BRANDON SALLER On Becoming ATREYU's Frontman: 'I Wanted To Have It So That People Wouldn't Have A Reason To Talk S***'

In a new interview with The Garza Podcast, hosted by SUICIDE SILENCE guitarist Chris Garza, ATREYU's former drummer Brandon Saller, who is now focusing completely on singing after previously sharing lead vocals with Alex Varkatzas for most of the band's nearly three-decade existence, reflected on the lineup change more than five years ago that made him the frontman for the California-based metal outfit. Asked what the "hardest part" was for him going from playing drums for ATREYU to fronting the band, Brandon said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think it was just adapting to doing it in this band. 'Cause I feel like it's very much like a everything-happens-for-a-reason-type situation.

"When ATREYU went on hiatus, I started a band called HELL OR HIGHWATER that I was the frontman. So, being the frontman of that band, we went on tour with STONE SOUR and THE DARKNESS and AVENGED SEVENFOLD, even SEVENDUST too, and me starting out to be a frontman, I was watching all these fucking really great frontmen and being, like, 'Okay, that's kind of how you do this.' 'That's kind of how you do that.' 'That's how you work your crowd.' But I kind of learned how to do it, so that when it came time to do if for this band, I'd already been fronting a band, but it was just kind of getting used to the energy of these dudes on stage. Also, [I had] really great support system within our band, everyone really sort of building me up and giving me the confidence to do it definitely helped. But it's cool, man."

Brandon continued: "I feel like I've always been almost like a Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer], where I wanna stand the fuck up and walk around my drums. Sometimes you're, like, 'Lars, sit fucking down, dude.' But he's just feeling it. I've always been that kind of drummer that was standing up on my fucking stool. And I'm singing too, so people are looking at me more than they would a normal drummer, maybe. So I feel like I always wanted to be more active, and being in the front, you're just way more interactive with the crowd and you feel that way more than being way at the back. And it's fun, man. I have had fun doing it, for sure."

Asked if he immediately had the confidence to pull it off once he became the frontman of ATREYU, Brandon said: "I wanted to have it so that people wouldn't have a reason to fucking talk shit. I wanted to present myself on stage and my voice in a way that people would be, like, 'Oh, I can't say anything.' That doesn't exist. Especially on the Internet, people are just fucking assholes. But it was the kind of thing where in my head it was, like, 'I just need to make sure that I'm going out there and doing something that I don't think people can talk shit on.' Whether you like me or you like him better or whatever, it's, like, you could at least respect what I'm doing. And then even from there, it's gone on where, like, now I'm screaming a lot more in the band too. With Porter [bassist Marc McKnight] in the band, it's, like, fuck, he has an insane voice. It was, like, we don't need it, but mentally, it was, like, 'Well, I wanna show people I can do this too.' So it was a lot of that. But I wouldn't say I worried about it, 'cause I was confident in my abilities, but it was definitely in my head where it was, like, 'I have to be fucking great — or else people are gonna talk shit.' … They're gonna talk shit anyways. I mean, Alex hasn't been in our band for, like, fucking — what? — six years? It's a long fucking time. And still it's, like, 'Bring Alex back?' It's, like, bro… It'd be, like, one of your friends being, like, 'Man, I love your ex-wife more.' It's, like, 'Dude, we've been divorced for six years. Move on.' But there's always gonna be those 150 people that still will do that till the end of time."

Elaborating on some of the negative online feedback ATREYU has received after making its most recent lineup change, Brandon said: "A lot of times it's funny 'cause people will say shit on the Internet as if it's fact. We've gotten that a lot. It's, like, 'The fucking band died with Alex.' And we're, like, 'Well we're on tour with IRON MAIDEN. So it obviously did not.' It's, like, our band died with Alex. Well, we just had the number one most added song at radio this week. Quite obviously not. But then it's again, you're just kind of one fuckhead that wants to do that on the Internet. It's, like, no one is fucking listening. No one fucking cares.

"My favorite thing to do is when they… I'm very aware that I'm not your average lead singer type. I'm a big motherfucker that, I'm not fucking little skinny boy in cutesy fucking jeans," he continued. "My favorite, though — I don't ever respond to whatever, but whenever someone's, like, 'You fucking fatass' or whatever, I'll respond with, 'That's your move? I will quote comment, like, 'That's what you're doing. That's what you're attacking? Okay. I'm gonna tell your mom. She's gonna be very disappointed.'"

Asked if he and his ATREYU bandmates still talk to Alex at all, Brandon said: "No. I think it's just better that way. I have had the imagination going wild, where it's, like, I run into him at a show, or I see him at the grocery store or something, like, what would happen? Someday I would love to have a conversation with that dude and talk about history and talk about everything that happened and whatever. And I'm not saying we need to be friends or whatever, but, yeah, of course, I don't want negative thoughts with anyone in my life. It's not a healthy thing to live with. Which we don't. I feel like I've always been very vocal about everything he's done too. I fucking bought a DEAD ICARUS shirt [Alex's new band] from his webstore and I wear it. It was, like, cool. You're doing that. It's making you happy. Make the shit you wanna make and live. I think it's important for everyone to be happy in life. And I think that the truth of the matter is I think that both parties are much more happy in the current situation than we were before. So I wish nothing but the best for the dude. We all do."

ATREYU's new studio album, "The End Is Not The End", will be released on April 24 via Spinefarm.

Image credit: Rock & Metal From The Front Row