ATREYU's BRANDON SALLER Says Moving To Tennessee From California Has Been 'Awesome'

In a new interview with the BREWtally Speaking podcast, ATREYU vocalist Brandon Saller discussed his decision to move to Tennessee in 2023 with his wife and two daughters after living in California his entire life. Asked how it has been for him and his family "to get acclimated to a completely different environment and weather and everything", Brandon said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's been fucking awesome. Even though I've been here a million times throughout my life, it's still different living here. But for the majority of my experience, I would say the vast majority, people here are so nice. People are cool as fuck. You have everything that you want. The only thing that Tennessee does not have, which I have not found yet, which is a bit disheartening, but I'll live, is good Mexican food and good sushi, But I also travel enough where I can get my fix, so it's gonna be okay. It's probably better off that there's not good Mexican food, 'cause then I just don't eat it. But other than that, it's been awesome. There's so many friends here that we already knew that lived here and then we've made so many good friends already that it's like a crazy good clique. The culture here is just a little bit more — people just seem to ride or die for you."

He continued: "I think growing up you go through a lot of phases of different friend groups, and you have some friend groups that are just kind of fleeting and, like, 'Yeah, we hang and it's cool, whatever,' but then you have some that are, like, 'Oh, these people would take a knife for you.' And we're lucky enough to have a couple of those friend groups in our life, but I feel like that's what we've come into since moving here. So it feels good, man. It's been awesome. And the weather is great. I like seasons. California is beautiful and I'll love it forever, but you have spring and then it rains sometimes, which is dope. But here, you have fucking seasons, and there's fall and there's winter and it's hot as fuck in the summer, but you kind of like learn to love 'em all."

Addressing the challenges of moving to a different part of the country in his early 40s, Saller said: "I think that's what keeps life fucking exciting, man. Not to say that I've done that a bunch, but I think the scary shit is always what turns out to be the most cool shit. Anything in my life that I've ever been pretty nervous to do or pretty scared to do and I just jump off the damn cliff usually ends up being the best things that I've ever done. Whether it's career-wise or musically or whatever, those kind of risks put you in a bit of an exciting headspace where I think at least I usually end up thriving. But I love that shit.

"I lived in the same house in Huntington Beach for 17 years, and I lived in California my entire life," he explained. "And I was just, like, 'Should we move to Nashville? Fuck it.' My kids were young enough to where they'd only been in school for a year — my oldest had only been in school for a year; my youngest hadn't even started school yet. So, as far as friends, they didn't have tons of friends. But now, we move and there's seven girls on my street that are just at my door wanting to party all the time. So, it's one of those things where now they're making friends or doing it in a more important phase now — for them, at least.

"I think if people get an itch and people have some sort of inkling of a need for change, that's the universe telling you something that you probably should listen to," Brandon added.

A state with close to 40 million people, California remains by far the most populous state. One in eight Americans lives in California, which is the fifth-largest economy on earth, behind only four national economies: United States, China, Germany and Japan.

Even though California has lost some residents, others have stepped in to take their place.

An estimate released in December 2023 by the U.S. Census Bureau said California's population fell by 75,000 residents in 2023 to about 38,965,000 people.

In April 2024, the state Department Of Finance estimated that California gained just over 67,000 people last year, the first increase since 2019.

The U.S. Census Bureau's estimate was for July 1, 2023, while the California Department Of Finance's estimate was for January 1, 2024.

Last December, ATREYU bassist Marc "Porter" McKnight spoke to the "BREWtally Speaking" podcast about his decision to move from Alabama, where he was born and raised, to a small town in Germany, where his wife's family resides.

ATREYU recently released "The Pronoia Sessions", a collection of eight reimagined greatest hits and two nostalgic tribute covers. The digital release was made available on October 25 while vinyl and CDs hit streets on November 8.

On October 18, ATREYU celebrated the 20th anniversary of its sophomore album, "The Curse", by performing the gold-certified LP in its entirety at the House Of Blues in Anaheim, California.