Body Stuff Masks Up for ‘Hysteria’

New album, Body Stuff 5, out Oct. 16

July 22, 2026July 22, 2026 Ron Hart 0 Comments 2026, Body Stuff, Body Stuff 5, Curran Reynolds, Hysteria, Justin Pearson, Martin Rev, New York City, The Chain

Curran Reynolds is Body Stuff. (Image: Paul Roura)

“’Hysteria’ is a simple song that equates turmoil in the world with turmoil in the body, then suggests that love is the way out,” proclaims NYC artist Curran Reynolds in regards to the fsecond single off his forthcoming sophomore LP, Body Stuff 5.

“My dad was a classical music fan and some of my earliest memories are of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, etc. As a kid, I was excited to hear pop and rock bands of the 1980s play around with classical elements, in songs like ‘Rock Me Amadeus’ and ‘The Final Countdown.’ The strings on ‘Hysteria’ are a nod to that tradition.”

Sophomore album, Body Stuff 5, brings the project to new depths and heights for Reynolds, who has worked with artists of many stripes as a longtime publicist. Through eight epic tracks, his music captivates with the evocations of New York City summers of his youth Through eight anthemic songs, humming with longing and triumph, Body Stuff 5 captivates. Big, slamming drum beats, seemingly echoing the boomboxes of NYC summers past, are peppered with storms of double-bass. Guitars, performed by Reynolds’ friend Andee Blacksugar of Blondie, ravage and glisten, transmitting from a place where hair metal and postpunk converge. Organ, trumpets, and church bells make fleeting appearances.

Rock & Roll Globe is honored to share with our readers the video for “Hysteria” today on the site, which according to Curran was inspired by Martin Rev of Suicide and the masks that adorn the cover of Body Stuff 5, not to mention Aerosmith drummer Joe Kramer.

“Joey Kramer’s Mardi Gras drum pounding in Aerosmith’s ‘Rag Doll’ video was the initial inspiration for my music video,” Reynolds explains. “But now, watching myself hit that drum, I think I was reenacting the swinging of an axe. Back in 6th grade, when the ‘Rag Doll’ video was in heavy rotation, my mom and my sister and I lived out in the country in Maine and we heated our house with a wood stove. I chopped a lot of wood.

“The masks were created by our friend Matt Kepler, modeled after the masks he drew for the Body Stuff 5 album cover.”

“My mom got involved in theater in the early 1980s and she’s still acting, writing, and directing. I probably first saw the comedy/tragedy masks on the back covers of the Tennessee Williams plays I would read with her. Then in 1985, there they were again, emblazoned on a classmate’s ‘Theatre of Pain’ bandana. Martin Rev recently taught me the French expression for the masks: ‘Jean qui rit, Jean qui pleure,’ translated as ‘John who laughs, John who cries.’ I love that.”

Body Stuff 5 was engineered and mixed by longtime collaborator Ryan Jones and mastered by the iconic Ted Jensen (The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Metallica).

Body Stuff 5 will be out Oct. 16 via The Chain (the multifaceted company co-founded by Reynolds and Justin Pearson of The Locust, Deaf Club, and Three One G Records).

“My intention is to continue making the most authentic art I can,” he admits. “This is how we make the world a better place.”