Interview: Kristopher Roe (The Ataris, 8 Apr)
Kristopher Roe (1977, “the year of punk rock”), is in the upper floor preparing a cup of tea. He feels a bit ill. After two minutes of awkward silence, in which he offers me one of the hundred bottles of water there are in the room, the water of the teapot is still cold, so we have to wait a little more. Meanwhile, he tries to strike up a conversation. He talks about beaches –he can't swim– and gastronomy –he always wanted to eat in El Bulli, the most important Spanish restaurant until it closed down. Then, once the tea is ready, he suggests to seat on the middle of the corridor. He has the teacup on his right hand and a Coca-Cola Zero in his left one and drinks indistinctly.
Question: Why did you decide to create this band?
Answer: Well, for me music has always been a way to express your feelings and all the struggles that are growing up in small towns in America. I’ve grown in an area where there wasn’t a lot of musical culture, and when I discovered rock music it was the first thing it really inspired me to want to break out this small town and search for something more in the world. If it wasn’t for all the bands I loved when I was a kid, like The Smiths or The Cure, My Bloody Valentine or pop bands like The Ramones or The Clash or The Replacements… I’d probably be a completely different person. I started playing music when I was 12-13 years old, I started touring when I was 19… I’m 36 now, we put on about 6 albums and it’s still going. I feel very blessed that people still come and see us.
Q: So you still sing the same songs you composed when you were 19.
A: No, some of them, but the ones that mean something to me. I feel like, as a musician, you gotta find a balance between doing things on your own terms and also doing things that you want to give in a performance. You can’t be an old arsehole guy but you can’t be an entertainer. That wouldn’t be fulfilling for me. You have to find a balance. We play the songs that we want to play but we also give fans songs that they want to hear as well.
Q: And when you look back on your old songs, is there something that you regret or something that you don’t like from them anymore?
A: No, no, nothing. I’m definitely proud of everything I’ve written by myself, but there are some songs that I wrote when I was young that… When you are that age you can only capture that sort of emotion at one time in your life. When you first discover a band or see a painting for the first time, you don’t feel the same way the second time. It might be like a certain naked quality, like a virginal thing… It’s not the same as when you are 30 and you’ve heard every song. Sometimes it’s a sort of a little diamond in a rough that comes along when you discover some new artists, new songwriters and you say: “Wow, that’s just as fucking amazing as when I discovered The Ramones or when I first heard Radiohead”. But more often there’s a lot of music today that I just hate (laughs).
Q: You’re wearing a Radiohead t-shirt. What’s the link between them and you?
A: If you watch us tonight, you’ll see that. There is a lot of drone and shoegaze stuff in our songs and some fucking guitar parts. You can play rock songs that have dreamy echoey guitar. If you hear our songs, old records might not seem that way but if you listen newer ones we do. But at the same time, just because you like Iron Maiden doesn’t mean you play Iron Maiden songs (laughs).
Q: Why did you choose the name ‘The Ataris’?
A: Oh, it’s just a stupid name. I remember when I was a kid I used to play the Atari games. You remember? I mean: how old are you?
A: Oh, you are twenty! Well, back when I was a kid we liked to play this stupid PlayStation shit that was like a little square, another square… And there was a game called ‘Atari’. Atari was a really, really big pop culture of the late 1970s and the early 1980s. So if you were a kid growing up in that time, Atari was a big thing. It’s a Japanese word that means “prepared to be attacked”. The air forces would say “Atari!” as they were killing each other doing the kamikaze. It’s just a silly word. The name doesn’t mean anything. It’s a terrible name.
Q: Since you created the band, you are the only original member…
A: Yeah, but the way the band works is that I record all the albums myself, so… I’ve always been the only original member because I record all the albums on my own. I put all the instruments, so… Except the drums. I write the drum parts, show them to my friend and he plays the drums.
Q: How many instruments can you play?
A: Just the guitar, bass, singing, a little bit of piano, keys… percussion. Everything except the drums.
Q: Your music style is punk rock, right?
No, no. We’re just a rock band, you know? I like punk rock music but I’m more into music that kind of pushes down. For me punk rock has become kind of safe. I just like music that is dangerous, or honest, or very natural. When I was a kid, punk rock thought that way. Now punk rock feels like too fucking perfect, like a fucking bunch of guys that are more interested in they way they look and not the way they feel in their hearts. So for me, we’re just a rock band. Call it what you want.
Q: What is your opinion about yourselves from the outside?
A: I feel like we are four really good friends creating music that makes us proud. It’s really sincere, honest from the heart. And ultimately we’re just out to have fun and… you know, we don’t really care of what people think of us. We’re just travelling and having a good time. I’m proud of what I do, and at the same time, what I listen to and what I play. I try to brace that gap but I like a lot of snobby fucking indie music. I try to incorporate my heart and my passion into everything I do.
Q: What is true about the myth of sex, drugs and rock and roll?
A: I don’t know much about that because I don’t do drugs, but for me I’ve dealt with a lot of people that did. I think if you wanna make the party and be the biggest party of your life, I think you’re gonna miss a lot really good things in life. But if you can find a balance between excess and actually seeing the world and having fun and not imposing on people around you, that’s great. But I guess no one who talked about that would call it excess. So… you know. I like sex, I’ve tried drugs before and I like rock. But, again, if you wanna play in a band like fucking Aerosmith or Mötley Crue, this isn’t the band (laughs). One drummer killed himself because he was addicted to heroine, and another drummer was addicted to painkillers, and another bass player addicted to cocaine… I try to keep my bands been equals and not putting the party first (laughs).
