Andrew Alarcon’s full album, Frenzy, has finally arrived. After October’s “Silent Veil” hinted at a hard-fought confrontation with self-sabotage, and November’s “Otherwise” offered a gentler introspection, listeners can now experience the entire project in its complete form—a work shaped by therapy, experimentation, and personal struggle since 2019.
I find Frenzy to offer a pleasantly cozy alternative rock sound that defies easy classification, guided by a vocal presence that resonates deeply and recalls a bit of the ethereal vibe of Jeniferever—a band I personally miss. That impression might arise from the first track, yet it’s deceptive, because the album’s energy flows and shifts, never confining itself to one monochrome atmosphere.
As Alarcon himself says, “Frenzy is about so deeply wanting to become better, never really knowing exactly where to look, but going forward regardless,” and that statement underpins a record focused on self-confrontation, perseverance, and pressing on—no matter the perfectionism, misery, or relentless pressure of finding one’s place in the world.
Frenzy took root during a period when Alarcon felt creatively stuck. He recalls writing new songs after finishing his acoustic-driven debut and feeling dissatisfied: “I felt so frustrated with everything I was making… looking back on it, it was because I tried making more of the same types of songs.” That changed once he discovered a fresh approach using simple elements—drums in Logic, layered acoustic guitar, bass, and electric guitar. The result became “Everyone,” the final track of the album and a turning point. By 2021, therapy sessions helped him articulate his feelings more clearly, fueling the songwriting for “Carry On,” a piece dealing with loss in multiple forms and the idea of pressing forward even when life “feels like absolute fucking hell.”
The song “Otherwise” emerged from Alarcon’s wrestling with self-doubt and was partly inspired by Bojack Horseman’s portrayal of a character desperate for external validation. Alarcon says he had the phrase “convince me otherwise” stuck in his head for years, and it crystallized when he realized it symbolized the search for a reason to move beyond one’s flaws. He deliberately used acoustic guitar to bridge the gap between his older sound and the bolder direction of Frenzy, calling the final track “moody, but confident.”
The title track itself, “Frenzy,” draws on Rumi’s line “there’s a strange frenzy in my head” and weaves together influences from the SoulsBorne series. This fascination with the concept of “frenzy” as both revelation and chaos ties directly to lines inspired by Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and even an H.P. Lovecraft quote about fearing the unknown. Alarcon found that the finished album echoed this “frenzy” theme overall, capturing the “chaotic thoughts that dominated my twenties.”
“Grace” also sprung from Alarcon’s passion for SoulsBorne games. Written around the time of the Demon’s Souls remake and fueled by the immersive escape offered by Elden Ring, it underscores the repeated efforts required to overcome challenges. “It just made sense to me to write a song highly inspired by the game,” he says, reflecting on the shared idea of persistence in the face of formidable odds.
“Endless Dream” introduced a more open and ethereal sound, enlisting friends for vocal harmonies, guitar solos, and drums. Alarcon intended the lyrics to be ambiguous—readable as either a love song or an observation on intense dependency. “[EMDR],” in turn, deals with therapy for processing traumatic memories. Alarcon sought feedback from his therapist on the rough lyrics, noting how the left-right motion central to EMDR techniques guided the song’s mixing choices.
“Silent Veil” was the album’s most difficult piece to write and produce. It went through multiple versions since 2020, with different chords, structures, and instrumentals. Drummer Christian Billard transformed a programmed beat from Alarcon’s brother into a dynamic backbone, but recording took a toll on everyone in the studio. Only months after mastering did Alarcon realize the track’s message is about thinking you’re improving, while actually repeating the same destructive patterns.
For “Play Thing,” he experimented with a tapped guitar part—unusual for him—after discarding countless lead guitar ideas. He also wanted to obscure the chord progression initially, replacing straightforward strumming with lingering sustained notes to heighten the track’s moody undertones.
“Mend” arrived as the final addition when recording was almost finished. Alarcon wanted something acoustic but struggled to make it distinctive. He stopped overthinking, leaned into an irregular strumming pattern, and ended up capturing the finished take on what was intended as a warm-up in the studio.
Frenzy, as Alarcon describes, is “about so deeply wanting to become better, never really knowing exactly where to look, but going forward regardless.” Its ten songs—“Otherwise,” “Silent Veil,” “Carry On,” “Frenzy,” “Grace,” “Everyone,” “Endless Dream,” “[EMDR],” “Play Thing,” and “Mend”—trace a path through personal frustrations, therapy breakthroughs, and the struggle for self-improvement. It’s an album that “exists to show you that it’s not impossible” and aims to push back against the paralysis of perfectionism and fear.
“Frenzy is about so deeply wanting to become better, never really knowing exactly where to look, but going forward regardless.” – Andrew Alarcon
Here’s the full, in-depth track by track commentary, by Andrew himself.
