Although having achieved success with their first two
releases (2001's 'Fractures In The Facade Of Your Porcelain Beauty'
EP and 2002's 'Suicide Notes And Butterfly Kisses'), it was the release
of Atreyu's sophomore effort 'The Curse' in 2004 that broke the Orange
County emo/harcore rock act big time, and elevated them directly to
the top of their class.
Throughout the latter half of 2004 and most of 2005, the
five-piece act (comprising of vocalist Alex Varkatzas, guitarists Travis
Miguel and Daniel Jacobs, bassist Marc McKnight and drummer/vocalist
Brandon Saller) toured relentlessly to ever increasing crowds as a headlining
act, as well as taking part in festivals such as Ozzfest (2004) and
Warped (2005).
In an effort to keep up the momentum the band had built
over the last two years, Atreyu entered the studio once again in December
2005 with renowned producer Josh Abraham (Korn, Velvet Revolver, Staind)
to start work on their third album, with a taste of what was to come
on their new album appearing with the track 'Her Portrait In Black'
on the 'Underworld: Evolution' soundtrack (which was released in January
2006 through Lakeshore Records).
With only a couple of weeks left until the release of
'A Death-Grip On Yesterday', I caught up with drummer/vocalist Brandon
Saller in Portland (Maine) as the band continue to blaze their way through
the 2006's Taste Of Chaos tour (alongside Deftones, Thrice, Story Of
The Year, As I Lay Dying, Thursday and many others) to talk about the
making of the new album, working with Josh Abraham, ironic artwork and
the fact that Atreyu's latest release (which features a mere nine tracks,
running for just under thirty-three minutes in total) is a somewhat
compact album.
"Thank you very much. (Laughs) I'll take that as
a compliment! It's all killer, and no filler. On 'The Curse', and even
'Suicide Notes And Butterfly Kisses' for that matter, we would only
play about six songs each from them. So this time we simply focussed
on the songs that we really loved, and the ones that we loved to play.
We originally started out with ten songs, but then we decided to give
'Her Portrait In Black' to the 'Underworld: Evolution' soundtrack. So
rather than simply write another song, which we would have had to pull
out of our ass, we maintained our confidence in the nine songs we already
had, and just kept it at that. In our opinion, that's why the album
is all killer, with absolutely no filler whatsoever."
While Atreyu utilised the production services of GGGarth
Richardson for 'The Curse', this time around they decided to go for
a different tact and hire renowned producer Josh Abraham (Korn, Velvet
Revolver, Staind) to help them out on 'A Death-Grip On Yesterday'.
"We always like to try something new, even when it
comes to music video directors, because you never know what's out there
unless you're willing to take a chance. We decided to use Abraham because
he's done some amazing work in the past, such as the first Velvet Revolver
album, which we all love. We knew that we really wanted to work with
him at sometime, and lucky for us, the opportunity presented itself
to us this time around. Aside from that, we also got to work with engineer/mixer
Ryan Williams (who has worked with everybody from Train, Staind, 10
Years and Linkin Park). So with those two guys on this album, I think
it's turned out really well."
Obviously with the success of 'The Curse' going well beyond
the band's initial expectations, the pressure to make an equally successful
follow up in 'A Death-Grip On Yesterday' was felt by the band, but it
was more self inflicted rather than from sources outside of the band.
"I think every time we go in to write a new album,
we always put everything we have into it. And it seems that every time
we enter the studio, we're always questioning ourselves with things
like, 'How are we going to top our last release? How are we going to
write ten more songs that are better than the last ten we wrote?' So
yes, we did put a bit of pressure on ourselves because we wanted this
album to be better than our first two releases. So we tried to one up
ourselves and push ourselves to be a little more natural sounding than
what we did last time around. I think we took more of a natural approach
compared to what we had done in the past. We wrote this album for ourselves,
rather than writing the album for everyone else. It was a case of putting
together songs that sounded right and felt comfortable to us. I think
it came out really well because we didn't hold anything back. We just
all kind of came out of our shells on this album, and I think you can
hear that in the end product."
While the melodic aspect of the band has come out in full
force, so to has the lead guitar work from guitarists Travis Miguel
and Daniel Jacobs.
"Most of that shred guitar work comes from Jacobs,
but between the pair of them, they're always trying to up the ante and
get better at what they do with every new release. You'll always hear
a little bit of shred on every one of Atreyu's albums I think! (Laughs)"
Another interesting aspect of 'A Death-Grip On Yesterday'
is the incredibly striking artwork/packaging provided by ex-Training
For Utopia/Demon Hunter guitarist Don Clark (co-founder of Asterik Studios,
who's recent clients include Bleeding Through, Lacuna Coil, Anthrax,
Funeral For A Friend and Throwdown).
"We decided before we even started with this album
that we wanted something very bold. We also wanted something that followed
the theme of the album. 'A Death-Grip On Yesterday' is about being real,
and dealing with issues within yourself, as well as with your past.
The guy standing in water while on fire is kind of ironic, because all
he has to do to put the fire out is fall into the water. We just wanted
something real bold, and something that would stand out. Initially,
we came up with a bunch of ideas, and funnily enough, that was one of
the first ones that we came up with that we really liked. We saw some
of the rough sketches that Clark put together, and decided to go with
it. It turned out awesome. It looks amazing. The rest of the album artwork,
which you'll see when the album comes out, looks just as amazing. Apart
from the cover artwork, we also decided to use outside talent for the
first promotional video (which happens to be 'Ex's And Oh's') as well.
We decided to use other people because we didn't want to have to worry
too much about anything apart from creating the music. I think we also
wanted to use other people to get an outsiders perspective on things.
I think that has turned out really well too. Jack Martin (Jack's Mannequin
and Thrice) directed the video, and I think he came up with a pretty
cool concept for us. I guess that in the end, we decided to take a different
approach for everything."
As the conversation draws to a close, I asked Saller about
Atreyu's tour schedule, and the likelihood of another visit from the
band to Australian shores.
"We're actually on the road right now on the 'Taste
Of Chaos' festival. We're about three weeks into it, and we'll be on
that until the middle of April. We'll then head over to the UK for the
'Give It A Name' festival, so we'll stay over there for a few days and
have a small break. We then head over to Europe to do some of the festivals
over there at the beginning of their summer, before we start Ozzfest.
We're really excited about that because we'll be headlining the second
stage. That starts in July, and runs right through to mid way through
August. I think we'll then be on the Vans Warped tour later in the year,
but I don't think the details have been confirmed yet. What we would
really like to do is get back to Europe, Japan and especially Australia
if we can with this album. I think our last tour down there was one
of the best times that we've ever had. It was one of our favourite places
to visit. It was just so cool. Everyone was so nice, and the shows were
so amazing. So we definitely want to go back this year. We would also
like to do a headlining run sometime towards the end of the year too,
but we'll see how the album goes I guess. But regardless of how things
go, we will definitely try to get back your way!"
I would personally like to thank Brandon Saller for
his generous time, and Darren Cherry at Stomp Records Distribution for
making the interview possible.
For more information on Atreyu, check out - http://www.atreyurock.com
© Justin Donnelly - justindonnelly@ozemail.com.au
