It had to happen sooner or later, of all places for doing an interview, we’re in a changing room. But it’s actually pretty much worth it as we get to catch up with what’s said to be one of the bands to watch out for, Arms Of Atlas made a good impression so far since we seen them at Backstage, and tonight we catch the band post sound-check for a gig at the Pitz, one which the guys hope will get a good crowd in .
But what about the fans to be? Getting down to the interview business we ask Jim, Mike and Tyler from the band how they would describe Arms Of Atlas and what it’s about to people not in the know.
“I guess Arms Of Atlas are a five-piece, energetic punk rock band.” begins Jim, one of the Arms Of Atlas guitarists, “Lot’s of vocal harmonies, lots of riffs and generally some catchy sing-along music” seem to be what’s on order for the band’s infectious sound. Looking at the members’ previous work in other bands, you can see where that ethic comes from, but how this collaboration was birthed also seemed to inspire the band’s general direction as their drummer Mike explains with a bit of a grin.
“A long time ago a few of us were in one band, there was me, Sam (bass) and Ed (guitar)” “Jim’s band played with us quite a bit so we got him involved and Tyler (vocals) was a friend of the boys. It all came together and we wanted to do something different, we just put it together and this is what we all came up with”
“Our first gig was about six months ago?” laughs Tyler, double-checking with his bandmates “We’re still a pretty new band I guess, our first show was back in May…”
“In Essex?” adds Mike before the vocalist agrees.
“Yeah, that’s it, down in Essex!”
“It was in a thousand capacity Civic Hall” adds Jim, “There were about one-hundred and fifty people there so it seemed quite empty. But, to be honest we’ve all been friends for a long time and we’ve all jammed with each other so it felt really “right”. The gig was pretty nerve-wracking but it just all clicked really, we’ve been playing for a while.”
“It felt really natural as well” begins Mike again, “A lot of people knew our songs already, which was surprising. We had our songs up for two months and everyone was singing along, it was just crazy.”
Coming up with a blend of music that hits the right spot to get the crowd to move is no easy feat either, as Jim explains.
“We definitely try to play music that we ourselves feel, music that we like I guess.”
“We’re influenced by music that pushes boundaries…” muses the bands drummer once more “We take what we can and try some sort of twist on it, our own thing and see how it goes”
“We generally have a lot of influences” continues Jim “People might listen to our music and think it pushes boundaries or not. At the end of the day we take influences from such a vast amount of music that it’s kind of pushing boundaries when it comes to mashing up sounds, but we like to think we sound unique in that way too.”
“Whatever the crowd is, we’ll always rock out” explains Tyler on their reception so far “Whether we’re playing to twenty people or a bigger gig like tonight we’ll always play hard.”
Mike adds his two cents to the debate, “It kind of helps that we’ve got two home towns too, as four of us are from Leicester and Jim is from Milton Keynes, we get to play shows at both places quite regularly and the crowds are growing, maybe about two-hundred at a show.”
“I wouldn’t say we’re “taking off”” adds Jim, “It’s a bit of a definitive term” as Mike agrees…
“It’s still a bit new, we’re all a bit scared”
“We’re trying to create a bit of a buzz” continues the guitarist, “We some people on the road who like our songs so the name’s getting out there a bit. We’re starting to make our prescence felt but it’s early days yet and putting in the ground-work”
“Which is a lot of work!” laughs Mike as the three break down into a bit of laughter.
Work is definitely something the guys have in mind for the near future and it’s pretty much non-stop for the moment as Jim tells us,
“We’re gigging every weekend until Christmas and we’ve got two special Christmas gigs with the Craufurd Arms in Milton Keynes on the 19th and we’ve also got one on the 18th in Leicester. We also got asked by a certain producer who worked with Funeral For A Friend to do some recording at the end of March.”
“We’ll be recording three songs in March and see how we go” explains Mike before Tyler interjects.
“We’ve not exactly played that many shows yet so not that many people know who we are but we’re focusing on that now. But the signs are good.”
To cap off the interview we ask the band a bit more about their influences and the possible guilty pleasures behind the AoA sound.
“We share a lot of common bands we listen to, Thrice, RX Bandits and Led Zeppelin” begins Tyler.
“There’s definitely a lot of classic guitar riff based music in there, along with a modern twist. Bands like Led Zeppelin, ACDC. Then there’s new bands like Thrice and Alexisonfire too.” adds Mike.
“We take a lot of influence from pop melodies as well” Jim suggests, “In terms of vocal harmonies there’s bands like the Beach Boys. It’s essentially mixing hard, heavy rocking riffs and catchy poppy vocals.”
“Essentially we take our favourite bits from our favourite bands and put in a big pot, the end up with a big bottle o’rock!” says the drummer, capping off the interview on a fetching tagline.
With that the band are almost ready to get suited up for their upcoming gig as another audience of potential fans wait over the other side of the barriers.
Craig \m/