Q: Tell me a band you admire.
A: There is an American band called Wilco. The musicianship of that band is really incredible. My Bloody Valentine is also one of my favourite bands ever. When I was 15 years old there was an album called Loveless that changed my life. My first show ever was Metallica and the Justice For All tour… When I was a kid, like 7 or 9, my favourite band was Kiss and I disguised myself as Kiss for Halloween… It just changes such as your life. I also listen to a lot of old jazz like [John] Coltrane or Thelonious Monk. Anyone who pushes you to be a better artist or musician, I admire. The only music I don’t like I guess is music that comes from fashion… I mean [David] Bowie had fashion and he was a fucking genius. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about boys’ bands that it’s all about image and they’re out of tune or it’s bullshit.
A: (thinking) Mmmm… It’s a hard question, ‘cause I love music, but… probably… [The Rise And Fall Of] Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. That album is fucking amazing, that Bowie album. Or Hunky Dory or Diamond Dogs. Maybe… But I don’t know.
A: Probably ‘Thunder Road’ by [Bruce] Springsteen. It’s just a perfect narrative. The song doesn’t have a chorus at all, it’s just the story, and I think it’s kind of how I tell the stories. All my songs are me just telling a story about my life, and there’s a lot of depth and vivid imagery in my verses. And the chorus is something you can sing to. Springsteen managed to write songs that told a great story and they didn’t even have a singable chorus, but still is one of the best songs ever written. So that’s a great song.
Q: And the song you enjoy the most playing?
A: It’s ‘Fast Times At Drop-Out High’, because there is this big instrumental parts with lots of dreamy, echoey, delay stuff. We sound like Mogwai or Godspeed [You! Black Emperor] or those bands. We just play that instrumental part for four minutes in the song. For me sometimes as a musician, I sing and get stuck in the microphone the whole show because I’m always singing. I don’t tend to write songs that let me enough time to stand away from the mic and play guitar, but sometimes I just like to play guitar and I wish we had another singer that would take some vocals. But I think it’s good to have only one singer. I don’t like these bands that are always doing harmonising things… It’s good to get a little bit on the records, but one vocals is good. It’s not necessary to have four people up there on the microphone. It starts to sound too much moody.
Q: Tell me a present band that will leave a mark in the future.
A: Ok. There’s an American singer songwriter named A.A. Bondy. He’s a real dark folky guy. He used to be in a band called Verbena. He’s great. He has a record called When The Devil’s Loose’ and there are really good rainy days songs. He has left a mark in all of us. You know, there’s a lot of great music out there, but unfortunately sometimes the best songs you never heard (laughs). That’s the beauty I guess.
Q: And an overrated band?
A: Overrated band? Wow, that’s pretty easy! Well, the obvious would be all these American bands like Nickelback… but I don’t know. I don’t really care for naming names of people or hating anyone. Just like I said, any band that puts energy before substance. Particularly… I don’t know, just look on… the radio or the Internet and find anything that looks like Justin Bieber… It’s probably overrated.
Q: Justin Bieber… A genre of music you hate?
Q: Something funny that happened to you during a tour?
A: I was gonna fly in Australia from Melbourne to Sidney and they grounded all the flights in the airport. They let like only five flights take off. And I was waiting to take off when they said they were gonna close the airport because there was a big giant storm, big monsoon. And I said: “Oh, please, don’t let us be one of the flights to take off”. But of course we were and then they closed the airport. And when I was waiting in the runway, the sky was turning black and the others were like: “This is gonna suck for bad”. And so we take off with the storm, the lightnings strike the plane with us on it and the plane loses power and starts falling 10.000 feet down. And we get stroke by a lighting again and people were screaming and crying. I’m fucking praying to God. The blast of the storm was pushing us to the ground and suddenly… (clap) we pick up and after twenty minutes we leave. It was kind of fun (laughs). It’s scary.
Q: An advice for new bands.
A: Just don’t listen what anyone says. Write your music just from the heart and don’t fall prey of all these trends about… You know, music is about music, not about who’s a good salesman and who can promote himself better than the other guy. I think that’s the problem. The Internet has let people a really good outlet to discover new bands but it’s also given people a lot of problems (laughs), because people don’t pay attention as much anymore. They’re so desensitised. So just be yourself and write music that makes you happy. And if it’s good, people will catch on to it.
Q: What does coming to The Joiners mean for you?
A: I like The Joiners, it’s a big club. I did a solo acoustic tour and I played here. It was really fun, a big pride to be here. This is the only type of places I like to play. Because to me, when there is crowd and it’s close and unified and people can sing along and get on stage, make it more like a family. It’s good if you can have this interactive experience, and this is one of my favourite clubs I’ve played in the UK. And that’s why I went out of my way to book a show here. I told my friend who books the gigs that I wanted to play at The Joiners, to please book a show. And sold out, and that’s good. I like it.
Q: Is there anything else you want to add?
A: Yeah, there are four new songs free to download in our Bandcamp, so if anyone wants to check them out, you can download them. (very slowly) Theataris.bandcamp.com. Check them out, it’s free music!
Q: And anything that you would like to ask yourself?
A: I guess I would ask for my fans: “Why does it take me so long to make the fucking new album?”. Because I’ve been writing songs for five or six years… And I guess my answer would be: “I recorded about twenty songs and I just have to finish vocals for these songs before I get the record completed. And when we finish this tour in the UK and Europe, I’ll go home and I’ll try my best to finish the album and hopefully make myself proud. But until then, people can wait” (laughs).
