they built called Cherry Productions which received mainstream airplay.
He followed that up with playing bass in another outfit called LMD which was fronted by Rodney Harrison. They had the opportunity to open for the legendary band Night Ranger Tour. After this long run and gathering much needed experience Matt returned to playing the guitar and writing fresh material. At that time, he was putting the pieces together for the band Vicious Kitty. He explained how the name came about:
“The name of the band came from a pet cat named Mr. Bean. He started having bladder problems and the vet prescribed some medication in pill form for him. Alas when I tried to feed him the pills, he filleted two of my fingers. I needed stitches and went to the doctor who at first glance asked what had happened. I responded and he blurted out: “Wow, that’s some Vicious Kitty.” The rest is history!”
The band is made up of founder, guitarist and songwriter Matt Tantrum, drummer Chris “Stixx” Gartland, and bassist Tony Terlicker. Matt was also interested in filming and met a friend of his, Kris Hallesy who was working on a project, and Matt offered him unreleased music he can use. Matt became more involved in the project and ended up co-writing the script and acting in the film. The project was titled “big Blue-A Fishy Tale”. It was eventually released on Amazon Prime and garnered awards and is still live on Youtube.
After adding the drummer Chris “Stixx” Gartland, a few new opportunities arose. The band was invited to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally at the Freedom Bar on Main Street in Sturgis. They took a Winnebago RV from Washington to South Dakota for the rally.
“I think the most exciting place we have played so far is Sturgis. The energy, the bikes, the people. It was an awesome trip, and we made a lot of friends and connections. I look forward to playing there again next year as we have already been invited back!”
The new release “Bangkok City” offers a message that not everything somewhere else is always essentially better but hope lies that things will improve as life evolves. For Matt he tries to always be an optimist as is reflected in the new project. The band has released a limited-edition vinyl record which is available at the Silverplatter store and at this link:
On the back burner for the rock, grunge and pop band is to set up a tour to promote their new projects. To keep up with their travels and merch visit their website.
