Review Fix Exclusive: Ivan O’Sullivan Talks The Dystopian Project Goals And Creative Process

Review Fix chats with The Dystopian Project bassist Ivan O’Sullivan, who breaks down the band’s origin, creative process and goals for the future.

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Ivan O’Sullivan: The band actually came together really fast. I had just left my previous band and guitar player Hytham Martin had just come off tour with a band he was in. I wanted to start a project with Hytham for years- we were childhood friends. Once we got the idea down, I heard drummer Darrin Bell had also left the band, I was in previously so I recruited him. Phil Dolan joined two days later and down the line Tess was added.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

O’Sullivan: The band writes as a collective unit so the creative process is very open and inclusive. Ideas are tried out and aired, and if they grab and spark the imagination they get fleshed out and added to. Everyone brings their own flavour and mark to a song.

Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?

O’Sullivan: We are proud of all our songs, but there is a new song on our forthcoming new release, “Paradigm” that is very special to us. Its a song suite called Utopian that is in three parts. It runs 20 minutes long and took us the guts of a year to write and record. Its our magnum opus and the center piece of our new release. We cant wait for people to hear it.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the remaining of 2016?

O’Sullivan: Well is drawing to a close, but we have our first ever live show coming up on the 4th Dec in Dublin, and we want out video for the lead track off our new release to be ready and out soon too. Lots to close out the year with.

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

O’Sullivan: We want people to be entertained. There is so much going on right now, so much music to be consumed, we just want people to remember our name and songs in a sea of other names and songs.

Review Fix: What’s next?

O’Sullivan: Next is the release of our new music video, prep for our debut live show and the release of “Paradigm.”

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13879 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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