Elements of pulse-driven hypnotic dreampop, lush textural shoegaze, sultry psychedelic rock, and soulful expressions are found throughout Maximum Security Prism.
A kaleidoscopic prism served as both prison cell and escape vehicle for lead-singer and composer Kate Ramsey on her path to healing.
The white light of the prism refracts different wavelengths to make the rainbow. This album is an appreciation of the varying colors of all human spirits. It is a testament to flying free in the psychedelic prism, living in the light, charging on through tough times, working through the aftermath of toxic relationships without seeking revenge, and feeling beautiful, powerful, and worthy without harboring guilt.
When Kate found herself strongest in her spirit and had a clear musical vision while living on Kaua'i, a few of her closest friends found ways to keep her down, malices invisible to her at the time, until they finally completely betrayed her. Realizing her most trusted friendships were facades, she felt entrapped in a glass prison in which she battled debilitating bouts of PTSD while saving face as a newcomer on the scene in Oakland.
With time, music, painting, meditation, and getting involved with local communities, Kate transformed the glass prison into a beautiful kaleidoscopic prism in which she stood fully in her feminine power and worth as an empathic artist.
It was at this major turning point of spiritual reckoning that she hung prisms all throughout her studio and produced Maximum Security Prism alongside her now closest friend, musical collaborator, and guitarist Ruben Gonzales.
Ruben: “The making of this album was both an interesting challenge, and something that easily flowed. I was still very new to mixing. I was learning to use new tools, learning to listen to music from a different perspective. However, Kate and I operate largely on the same musical wavelength. These songs were repeatedly disassembled, reassembled, rearranged, and yet we always seemed to arrive at the same place. Hours, for example, was a complete song. It had all the guitars, drums, bass, weird intrusive crickets. I completely disassembled it, recorded new parts. Yet it still fundamentally flows the same way. The crickets still chirp away like musical interlopers. It still ticks at the same weird tempo. Throughout the album there were challenges, technical glitches, arguments, but at the end of the day it always felt like a conversation between two friends with like minds and probably a bit too much wine.”
credits
released May 6, 2022
Compositions, Vocals, Synths, Guitar, and Arrangements by Kate Ramsey
Guitars, Bass, and Drums by Ruben Gonzales
Recorded & Produced by Kate Ramsey and Ruben Gonzales
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