Why ATREYU Decided To Cover AUDIOSLAVE's 'Like A Stone': 'No One's Really Touched That Song'

ATREYU guitarists Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel spoke to "The Dark", an active rock music program that airs nightly on 94 Rocks KFML, about "The Pronoia Sessions" — the band's upcoming collection of eight reimagined greatest hits and two nostalgic tribute covers — due out this fall on Spinefarm. The digital release will begin streaming on October 25 while vinyl and CDs will hit streets on November 8.

Regarding why they chose to record a cover of AUDIOSLAVE's "Like A Stone" for "The Pronoia Sessions", Dan said: "There's several layers to it. One, Chris Cornell and SOUNDGARDEN and AUDIOSLAVE have all been bands that have all kind of resonated with us over the years, even since we were kids. He's got such a signature powerful voice. And in the studio, a lot of times when we're recording, especially when other people are in the studio with us, and they hear Brandon [Saller, ATREYU vocalist] sing, a lot of them reference Chris Cornell. They're, like, 'Man, he's kind of got a Chris Cornell vibe. He's an incredible singer.' And we're, like, 'Yeah, he does kind of have a Chris Cornell vibe to him as far as his tone and stuff.' So when it came time to like add some covers, we're, like, 'Why don't we do AUDIOSLAVE's 'Like A Stone'?' because it's got Cornell vibes in there — he's singing on it — but no one's really touched it. For whatever reason, no one's really touched that song. And we're, like, 'We'll touch it.' And we did — we touched it very, very gently. [Laughs] And, yeah, it came out really cool, and it was a really, really powerful thing. So that's why we kind of went with that."

Miguel talked about ATREYU's cover of "Mary Jane's Last Dance", which is also included on "The Pronoia Sessions". He said: "It's a Tom Petty classic. I mean, we all grew up with it, and Brandon in particular, him and his dad and his brother are huge Tom Petty fans. I mean, we all are, really. I don't think you can play music and not be a Tom Petty fan. So, yeah, it's another song we decided to touch."

When "The Pronoia Sessions" was first announced last week, ATREYU said in a statement: "This album, to us, was something that initially came from the fans. During COVID, we started toying around with doing acoustic performances for the first time in our career. Since the release of 'Gone (Reimagined)', the outpouring of love and interest from our fans was overwhelming. It got us thinking...what if we didn't just make some of our classics acoustic, what if we took them to a whole new place? We feel with this album we have carved out a new home for these songs to stand on their own. They are new entities in our musical landscape.

"Making this album brought us such a sense of joy and creativity. It was as if the universe handed us this moment and it was meant to happen…hence, 'The Pronoia Sessions'."

Commenting on "Like A Stone", ATREYU had this to say: "The covers on this album presented us with the opportunity to take some of our favorites and make them our own. The album has an overarching, somber feel. We wanted songs that would stay in that realm. 'Like A Stone' is one of the most iconic rock songs of our time. Chris Cornell's vocal is a treasure. We hope to have done right by his legacy."

ATREYU is a band with a legacy seamlessly intertwined with formative experiences for a diverse legion of listeners worldwide. 'The Pronoia Sessions' deconstructs, recreates, and reshapes the Orange County, California, band's beloved anthems (and cover songs) as a haunting and hypnotic new collection. What began as an acoustic album evolved into a grand re-imagining of ATREYU classics.

The genesis stretches back to a series of acoustic performances at special events on the road. "We had the idea to do a show similar to NIRVANA's MTV 'Unplugged' as a one-off thing," explains frontman Brandon Saller. "Then we thought, 'Why not spend some time on it in the studio?' And it built from there. 'How far can we push this?' It spawned from there and unexpectedly turned into this monster."