Everyone
I had used the programmable drums feature on Logic, and layered an acoustic guitar, bass, vocals, and electric guitar. It sounds super simple on paper, and it probably is, but it felt like the right direction to head towards. There was a sense of dynamics in the music, there was more anger and frustration, and meaning, like something demanded to be heard. This song ended up turning into the last song on the tracklist: Everyone.
By midway into 2021, I was about a year into starting therapy. At the time, I had absolutely no idea just how much therapy was helping with my songwriting, but it was. I was able to express my emotions clearer, which probably what was preventing me from growing as an artist in the way I wanted to a year prior. The beginnings of re-wiring mental habits and newfound methods of self expression were bleeding into my skills as a musician. Thus came the next song that I knew was going to make the album no matter what: Carry On.
Carry On
Loss is never easy to deal with, and I’m sure everyone copes with it in their own way. I however, never realized just how hard it was for me to wrap my head around death until I started talking about it in therapy. Carry On deals with loss in however the listener wants to interpret it, whether it be loss of a friend, end of a relationship, or even someone in their life passing away. When I was writing the instrumental parts, I really was experimenting with this etherial reverb sounding lead guitar part, as well as song structure that pushed a bit further than just a verse-chorus-verse structure. I had never written a song that featured a post chorus before, and thought the somberness of it after an explosive chorus really fit what I wanted to sing about: carrying on in the face of loss. Life keeps moving, and we have to move forward even on the days that feel like absolute fucking hell.
Otherwise
But of course, feeling like hell finds its lovely way into your life in a myriad of ways. In my case, feeling like I couldn’t escape myself was driving me insane. Everything I did had a million voices in my head as to why I would fail and why I don’t deserve what I wanted to achieve. I had this phrase stuck in my head for a few years that I never really knew what it meant: ‘convince me otherwise.’ I started watching Bojack Horseman (this will tie in), and there was a scene where Bojack was so hellbent on Diane telling him that he was a good person. As the viewer, you see all the toxic habits Bojack portrays, but there’s still an undying desire for him to be perceived that he is indeed a good person. He wanted to improve himself despite all the faults he had.
The whole show revolves around this, but this particular scene always stuck with me. I related to it so much and then something in my head just clicked. I realized what the line ‘convince me otherwise’ really meant. Its a line that portrays a character that so desperately needs to find a reason to move beyond their flaws in order to find a better, more sustainable life. Thus, Otherwise was born.
Musically, I wanted the song to start off with just acoustic guitar, and then have the band come in soon after. This part to me always felt like a little bridge between the last album and this album, so I knew Otherwise was going to be the first track off of this record. This song stands firm, and is a good introduction to the sonic palette of the record: moody, but confident.
Frenzy
Wanting to step out of my comfort zone even further, I began to incorporate other sources of inspiration for my lyrics. I started reading more poetry by people like E.E. Cummings, Charles Baudelaire, and Rumi. One day, I came across this little excerpt in the book Essential Rumi, and it had this one line that goes ‘there’s a strange frenzy in my head.’ In context, to me in reads in a way that Rumi is describing the existence of something so unfathomably beautiful, that it encompasses the space all around him. I loved how Rumi took the subject of ‘frenzy’ to describe the essence of something magnificent. I was so moved by this line that the song Frenzy poured out of me. I had the chords and song structure lying around from an old demo, and made the first draft of lyrics in a matter of minutes, with the phrase ‘there’s a strange frenzy in my head’ being the centerpiece for the song.
But the source of inspiration for the phrase ‘frenzy’ doesn’t stop there. I’m a pretty big fan of the SoulsBorne series, and there’s two games in particular that come to mind: Bloodborne and Elden Ring. In both games, the player can receive a type of damage called frenzy. In Bloodborne, the lore says that when someone acquires too much knowledge at once, it causes them to have a psychological breakdown, causing them to go mad. Bloodborne is also highly inspired by Lovecraftian Horror, and there is a quote by HP Lovecraft that goes “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” This quote inspired the first few lines in the song Frenzy. In Elden Ring, frenzy is something that temps some characters in the game. In the lore, there is the outer god of Frenzy, that wishes to have the world succumb to chaos. One of the main characters that guides the player warns them to stay clear of inheriting the frenzied flame. This inspired other portions of the lyrics through the perspective of the player that decides to succumb to the frenzied flame.
I didn’t know it then, but this song would later become the title track to the album. When the album was finished, and we were finally able to reflect on it as one cohesive piece, it was clear that the album was a sonic embodiment of the phrase ‘frenzy,’ capturing the chaotic thoughts that dominated my twenties.
