{"id":10078,"date":"2015-05-18T11:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/interview-atreyu-2\/"},"modified":"2018-03-11T01:38:49","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T01:38:49","slug":"interview-atreyu-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/interview-atreyu-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Atreyu"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n

Four years ago, Atreyu<\/strong> dropped off the metalcore radar, citing a need to recharge and consequently signalling the end of an era for the genre. Luckily, theirs was always set to be a never-ending story and the OC bruisers are back on the bill, due to hit Reading Festival and release their sixth album in September.<\/p>\n

Already Heard<\/b> caught up with guitarist Dan Jacobs ahead of their return to London\u2019s Underworld to discuss their time apart, the new record \u2018Long Live\u2019<\/em> and the closely-guarded secrets to their longevity.<\/p>\n

Already Heard: It\u2019s great to see you back on the bill again! How have you been musically since we last saw you?<\/strong>
Dan Jacobs: Myself, I haven\u2019t been doing a tonne with music, I\u2019ve been writing with people here and there and I was singing with a band called Angels Fall for a bit, just helping them out. Aside from that, I was just raring up to play with Atreyu again. I\u2019ve been chipping away at my boys for several years before they were ready to do it again, I\u2019ve been ready for a while! Everybody was just burnt out and just not feeling it at the time. Finally once everyone was mentally ready to get back on the road and writing again \u2013 and here we are! <\/em><\/p>\n

AH: From a guitarist\u2019s perspective, how have you found picking it all back up again? Have you struggled remembering the old chords? <\/strong>
Dan: Not really because I still play here and there. I just enjoy playing guitar at home. I was a little bit nervous because I\u2019d pushed myself to a certain level of musicianship with Atreyu, so I wanted to make sure when I came back that I was at the very least at that level. Once we started playing certain songs, it\u2019s kinda like riding a bike, I remember how it goes now! Some of the stuff, I was like \u201cman, how did I used to play this?!\u201d Luckily, I\u2019m back where I used to be and it feels good. What\u2019s funny to is I have to go and re-learn some. It\u2019s like anything, if you\u2019re not constantly doing it, you’ll just forget. It\u2019s almost ironic, but there are probably some people out there that can play more Atreyu songs than Atreyu can! When we were coming back, I was trying to remember how to play some of my solos, I had to look up videos of myself doing instructional videos so I could learn from myself! And the ones I couldn\u2019t find, I had to look up videos of other people playing them! \u201cNah, I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s how it goes\u2026 is that how it goes?!\u201d Some of them I\u2019m digging through aren\u2019t playing it right and I\u2019m thinking, \u201cdamnit why don\u2019t you play it right?! I\u2019m trying to learn from you right now! I\u2019m supposed to teach you so you can lay down the road without knowing it and teach me!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

AH: So why have you decided to come back now? <\/strong>
Dan: It just felt right! I think it was a matter of everybody being on board at the same time and we\u2019d got interest from a couple of guys here and there, but not everyone, then it would go back the other way. Some people would be interested but not the other people and it was just like, \u201cugh, come on guys! Just get everybody on the same page!\u201d I think everything happens for a reason though, I feel like this is the best time for us to come back. We unintentionally starved the market which is the best thing we could\u2019ve done. We were really burnt out, even our fanbase was burnt out because we were touring so much, we were so accessible. By starving the market and stepping back for a bit, people are kind of like, \u201care they gone forever? Are they ever coming back?\u201d Everybody wants what they can\u2019t have, you know? So if you take something away from somebody, then they start getting all excited and talking about it, so it worked in our favour, it\u2019s helped launch us back into the scene. <\/em><\/p>\n

