Psycho Tropics: Reinventing RaeF

At a certain point, the line between RaeF, the performer, and Joe Seul, the person, had become too blurry.

Out at bars or after shows, people weren't sure who was whom; they'd approach him and call him by his stage name, or ask him about his band. On top of it all, he says that in light of some personal changes, he no longer found himself identifying with the persona.

"I started to feel like up until now, all the RaeF songs had been about one person and one subject," he says. "In a sense, that wasn't me anymore. I wanted to continue my path as an artist, and I didn't necessarily want it to be the one I was on. So I started thinking of a new name, and I realized, 'Wait. I'm a person. I already have a name. Joe made all these records; Joe made all the visual accompaniments. I just want to be Joe Seul.'"

His newest release, "Psycho Tropics," set for a Sept. 6 release, will be his first record released under his own name, and the work is representative of the change.

The most immediately noticeable difference is in the tone of the music. It's markedly more positive, pop accessible and has incorporated an almost kitschy tropical aesthetic. There's no doubt that it's all steeped in a few layers of irony, but below the surface, there's an unmistakable newfound lightness.

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The cleverly titled "Psycho Tropics" hasn't lost the psychedelic thumbprint that's underscored the rest of his work, though. The album itself has all the familiar hallmarks of a hallucinatory journey, taking listeners on a mind-expanding trek that begins and ends on the beaches of Sarasota.

Steel drums and in-your-face cheeriness open the album with a track that could easily have been a tourism jingle in the ’50s. From there, the trip is full-steam ahead, touching on a variety of emotions along the way: euphoria, paranoia, introspection, fear and finally, a calming resolution.

Having shed the negativity that encompassed the majority of his previous subject matter, Seul says he feels liberated, and he's even ditched some of his bad habits. He's quit smoking, severed ties with his former lifeblood, Diet Mountain Dew, and generally embraced a more optimistic outlook.

Lines like, "You've got to keep yourself healthy, amen / We want to harvest your lungs," and "Having fun in Sarasota / So much fun / Yeah!" show he hasn't lost his sarcastic sense of humor, though.

To accompany the record, Seul created a new set of visuals to projection map onto his stage of white cubes, which include fruit salad-inspired hallucinations, eyeballs, teeth and geometric shapes. He's also introducing something called SPOON, or a Special Proximity Optimized Open Network, to which fans can wirelessly connect and anonymously communicate via smart phone at his live shows.

If each of his previous releases indicated an artistic step forward, "Psycho Tropics" is a leap.

"It's extremely liberating," he says. "And people have been really receptive. It's been like night and day. I think I've realized that as much as I enjoy solitude, I really do rely on everyone around me."