Atheist Interview is up




Atheist




1. Its been many yrs since the last release.  How did Jupiter come to be?

Well a few parts divine intervention, and several parts hard work i guess..we just doing the reunion shows in 2006, and it went so well, that we continued for 4 years, and finally just decided to get in a room with one another and see what it felt like to make new music. We did so, and the rest is Jupiter!

2. Jupiter seems to be a much more aggressive and less prog/ jazz , Was the metal side reborn with Jupiter?

I think a particular reason for that is Steve Flynn's drumming of course. On Elements, it was Josh Greenbaum, who was a very jazzy player, and Flynn is super aggressive, so the riffs take on a new life form when we write together i think. Not to mention there was quite a bit of anger pent up for 2 decades.

3. How did you come to work with Season of Mist?

 Michael Berberian (Pres of S.O.M.) has been a long time friend, and has pursued the band to do a new record, and quite honestly one of the main reasons that it actually happened. We needed special circumstances to sort of get it done and he was very supportive in that process. He has made some serious moves in the indy metal world in the last 2 years, and we felt that he was running a label that was taking a stab at the top, so we connected the dots with them in 2008

4. Your website is very impressive tell us a bit out it came to be http://www.atheistmusic.com/-

Thanks, we owe that to our webmaster Cory Dransfeldt, he has been a silent, invaluable tool in the reformation of our little information metal highway! We hope to add as many interactive features to it as we can. We really like to be available for fans to be able to talk to the band directly, and communicate to us. And also it's a great way to network worldwide, so that when we come to town..whatever town.We have friends everywhere. We met a Young metal head named Matei at Wacken 2006..he came all the way from Romania on a train like 14 hours..and had all of his stuff ready to be signed. We asked him to wait on the crowd side of the catwalk at Wacken, and we would be over as soon as we got a drink..but 90 min later i realized SHIT! we forgot that kid..he is waiting for us, so i walked back to the walkway and there he was waiting. We(the Whole band) took him w us out into the crowd and watched Motorhead..became friends, and when we played Romania, his Grandma made us a 6 course Traditional Romanian Meal at his house in Bucharest..it was AMAZING, and we had a great time, and i think he was pleased to have Atheist at his dinner table. We enjoyed the meal greatly! He remains a close friend to this day. This is why it's important to have a good, interactive website.

5. How have the live shows been after so many yrs away from the spotlight with Atheist?

Incredible! This was the most alarming aspect of coming back after all those years, we came back to fans that knew the music like we know it. That's a far cry from our past. i have never seen so many technical air guitarists and drummers...and bass players. Very inspiring! We are very excited to bring the songs of Jupiter to the stage..it's like our family of tunes has grown and it will be so refreshing to inject that into the live Atheist experience in 2011!

6. Is there a running theme for Jupiter ?

 No, it's a variety of lyrical ideas that are separate to their own..life, evolution, anger, hypocrisy, law breaking popes.....i think we got it all covered! LOL

7. As its been well over a decade since Atheist has been making music . Whats the major difference you see in the Metal and Independent music scenes?

The demand from metal heads that the music..not just imagery matters! U can indeed have a great bot of imagery going on in your live presentation, but it's so very important that your band can play their collective asses off as well. There is also this amazing ability to go from David to Goliath in a quicker time with the viral aspect of the internet..we would have to send out cassette tapes back in the day, and it would sometimes take months to see your demo reviewed etc..these days it's instant. There are not many excuses to hind behind these days when it comes to not promoting your music as a young band. The ability to write a song at noon, record it by 4 pm, and send it to the other side of the globe by 5p.m and actually get feedback by 5:30..that's pretty impressive in terms of marketing I would say

8. Kelly is it hard not to play guitar with Atheist. Is there a chance you will be able to again?

another "myth" about me.. i play guitar each and every day, and never stopped, what I did do was stop playing on stage due to Carpal tunnel in my right hand. But as long as I am sitting down the pressure  on that nerve in my hand is not debilitating, but if I have to sing and play, it's just numb..so i constructed a good deal of the guitar stuff w jonathan and chris on Jupiter, i spent 8 months getting my chops us before starting to collect the riffs on tape that would be used on Jupiter. But this is important, because had it just been chris and jonathan, we would have had a harder time preserving the core sound of myself and flynn writing and constructing these weird tunes together. But it was a great collective effort as well. So please print boldly..I DO still play guitar :)

9.  Do the members of Atheist feel that digital downloads and bittorrents are causing a major issue with promotion and sales of Indie artists today?That's really not a feeling, it's a fact! i think the digital world has a great deal of positive aspects as well, but it's important that if you dl a free mp3 that you go out and buy the record. bands have to borrow money from Record companies in order to make these records we all enjoy. If you steal the music, the band can no longer pay the money back, essentially losing their record deal, and fading into obscurity. It seems music is one of the few medias assaulted by this practice.. and it's important to note that unlike software companies and writers..musicians have NO MONEY just art, so please consider that when stealing an entire record from a site offering it for free. Bands now have to make the package an important artistic statement to encourage the sale of the actual disc.

10. Atheist has had several line ups and styles identities with this line up with Atheist focus more on new material live or a good mix of the Jazzy prog and  Tech Metal  moments?

Our live set will contain songs from every record for sure, we have a wealth to choose from and we will most certainly play lots of old stuff and at least half the new album as well

11. Thanks for the time any closing thoughts here...

Thanks to each and everyone of you who have kept the name Atheist alive for 2 decades, and to allow us to now be stronger than ever in a landscape of brilliant extreme metal sonic art!. We will see you all out on tour, and we hope u will go buy the record on Nov 8th in europe and the 9th in the states Cheers!

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