BRANDON SALLER Talks How 'Not Staying In Our Lane' Has Kept ATREYU On The Right Side Of Metal And Rock Fans

By David E. Gehlke

ATREYU's new all-acoustic "The Pronoia Sessions" re-imagines six of the band's originals with two covers: AUDIOSLAVE's "Like A Stone" and Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance". For a band that has routinely oscillated between the metal and rock sectors, the collection feels like a natural move, particularly in the wake of their singer switch that elevated drummer/clean vocalist Brandon Saller to full-fledged frontman status in favor of the departing Alex Varkatzas in 2020. And credit the long-running Orange County quintet with this: They certainly didn't take the easy way out on "Pronoia". Instead, they went to great lengths to turn several of their more well-known cuts on their heads, thus, giving credence to the word "re-imagined."

The band recently crossed the 25-year threshold and with whatever lineup ups-and-downs out of their system, ATREYU appear to be in a good spot — and happy to take on the role as near-elder statesmen of the scene they helped launched. With "Pronoia" about to hit shelves and work on a new album already in progress, BLABBERMOUTH.NET snagged the friendly Saller for a chat.

Blabbermouth: Do you mind starting with your first thoughts on what was happening for ATREYU 20 years ago at this time?

Brandon: "We were in the middle of the first successful record cycle of our life. We spent a year and a half touring on our first album. It was non-stop and like baby steps of success, like every tour was better than the one before. We kept getting tours and staying busy, then came 'The Curse', and we took a much bigger step into this world."

Blabbermouth: Are you surprised at the amount of work the band put in?

Brandon: "Yeah, but to be honest, I'm 41 and I still enjoy putting in the work. I still enjoy touring. I have a family, a wife and kids. My joints probably don't feel as right as they did 20 years ago, but at the same time, if we could still tour eight or nine months out of the year, I'd be a happy boy. Back then, you didn't know any better. We were literally children. I turned 18 on our first tour during 'Suicide Notes [And Butterfly Kisses']. We were still kids figuring it out. All of these cool things were happening for the first time. You say 'yes' and go and put it on autopilot. It's now so many years later that we can look back and go, 'Damn. How did we not die? How did we not kill each other? Or hate each other?' It's a wild thing."

Blabbermouth: Saying no is a really hard thing to do, particularly for bands who are just starting.

Brandon: "Especially for us in this era. There were a lot of things coming our way that we at first wanted to say no to, then sort of from better judgment or guidance from management or whoever it was, 'No, this will work.' We said yes to things that, off the rip, we'd say no to. We'd get offers in the same couple of weeks to tour with TAKING BACK SUNDAY and THE USED back-to-back. At the same time, we're coming off LAMB OF GOD tours, Ozzfest, SHAI HULUD and SNAPCASE. We're a hardcore band; we're a metal band. It was like, 'What are we going to do other than terrify all these little girls in the front row?' But that was the point. Saying yes to those tours is why we were able to become a band that did Warped Tour, Ozzfest, Projekt Revolution and Family Values. We were able to have our feet in those things. It was a weird thing when things started coming our way that we instinctually might have said no to only because our brains at the time were young, hardcore-band dude brains that didn't see as far past the genre or the scene as we do now."

Blabbermouth: What was the basis for "The Pronoia Sessions"?

Brandon: "It started during Covid. We had never done anything acoustic in our whole career. It wasn't in the cards. During Covid, when the lineup shifted, it became something we were interested in. We were trying to figure out ways to promote 'Baptize'. With no shows, bands were doing livestreams, which we did. But the acoustic thing was easier to attain as far as doing cool livestreams. We did a couple of sessions with Danny Wimmer Presents. The reaction was overwhelming. Everyone was like, 'Why has your band never done this before?' It got us thinking. The original idea was still going to be during Covid before shows came back; we were going to do a livestream of an exact mock of the NIRVANA 'Unplugged'. We were going to do the same set design and everything. It started there, then the world opened up for touring, and the idea of putting out re-imagined versions of these songs didn't go away. Once we realized it needed to be an actual record from the studio and focused on it, it just turned into a sort of more in-depth account of what we had conjured up in the first place. It started as an acoustic record and turned into a re-imagined record. I'm really precious with that word. I think a lot of bands use the word 're-imagine.' It's like, 'Those are acoustic guitars and you did nothing else.' But I think we truly tried as hard as we could to give the majority of these songs a new life. If someone heard these versions of these songs for the first time, you could think they were completely different than the original."

Blabbermouth: A few of these songs you really turned on their head, like "Becoming The Bull".

Brandon: "It was cool because we had never been a band that cared much about staying in our lane, I guess you could say. [Laughs] You and I know that the Blabbermouth crowd loves to talk about that. It's been one of those things that we never cared that much about. In this instance, it was like, 'Okay. There's no barrier at all. We can literally go as far as we want because that's the point.' It was cool to turn some of those songs on their head. 'Becoming The Bull' sounds like it can be in a [Quentin] Tarantino movie. We did a version of 'The Theft', and when we wrote it for 'Death-Grip' [On Yesterday] , it was me wanting to make a Danny Elfman song. The music for 'Edward Scissorhands' fully inspired that song. That was me doing what I knew how to do at the time. Then you fast forward 20 years and involve an incredibly talented producer and it's like, 'That's what I wanted to do originally, but I didn't know how.'"