"The Pronoia Sessions" track listing:

01. Becoming The Bull (reimagined)
02. Save Us (reimagined)
03. Ex's & Oh's (reimagined)
04. Right Side Of The Bed (reimagined)
05. Like A Stone (AUDIOSLAVE Cover)
06. Drowning (reimagined)
07. The Theft (reimagined)
08. Gone (reimagined)
09. Warrior (reimagined)
10. Mary Jane's Last Dance (Tom Petty cover)

ATREYU's riffs, hooks, melodies, lyrics, and passion are essential parts of a vibrant subculture's emergence across theaters, clubs, festivals, radio, and playlists. The artistic fearlessness powering landmark albums like "The Curse" and "Lead Sails Paper Anchor" is even stronger in 2024. "Becoming The Bull", one of the two gold singles released in 2007, takes on new life on "The Pronoia Sessions".

The songs reimagined on "The Pronoia Sessions" stretch back to 2004's "The Curse" ("Right Side Of The Bed") and 2006's "A Death-Grip On Yesterday" ("Ex's & Ohs", "The Theft"). Two of their biggest hits, "Warrior" and "Save Us", are reworked from 2021's "Baptize". And there are new versions of "Gone" and "Drowning" from their most recent release, 2023's "The Beautiful Dark Of Life".

In addition to their own songs, ATREYU offers dark takes on TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS' classic "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and the enduring, Chris Cornell-led AUDIOSLAVE ballad "Like A Stone".

The band says: "Let's see how we can take what exits already and turn it on its head. With some of the older stuff, the vocals have a more melodic approach, but with much of the same phrasing," Saller explains. "We've also incorporated more members of the band. Porter sings, like on 'Ex's & Ohs'. On 'Right Side Of The Bed', there's a saxophone solo instead of a guitar solo, and it's Dan playing the saxophone."

Unbound by false restrictions about anything sounding "too heavy" or "too pop," ATREYU remains a creative beacon of hope for the people shaken by the suggestion that "rock is dead." They've broken into the Top 10 in the Billboard 200 more than once; two of their albums are certified gold.

ATREYU's unquenchable appetite for creative achievement and pursuit of a shared catharsis on stage drove them to form the band as teenagers around the turn of the millennium. It pushed them beyond their do-it-yourself beginnings to massive festival stages (including two runs on Ozzfest),sold-out headlining tours, movie and game soundtracks, and appearances alongside fellow genre standard-bearers, including LINKIN PARK, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, DEFTONES, SLIPKNOT and BRING ME THE HORIZON.

A bold chapter in the band's never-ending story of determination, "Baptize" was a definitive work for a new era. Like 2018's "In Our Wake" (which produced the band's biggest song of the streaming era, "The Time Is Now"),ATREYU recorded "Baptize" with producer John Feldmann. Guests included Jacoby Shaddix (PAPA ROACH),Travis Barker (BLINK-182) and Matt Heafy (TRIVIUM). Songs like "Warrior", "Catastrophe", "Save Us" and "Underrated" are massive, standing confidently in the band's catalog.

Breaking with music industry convention, the band's ninth studio album, "The Beautiful Dark Of Life", arrived first as a series of three four-song EPs, eventually collected all together with three more tracks. The band co-headlined with MEMPHIS MAY FIRE and toured with GODSMACK around the EPs.

Distorted Sound hailed the album as "a therapeutic exploration of the insecurities that plague many of us, taking the knowledge of that shared experience and wielding it to their own strength."

Adeptly combining the sounds of thrash, hardcore punk, and the new wave of Swedish death metal, ATREYU quickly evolved to a place where fans of everything from LINKIN PARK to LAMB OF GOD could come to the party. Adventurous, ambitious; ATREYU is best described plainly as a loud rock band.

As one prominent hard rock critic observed early in the band's career: "If you haven't figured out these guys are aiming for a bigger sound by now, you might want to try cleaning out your ears."

ATREYU is:

Brandon Saller - lead vocals
Dan Jacobs - guitar
Travis Miguel - guitar
Porter McKnight – bass

Photo credit: Porter McKnight