Based in east San Diego, Psychosally originally formed circa 1999, practicing in the garage of lead guitarist Trevor Sesma. “Across the street from the practice garage lived a urine soaked, alcoholic, prescription drug addict, paranoid, delusional, hypochondriac woman,” says Sesma. “She would constantly annoy, harrass, complain, and plague the band and anyone else who would listen. The band began referring to her as Psycho Sally. Eventually, the entire neighborhood caught on and referred to this woman by the same name.” The band soon christened itself Psychosally.
At the time, Sesma worked as a private investigator for a firm owned by his father, a retired SDPD narcotics sergeant. “I’ve worked on some heinous cases involving polygamists, murder, various detached body parts, the Mexican mafia, and Los Palillos, a kidnapping and extortion ring...yeah, I’ve seen some stuff. Over the years, I guess I’ve kind of gotten callous to it, very detached from it. The cases involving children, though, those are always the worst...
“I conduct surveillance for many purposes, like cheating spouses and thieving employees. I also conduct background and asset searches and do counter surveillance detection, using audio and video bugs. I’ve worked on many homicide cases, gang cases, and gang-related double-homicide cases.”
Sesma’s P.I. work often involved defense investigation. “Basically, I’m trying to prove a defendant’s innocence, if possible, in a current court case. Or, if they’re guilty, I do my best to minimize or mitigate their charges or sentencing, either by showing that the defendant is not so bad or that the alleged victim or witnesses are not angels or, in some cases, credible witnesses.” Among his high-profile assignments was working on the defense team for the man accused of murdering Pearl Seau, cousin of former San Diego Charger Junior Seau.
“Many of my songs are related in some way to my career and sometimes to specific cases I’ve worked. I guess the obvious songs would be ‘Snitches,’ ‘2nd Son of the Devil,’ and ‘Demented Angels.’ Sometimes, it’s the lyrics that are relative [to my job], and sometimes it’s the music.”
As of 2012, according to Sesma, “The band’s inspiration for the name, Psychosally, well, she’s still in the same inebriated condition as always, in the same place as always. As far as I know, she’s completely oblivious and unaware of the band name. I’m sure if she bothered to stay sober long enough to see clearly across the street during rehearsals at the band logo painted on the bass of the drum kit, she would surely know it was reference to herself.”
Though the East County band formed in the late ’90s, almost ten years passed before Psychosally’s debut album Demented Angels was released in December 2010. “The original drummer moved to San Francisco to attend culinary school. The original bassist became addicted to meth and moved to a local freeway underpass.”
In 2012, with 35-year-old Sesma, the sole remaining founder, he occasionally had his teen son Dustin Trenton Sesma, aka Guxx or Duck, play bass for live performances. “He likes a lot heavier stuff than I do...he and I have seen Crüe three times, Ozzy, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Avenged Sevenfold, System of a Down, Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails...we get along great and have so much in common, not just listening to music, but creating it and rehearsing it.”
A sophomore full-length, Liars, Snitches & Little Whores, was released in 2012, featuring a trio lineup: Trevor Sesma (guitar, vocals), Dustin Trenton Sesma (bass), and Ryan Case (drums).
A new track was released in 2018, "Satan Stole Your Drugs," previewing a full-length called Psychosis Diagnosis. The band splintered after the death of Trevor Sesma in November 2018.
Sesma's son Dustin Sesma, who occasionally played bass for Psychosally, formed a new band called Nefarious Creatures featuring the drummer of Psychosally, BC Knight, and the frontman for The Best Grotesque, Dani Valentine. After debuting a couple of tracks on Spotify with what the band describes as a "new sound," a debut EP was released October 31, 2022.
"The EP is a concept EP," says Dustin Sesma. "It is one consecutive story about various fairy tale and classic horror characters. It starts with the evil queen and Snow White, moves into the story of Frankenstein, and ends with a zombie apocalypse. From there, it moves into Pinocchio's origin story and finishes with Rumplestiltskin."