Grace
Grace was the last song of the early writing sessions. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m a big SoulsBorne fan. Around the time of when the Demon’s Souls remake came out, I was playing it nonstop. Soon after, I got my D’Angelico Premier SS guitar. It was the first electric guitar I ever bought with my own money. I remember one evening I set it to an open D tuning and the first demo came out of me in about an hour. Originally this song was called Archstone (a Demon’s Souls reference), then Lantern (Bloodborne), and then finally, when Elden Ring came out and I poured over 150+ hours, it took on the name of Grace. I was so moved by Elden Ring’s open world that it felt like I was diving headfirst into an alternate reality. It felt like the perfect escape for me for so many hours. It just made sense to me to write a song highly inspired by the game. FromSoftware games are known to be notoriously difficult, but encourages this idea of never giving up. I wrote the song with this in mind, of having to face something over and over again until you finally overcome it.
Endless Dream
One day, I just picked up my acoustic guitar and I played the first two chords that appear on the verses of Endless Dream. I loved the sequence of these two chords so much, and just built the song around it. I wanted the song to have a lot of open space and to feel as ethereal as possible. Because of this, it ended up being the most collaborative track on the album, with friends lending a hand with vocal harmonies, guitar solos, and drums. Lyrically, I wanted the song to have multiple meanings. It could be read as a love song, or a song about extreme dependency.
[EMDR]
Yet another song that started out with me just picking up my guitar, and the first thing I played became the centerpiece. I remember turning on the delay setting on my amp and playing the main riff out of nowhere, and the verses and choruses just basically wrote themselves. The song is about going through EMDR therapy to help process traumatic memories. I remember asking my therapist her opinions on the lyrics to see if they made any sort of sense. We had a lot of good laughs over the older rougher versions, but I’m glad I was able to get her input. EMDR therapy has a focus on left, right, left, right motions to help the brain basically reprogram itself (do NOT quote me on this, not a doctor lol). So I wanted the song to have a similar effect. When we were mixing this track we tried to incorporate a good amount of panning to some details in the song where they felt most appropriate.
Silent Veil
This was easily the toughest song on the record to write, record, and mix. I had so many different versions of this song dating back to 2020. Different chords, different structures, different instrumentals. It was all over the place. During the demo phase, I showed my brother what I had and asked if he could program some type of beat to it, and that eventually became the main rhythmic centerpiece for the track. I showed it the guys I was recording the record with (Rafi Carleton and Christian Billard) and Chris (who appears on drums for the whole album) was able to take the demo beat and really transform it into something on an entirely new level. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the day we recorded drums for this song. It might have been a 9 hour recording session. It felt like an absolute slog because it was just so hot, and we were used to banging out 2 songs in one day. By the end of the session we were all exhausted, but also really happy with how it turned out.
When I was working on the lyrics for this song, I had a bunch of loose ideas that did and didn’t feel like they were connecting. It was strange, the feeling that the lyrics were conveying connected, but as far as a story or message, it was lost on me for quite some time. I didn’t really know the message of the song actually until months after the album was mastered. To me, its about feeling you’re on the right path to self betterment, but in reality you’re repeating the same destructive behaviors over and over. Its a pretty bleak message, but I think pretty relatable.
Play Thing
Around this point of the writing sessions, I felt like I needed to write something that was different from the rest of the album but could also go with the rest of the songs. We were around 40% done recording, and I felt the pressure of needing to finish all the writing. I remember bringing this song into the studio and it was easily the most half baked song out of all the tracks we had recorded drums for. The only thing I had down for sure was the song structure, and the second half of the song. Almost everything else in this song ended up getting scrapped. I remember making countless versions of lead guitar parts and throwing them away on a daily basis.
Then one day, I had the crazy idea of tapping on the strings. Let me stress, I do not consider myself a lead guitar player. I have no business writing a guitar part that has tapping in it. But I didn’t care cause it sounded awesome when I came up with the part. I remember taking this version to the studio to record. Chris had just come back from the UK, so he missed a few sessions that Rafi and I worked on. He listened to the new version and asked ‘have you been shredding?’
I was also fascinated by this idea of ‘hiding’ a chord progression. I wanted to start the song off with making it a little unclear of what the exact chord progression was. So instead of just having a guitar strumming the chords, I replaced it with a bunch of sustained notes that would make the progression seem much more discrete. This definitely added to the moodiness of the track.
Mend
At this point, the record was nearly done and I needed one more song to be on the record. I had written everything else and recording was getting close to wrapping up. I wanted to make an acoustic track, but was struggling on how I could make it interesting. I had this interesting strumming pattern that I didn’t know the timing of, so it made the demo a little tricky to make sense of. Eventually, I gave up on trying to understand on how the song works, and just leaned into accepting for what the song was. I stopped caring about what the timing was, what the tempo was, and just went with whatever the hell it wanted to be. It ended up being one of the most unfiltered songs I’ve ever written, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.
I took it to the studio, and we were doing warm up takes. I messed up on the first few takes, and then, what was supposed to be just another warm up, I played the song from start to finish. We all paused for a second and said ‘was that just the take we need?’ So we went with it, and that’s what appears on the album.