Interviews

Atreyu

Interview with Alex on Mar 23, 2004 by Archive Bot

PB: First I’d like to thank you for taking the time out to do this interview. I’d like to apologize in advance if you have already heard these questions numerous times in the past couple of days.

Alex: Hah, it’s alright, don’t worry about it. Even if I’ve heard them a shit load of times already, I’m going to hear them again and again. It happens. I always feel bad for people conducting interviews because it seems like they’re required to ask certain questions. I’ve always wanted to interview a band and ask whatever the fuck I want and not worry about their upcoming album or tour. But, it’s cool. I understand how it works.

PB: Okay, so some of the biggest news this year for you and your fans was probably the announcement of Ozzfest. Are there any bands you’re looking forward to playing with? And most importantly, are you excited about possibly partying with Ozzy?

Alex: Haha well let’s talk about the most important one first. Just the prospect of partying with Ozzy would be rad but I’m not sure if it’ll happen because of his health, but it would definitely be fucking awesome. I can see myself doing jager shots with him…I’m really excited to play with Judas Priest. I can’t wait to see them. And of course our boys lamb of god will be there with us, and bleeding through, so we’re really excited to get out and play with our friends and listen to great music at the same time. It’s definitely an honor.

PB: They’ve been trying to get Motley Crue to play Ozzfest since the tour was formed, but they can never seem to get them all convinced to do it.

Alex: No way, that would have been the best fucking shit out there. That would have just been awesome. I wouldn’t know what to do. Do you know if they’re ever going to do it?

PB: Last I heard they finally got each original member to sign a contract stating they would do Ozzfest, but I guess it never fell through. It definitely would have been awesome to see them play though.

Alex:Awesome doesn’t even come close to what it would have been like. It better happen some day.

PB: What can your fans expect from your new album?

Alex: Wow..This is always hard for me to do. We like to challenge ourselves a lot when we’re writing music, but we also try to sound like the same band we originally were. It’s definitely a lot heavier and extreme than the last record, but it’s also more melodic too. When I say melodic, I don’t mean that it’s soothing or anything, but we tried to throw in riffs that most people wouldn’t expect from us. I don’t want to say it’s more “hardcore” either because we don’t really consider ourselves a hardcore band, but it’s definitely a lot more extreme.

PB: What was the reason for choosing the title “The Curse” and what do you hope to achieve from it?

Alex: Well we chose the title “The Curse” simply because we ourselves are cursed. Or at least we’re convinced that we are. It all came about because of a week of bad luck that happened on one of our tours, and I’m not going to get into it because it freaks me out and gives me nightmares, but it deals with roofs caving in, shows being cancelled, you name it, and it happened. As far as what we plan to accomplish, we want to reach out to as many ears as possible and hopefully gain a lot of new fans, and not lose any old ones. We want everyone to hear our record and be able to hold an opinion on it whether it’s a good or bad one.

PB: Were there any particular moments during the recording process that stands out in your mind?

Alex: Hahaha…Well, honestly the only thing I can remember about the whole recording bit is being drunk. I know that I drank a lot…and that’s about all I do know. But come on if you were stuck in a studio with this blanket around you, nowhere to go but listen to yourself and your band members record each song track for track, and you’re in Canada and all you can do is look at trees, what the fuck else is there to do but drink? We actually had all of the song that are on the new album recorded on a demo before we got into the studio for the actual CD so that made things a little easier I guess…But yeah, I definitely remember drinking a lot. And that’s pretty much all I can recall. Oh, and that I watched a lot of hockey.

PB: This is a bit of old news, but when Chris first announced he would be leaving Atreyu, what were everyone’s initial reactions?

Alex: This is tough….I’ve actually never been asked this before…Um…To put it simply, it was time. It was time for Chris to go, and we couldn’t do anything else but accept his decision. We’re really excited to be playing with Mark now, but we were definitely upset over Chris leaving. We had a feeling it was coming, and we can only hope for the best for him. I think having Mark as our bassist will definitely be a lot of fun and will help the band out a lot. He’s a very talented guy.

PB: With all of the musical equipment available to artists these days (whether or not they are sponsored) how does the band determine what’s right for them?

Alex: Well, we are sponsored by a couple of companies, but the band mostly uses what they like. They really like EPS guitars and whether or not we got free shit we would use their equipment anyways. As far as clothing goes, I’m sponsored by Rocket so you should check them out. I tend to wear their stuff a lot so I guess you can say I have the hook up with them. But yeah, as far as equipment goes, I’m pretty sure the band would play whatever they find themselves liking and being comfortable with, even if we didn’t get most of it for free.

PB: Besides other forms of music or bands, what is it that inspires you and drives you everyday?

Alex: This is another good one…The fact that I always think I can do better really pushes me to try my hardest. I’m always pushing myself and working more than I should be to accomplish what I want to accomplish. Most of the time I’m not even sure if it can be done but I try anyways. I’m really driven by myself for the most part. I don’t look up to other people, so the only one left that can inspire me is myself and my motivation to get things done the hard way no matter how difficult it may be. I rely on myself a lot. I think that’s really the only person I can rely on to be honest with you.

PB: If you could describe your ideal audience, what would they be like?

