New ATREYU Songs Are 'A Punch In The Face For Heavy Music'

Australia's Music Feeds recently conducted an interview with ATREYU drummer/vocalist Brandon Saller. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On how ATREYU decided to get back together and start working on new music again:

"I think it was probably six to eight months ago, we kind of just started talking again. It started coming up a year and a half ago, and it just wasn't right. So we started more seriously talking about it and decided that we wanted to dip our toes back in and inch our way back into playing again. It really felt right for all of us and with the state of the music world right now, it felt like a good time to do that.

"It was funny because a lot of people had speculation and were talking about a lot of stuff with [the celebration of the tenth anniversary of ATREYU's second album] 'The Curse', and I think that a lot people just expected maybe some 'Curse' shows to come up when we first [announced] we were coming back. And that definitely came up, but it was the kind of thing where we just felt like making music again more than anything. So it started as kind of a… The idea for that turned into having more interest in making more music. We started writing again and jamming and went into the studio with Fred Archambault, [whom] I've done stuff with with my band HELL OR HIGHWATER; he's just a great producer and engineer. So we went into the studio and recorded some music, just to see how it felt. So we went from there and announced a couple of shows here in the States. Everything's kind of fallen into place in a pretty special way, so it's a lot of fun right now."

On the way they approached bringing back ATREYU:

"Obviously, in the last almost four years of our lives, we've all pursued different things and they're all very important things in our lives. So the kind of way that we wanted to go about things was to reintroduce ATREYU to our lives, but also be able to still do the other things that are important to us as well. But it just felt like the right time. I feel like all the things we're doing this year, all the plans we have so far are really fun and interesting and special moments. And I think that it's gonna make things a lot of fun for us going back and dipping our toes in the water again.

"We always knew we had great fans, but I don't think we realized it to the extent it was until we went away and then how the reaction's been since we've come back. It's been insane."

On the direction of the new ATREYU material:

"It's hard to say. One of my favorite records that we've ever made is [2007's] 'Lead Sails Paper Anchor'. I love that record. I feel like where ATREYU is most like ATREYU should be is somewhere in the middle of 'The Curse' and [2006's] 'A Death-Grip On Yesterday' era. And I feel like the new stuff we're writing doesn't sound like that at all. It's a total reincarnation of my band and it's fucking as heavy as can be and as aggressive as can be, and it's definitely a punch in the face for heavy music in general. But we weren't really focusing on what era or what kind of record we should go back to and try to emulate, it was just, like, 'Let's give a hundred percent of everything that's inside of us that we need to get out.' I think it's blistering. We're stoked."

Vocalist Alex Varkatzas had this to say about ATREYU's recently released new song "So Others May Live": "'So Others May Live' is inspired by one of my best friends, who is ex-military. The things our troops go through to protect us are pretty unreal. Their treatment after leaves a lot to be desired, as well."

He continued, "The song honors them and condemns our government's constant deployment of these brave souls. The people who fight and die for us often come from a certain socio-economic background — the working class. The people making these decisions to send our nation's children to war come from positions of privilege and wealth; their kids aren't the ones getting deployed and they aren't risking their lives every day at work. Yet they order the working class to go 'keep us safe' at the drop of a hat, it feels like. It's bullshit. It's the politicians and the rich of this country waging war to keep the majority pre-occupied, so they can make money and advance their bullshit political agendas. The expense is 'expendable' working class/poor Americans' lives, never the rich."

ATREYU will appear at Knotfest in Southern California on October 25.