AH: You\u2019re one of the most consistent lineups in the genre, you\u2019ve never hit the headlines with shock departures and fallouts. What\u2019s your secret to staying together? <\/strong>
Dan: One is just at the end of the day, just being good friends. Brandon (Saller, – drums and vocals) and Alex (Varkatzas – vocals) and myself went to middle school together, we\u2019ve known each other forever. We spent more than half our lives playing music together so we just have a chemistry that\u2019s been working since we were kids. As well as that, once we met Travis (Miguel – rhythm guitar) and Marc (McKnight – bass), it just felt right. Having good musicianship and making the band itself sonically sound good are very important, but it\u2019s not necessarily going to hold a band together. It\u2019s like dating. Taking our hiatus and trying to do other ventures, especially musically, we really realised how valuable our chemistry was and how well we write together. When we got back together and started writing together again, it was incredibly easy, almost too easy, compared to how it is writing with other people in other scenarios. We definitely have something very special and I think that\u2019s something we all realised, so it makes it easier to want to be here and do it. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

AH: So now you\u2019ve told us the record is out in September. How has the recording process been? Has it taken a while to get this one ready? <\/strong>
Dan: No, strangely. We were all so excited and inspired. By the time it came around to doing it, we just pumped the songs out pretty fast. Sometimes we\u2019d write two or three songs in one sitting, doing rough demos on our phones and sending them over to Alex and he\u2019d come up with lyrics to it. We broke the record into two halves \u2013 we went in and recorded the first half, then came up with the vocal melodies and guitar solos for the second half in the studio as we were going along. Then when we finished the first half, we went back to the second and worked on the next 5 or 6 songs. We\u2019d never really approached it that way before and for us, it was better, instead of \u201clet\u2019s write 15 songs and try to remember them all and write them all and play them all in one go\u201d. Let\u2019s just do a few at a time and really focus on these songs, give them much more attention, that way they can be the best they can be. <\/em><\/p>\n

AH: We\u2019ve heard \u2018So Others May Live\u2019<\/i> and it\u2019s a real return to your roots, it\u2019s good to hear that raw energy coming from you guys again, there\u2019s no \u2018Lead Sails Paper Anchor’ here. How does the rest of the record sound? <\/i><\/strong>
Dan: It\u2019s very similar in that sense, it\u2019s a lot more classic Atreyu but with the production of \u2018Lead Sails\u2019 in terms of the grandeur and the rock vibe. I don\u2019t want to think too much about it because I want people to form their own opinions of it, but we know what we\u2019re doing now, we\u2019re a lot better songwriters than we were. We\u2019ve worked with so many different producers and learned a lot from each one of them, and collectively we\u2019ve taken everything we\u2019ve learned and put this record together. It\u2019s a beast! There\u2019s nothing worse than being all \u201cthis is the heaviest record you\u2019ve ever heard in your life\u201d and people hear it and think \u201cthis isn\u2019t as heavy as I thought it was going to be\u201d. I\u2019d rather just be like \u201cI\u2019m really proud of this record, go and check it out, if you like Atreyu, you\u2019ll like this record.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

AH: Speaking of your past records, you\u2019ve created a different atmosphere with every return to the studio, \u2018Lead Sails\u2019<\/i> is completely different to \u2018The Curse\u2019<\/i> for example. If you could go back and revisit a record, either re-recording it or revisiting the tour, which would you go back to? <\/strong>
Dan: Probably \u2018Lead Sails\u2019! If we did it again, there\u2019d probably be a lot more aggressive vocals this time around, not entirely, some songs would still be similar to how they were, but there\u2019s definitely a few songs that wouldn\u2019t have made it on the record as well as the vocals would\u2019ve been done a bit differently. It was definitely special for us because we went out on a limb with it, we were already a very different sounding band \u2013 nobody sounds exactly like Atreyu! So for us to take another left turn created something really cool, interesting and relevant but different. We tried to progress on every record, but we finally realised we didn\u2019t need to keep progressing, we just needed to do what we do best as a band and as individuals, which is what I think we\u2019ve done on this record [Long Live]. We\u2019ve done what can people do best and if something makes someone uncomfortable, we\u2019ll scratch it and move onto something else. We don\u2019t conform to the scene if the scene doesn\u2019t conform to us. <\/em><\/p>\n