Blabbermouth: How much of this is now owed to being the singer and doing all of those choruses for so long?

Brandon: "I don't think if me as the singer or vocalist in the band ever had tons more to do than any other element. Big choruses have been our thing since we started. We grew up on big '80s rock and QUEEN, Tom Petty and even into the later years bands like SAVES THE DAY and JIMMY EAT WORLD. That side of our influence was the big pop chorus. That's what we love to do. That was always integrated. We were the gateway for both sides. Metal fans would like our band because of what Alex did and be like, 'This is cool. Maybe I do like a big chorus. Maybe I'm not embarrassed to tell my friends I like this song because there's a big chorus and there's also brutal vocals.' On the other hand, some people had no idea about metal and hardcore; those TAKING BACK SUNDAY fans were like, 'I like rock music and I like this. But that's fun, as is what he does too.' I think it was equally beneficial on both sides. As we've gone on and done the more modern iteration of our band, I'm now having to figure out, and we have to figure out how to keep the same dynamic that people love about the band with aggressive and clean vocals. I am figuring out new ways to do that with Porter [bassist Marc McKnight] and me, both singing and screaming a lot, especially about what will be in the future. It's important to keep that dynamic that people liked about our band."

Blabbermouth: We can get back to the new album in a second. Are you enjoying being the frontman?

Brandon: "It's the fucking best. [Laughs] I love playing drums, but I also love connection. There's only so much connection you can have 20 feet away from people. I love nothing more than seeing face-to-face people's reactions and sharing that moment live and being able to get in the crowd and get in the mix. That's untouchable for me. It's been a lot of fun. I've really been super grateful to my band for pushing me into this spot. It's been nothing but fun."

Blabbermouth: It may also be easier for you to hit all the notes now that you're not behind the drums.

Brandon: "It's definitely easier. My wife thinks my hands are softer. [Laughs] If I wake up and my wrist hurts, it doesn't matter!"

Blabbermouth: How did you land on the Tom Petty cover of "Mary Jane's Last Dance"?

Brandon: "That was the only Petty song in the running. We had a few other ideas that came through. We landed on 'Mary Jane' and 'Like A Stone' because they both had this haunting thing about them already. 'Pronoia' has this haunting thread throughout the whole thing. There's a weight to all the songs. It fits in sonically. Also, just feeding off of that feeling, it's like both songs are from legendary artists who died before the world wanted them to. It made sense. [Chris] Cornell [AUDIOSLAVE / SOUNDGARDEN] was difficult and nerve-wracking. I think he's one of the untouchables. It's like covering AC/DC. It was like, 'Don't try to be Cornell. Just do whatever you want to do.' But Petty, I feel like our voices are so different that it was less pressure to compare. It was more about doing what my voice did on Tom Petty. It was super fun. We're really proud of how they came out. We've never been a huge cover band. We've done a handful throughout the years, but these are some of our favorites."

Blabbermouth: You had a lineup change and a quick little break. What's the band atmosphere like these days?

Brandon: "Honestly, never better. It's kind of weird to us. We're in sort of this revelry cycle that keeps on happening. We've been a band for 25 years and it's not lost on us that being able to speak that sentence alone is rare. There's also the fact that we love each other and are friends and respect each other and are fans of each other. We not only enjoy it but get thoroughly excited to get to do what we do, which is pretty wild. Even moving into the next chapter, 'Pronoia' was the wild idea that maybe not everyone in the band would have agreed on, but with everyone being on the same page, it was awesome. The way we're writing music now, we'd get into the studio, do a song, take a break, then do something else. But this time, we enjoy hanging out. We did a week of writing in Tokyo a couple of months ago. We did a week of writing off the coast of Washington. Just making it fun. That's our main driving factor for doing anything with ATREYU. Is it fun? And do we love it? Then, the answer is yes. Nothing else passes through, which has done wonders for the overall morale of the band. Everyone is excited. We're hungry like a bunch of teenagers. We've been fortunate to accomplish a lot in our career. By no means have we come close to doing all the things we want to do or getting to all the places we want to be. There's a fire in our bellies. It's weird for early 40-year-old men to have."

Blabbermouth: You've always been a part of the Orange County scene, and not every band makes it to the other side, which you did.

Brandon: "And against all odds. It's true that we can still do what we do at the level we do, which is awesome. It's like, 'This doesn't suck. It doesn't suck to be in our band.'"

Blabbermouth: "The Beautiful Dark Of Life" came out last year. Where do you see ATREYU going next?

Brandon: "I feel like without being an asshole, it's too early to dive in. I think people are going to be so incredibly jarred and just shocked. I think we have all been diving very heavily into what inspired us at the beginning. We've been diving heavily into the bands that got us where we are. That comes down to IN FLAMES, SOILWORK, HATEBREED, MADBALL, SHAI HULUD and SNAPCASE, but also taking what we've learned along the way. Without saying too much, it's going to make people's heads spin, especially after 'Pronoia'. I think a lot of people, especially the Blabbermouth comments section, think we put out 'Pronoia' and think that's where we're going, but they'll be pleasantly shocked."