Alex: I really wish we could play to a big fucking group of open minded people. People that just accepted whatever they heard and weren’t stuck in one particular genre and only listened to a certain type of music. It would be awesome to hear criticism from them and just to see how they react. Being open-minded is really important when it comes to music, and it’s unfortunate that more people aren’t that way.

PB:Do you have any guilty pleasure bands?

Alex: Oh I love Bon Jovi, but I’m not even ashamed to admit to that. He’s an amazing artist that has been through so much shit that I can’t help but like him. He’s phenomenal. That’s all there is to it. He’s such an awesome guy and a great musician.

PB: Who or what is the most powerful inspiration in your life?

Alex: This is the part where I’m supposed to mention God or some shit like that, but I’m not going to get anywhere near that subject. I don’t look up to any people. People as a whole fucking suck. If you were to watch the news, you just see the world falling apart. I have no faith in humanity as a whole. People are just running the world and watching it crumble. So I don’t have any role models either. I can’t trust people after seeing what they do to this place. It’s fucking disgusting. I look inside myself when I want to accomplish something and that’s where I can find all of the answers that I’m ever going to need.

PB: A lot of people have been wondering if you’re ever going to go back to Europe. So, do you have any plans for a European tour in the future?

Alex: Well we toured there once with Boy Sets Fire, but we definitely plan on going back. We need to get this record out first and see what happens from there. Of course we’re going to tour in the States first, but then we plan on going to other countries. We’re looking towards touring Europe in January and February of next year but we’ll see what happens. We had a lot of fucking fun making this album though, and we put our hearts into it 100% so I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks of it. It was by far our best recording experience to date and we threw a lot of things in there that we hope our fans will like. Even though I said earlier that I don’t remember a lot about the recording process itself, what came out of it was definitely worth all of the time and effort we put into it so it will be a good record to check out.

PB: Now, people tend to say that certain genres of bands sound better live. Do you prefer your sound live or on record?

Alex: Hah, well first I like how you didn’t refer to us as a hardcore band. I fucking hate when people call us that because I don’t think we’re hardcore at all. I think that just puts a label on us, one that is pretty tough to live up to these days, so we try not to get into it. But, when it comes to hearing ourselves live and on recordings, it’s a lot different. I like our sound live a lot better because we play as tight as we can, and we’re sharing our music with people that like us and have gone out and bought the record, and even people that haven’t. It really all comes down to emotion. There’s so much more emotion involved when we play live that it feels great to be sharing it all with the crowd. It’s fun to watch people get emotional over something that you’ve created. Hearing yourself on record is pretty intense though. It’s a crazy thing listening to yourself, but it seems to just lack emotion. Of course we put emotion into recording it, but when you’re just sitting down and listening to it you’re like ‘dude this is fucking sick’ but you don’t go crazy and let out all of your feelings. So I think when we play live there’s a lot more emotion involved and that’s what I love the best.

PB: Okay, this question is driven by my own curiosity, but do you guys put your own eyeliner on, or do you actually have make-up artist on tour with you?

Alex: Haha, you have some good questions…Uhm…I only wish we had a makeup artist on tour with us. We put the eyeliner on once or twice as a joke. Sometimes the band would all dress up to match, and we thought putting on eyeliner would be pretty cool, but then people started expecting it from us and we felt like we couldn’t stop doing it. When we first put it on we thought it would create a different sort of vibe for a rock show, but people just wanted us to do it all the time. We’re going to try to step away from that for a bit though. We don’t want it to be our trademark. We worked our asses off on this record, and we want to put out a new sound and a new image. So I guess you’ll have to wait and see what comes out of it. But, in response to your question, no we don’t have a make-up artist on tour with us. It’d be awesome if we did because it was actually pretty hard putting on eyeliner the first couple of times we tested it out, but we got used to it. Now we’re trying to turn our image around and create something completely different, so the eyeliner might not be around for too much longer. We just did it for fun, not to be our trademark but unfortunately it got that way.

PB: This one is also for my own personal interest, but did you ever get a chance to attend college, and if so, what were you planning to major in?

Alex: I actually did go to college. I went to Pali Pomona college. I was there for a little over a year and then we got signed, so it was either go on tour or stay at school so of course I made the decision that anyone would make…and that’s stay at school. Just kidding, I definitely chose to tour for the band. When I was actually in college, I was majoring in psychology and minoring in criminal justice, so I guess it’s a big difference as far as careers go but I’m definitely happy where I am right now and wouldn’t like to be anywhere else.

PB: Alright, well thank you again for the interview, and if you have any last words, now’s your chance.

Alex: I’d like to thank you for the interview as well. It’s always fun talking to new people. The questions were different than what I had expected, so don’t worry about them being repeated. Most people ask the name of the album, when we’re touring, shit like that. They never bother to research the band or anything, so I had a good time answering your questions. For last words, I guess I just want to say that our album “The Curse” comes out June 29th, so everyone should go and check that out. We’re going to be going on tour in a couple weeks with From Autumn to Ashes so we’re definitely psyched about that, and we hope to get as many people at our shows as we can. Also, I hope you have a good afternoon and thanks again for the interview.