AH: Your back catalogue is massive and a setlist is always going to miss one track or another. What are the tracks that you know will never make the setlist but you wish they would? <\/strong>
Dan: There\u2019s a song called \u2018Fork In The Road\u2019, we\u2019ve played it once, I\u2019m a huge fan of that song, it\u2019s one of the songs I primarily wrote, I love the riffing, the guitar solo and the whole vibe of the song. As far as I know, it\u2019s a pretty popular song with the fans, but it never makes a set for whatever reason. That or \u2018The Squeeze\u2019, which is probably one of my favourite Atreyu songs, a song that we did when we were tracking \u2018Lead Sails\u2019, it has that vibe of \u2018A Death-Grip On Yesterday\u2019 because we were still putting clean vocals on it. It\u2019s a really cool song, I don\u2019t even know if you can find it anymore, it was on a limited edition of \u2018Lead Sails\u2019. You can get cornered as a band into playing the songs that we know get the best crowd response, then bring in a couple older random things in there. <\/em><\/p>\n

AH: We know you love a good cover, especially Bon Jovi\u2019s \u2018You Give Love A Bad Name\u2019<\/i>. Anything else you\u2019re looking to cover? <\/strong>
Dan: It\u2019s always fun to do a cover song live, when you do something that people are very familiar with and the song itself is a very popular song. It\u2019s great for fans or people who have never heard of us before to have something they can attach themselves to and relate to, and be able to sing along with a band they\u2019ve never seen before. If it\u2019s just all original music, they just have to stand there and hopefully buy the CD later! As for the next cover, I don\u2019t wanna say what it is yet and spoil it! I don\u2019t even know if anyone will even know the song to be honest, it\u2019s something so left of centre, it\u2019s completely random. Most Atreyu fans won\u2019t even realise we listen to that style of music! For me, as a songwriter, when I listen to songs, I can hear it totally different to the way it\u2019s being performed, thinking \u201cthis should be a ballad or a heavy song\u201d, looking at it lyrically and the way the chord progressions are. This is a song that\u2019s not metal or rock at all! It\u2019ll be interesting to get feedback from the original band, to hear their songs from a band they\u2019ve never even listened to, like \u201cthis band did what song of ours? That\u2019s so random!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

AH: So you\u2019re due back in London at the Underworld tomorrow! What can we expect? Any surprises up your sleeves? <\/strong>
Dan: I think what\u2019s probably surprising to anyone that comes out to see us is because we\u2019re older and we\u2019ve been around for a bit, you might think you\u2019re not going to get the same show you would\u2019ve gotten 10 years ago, but you definitely are! We take names and get them up on stage, we don\u2019t fuck around! That\u2019s one of the main reasons we did the video (for \u2018So Others May Live\u2019) as a live concept video because one of the main things that\u2019s sold our band to people in the past is our live show. Some people might hear our CD at first and think \u201cthis is cool!\u201d But then they see us live and it\u2019s like, \u201coh I get it now! Now I understand what\u2019s going on!\u201d Our live shows are very important to us. The only surprises are to anyone thinking we\u2019re not going to be bringing 150%.<\/em><\/p>\n

AH: How does it feel having gone from a headliner at Chain Reaction right up to Knotfest last year? It must show that everyone trusts you to bring as good a show as you always have? <\/strong>
Dan: Yeah, it\u2019s kind of snowballed, once we gave the thumbs up that we wanted to do this. We\u2019re just excited to put stuff out and we can never wait until the next show or the next opportunity. But at the same time, without trying to do too much so we don\u2019t spoil it or burn ourselves and our fans out. This is kind of going to be our game plan, not to play for the next 5 years and disappear again, but to just not tour as much, not be as accessible. So if we come to town and you miss us, you don\u2019t know when you\u2019ll see us play next. Before, we were touring so much, people could just see us on the next festival or two months later at their headliner, it was just too much. You just have to play everything strategically or people will stop coming to your shows because they\u2019ve seen you too many times! Not that that\u2019s a thing that\u2019s even possible! <\/em><\/p>\n

Atreyu<\/strong> links: Official Website<\/a>|Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Ali Cooper (AliZombie_<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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