AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW THE ATLAS MOTH’S STAVROS GIANNOPOULOS
The Atlas Moth‘s new record An Ache for the Distance was a pleasant surprise, and it quickly become one of my favorites of the year after I first heard it this Summer. I was bummed I missed their show in NYC earlier this fall, and double-bummed their tour with Batillus and Kowloon Walled City this month didn’t touch the East Coast at all, so I jumped at the opportunity to interview guitarist/vocalist Stavros Giannopoulos. We talked about the new album, Stavros’ love of witch-house music, ignoring the haters and Internet trolls and Stavros’ love of anti-Emmure articles on MetalSucks. Our chat, after the jump.
This tour that you’re about to go on, who’s that with and where does it go?
It’s with Batillus and Kowloon Walled City. It starts tonight in Minneapolis and heads out west to the West Coast.
Awesome. I know that you guys are road dogs; you spend a lot of time out on the road. Have you been out that way before?
Yeah. We did one West Coast tour and that was earlier this year with Helmet and Crowbar on the Metalliance Tour, so we hadn’t been out there before that. We’d been trying to get out there all last year, but it never worked out. That’s why we made it a point to do it again right now, because they are just so much more receptive to what we’re doing than the East Coast is.
Why do you think that is?
Probably because weed’s legal.
[Laughter]
I don’t consider us a part of that sludge thing in the traditional way, but I think it’s a bit more popular out there than it is on the East Coast. A lot more people are still into hardcore on the East Coast than on the West Coast.
How was that Metalliance Tour for you guys?
Super rough, man. When you’re on tour [in a van] and following buses; it’s hard. It was only us and a merch guy. So it was 6 dudes, and we were playing at 6:30 every night, and then we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us and a load in that’s 11 hours from the end of the show. It was rough. But it was also fun because we met a lot of bands. There were some bands that definitely don’t deserve to be treated like they’re something really special or whatever because they treated us like shit. Then the guys in Helmet, Crowbar and Vitus are all really fucking cool and treated us like equals. It’s good when you go out on tour with some bands for a long time and they’re not assholes and pricks. None of those guys were, which was a huge plus.
Do you feel like things are building for you guys? This is the second album, so you’ve been through this process once before already. Do you feel that things are moving in the right direction?
On the East Coast there are places that we’ve been playing for four years. We’ve been touring since 2008; we toured before our first record came out. You would show up to a town and two people would watch you. By no means are we packing places, but it was nice that when we showed up in like New York last time there were 90 people. You would show up to a place and there would be two people, and now there are 50 there on a Tuesday night. We’re definitely noticing something for sure.
That’s awesome. I definitely noticed, from the perspective of what I do (being ensconced on the internet metal scene 24/7), that there is more of a palpable buzz about this last record. I think it’s cool that you guys are seeing the benefits of that.
Yeah, I totally think I am. Who knows? It’s been out for a few weeks. I hope things go farther from here, but yeah, it’s cool. The last record was fairly ignored except by a few people. At the same time, this record is far greater than the last one.
I agree. I think that the new one is cool because it straddles a lot of lines. It’s got the doomy kind of punk ethos thing going but it’s also very melodic and accessible in a very unique way. I think that allows you guys to appeal to a lot of different crowds.
That wasn’t an idea that we had when we were doing the record by any means. We don’t really think about that; we just do what we do. I think in the last year because we toured with all these metal bands, I think as a whole we have really gotten over metal. I was thinking about my top 10 list of the year, and I don’t think there’s going to even be 5 metal records on there. I’m not saying that there haven’t been a lot of great records – there are tons, but there are so many other styles of music that we all listen to collectively. It’s not supposed to be a metal band; it’s supposed to be a band.
What do you guys listen to, then?
Right now, as hipster as it may sound, a lot of Witch-house. [Laughs] I didn’t even know that it was a fucking genre. I’ve been listening to creepy Portishead stuff now for years.
Witch-house?
Yeah, Witch-house, spooky hip-hop that’s going on right now.
Dude, I don’t even know that that was a thing, that’s how ensconced I am in metal every day.
I guess that it’s super hipster, and I had no clue that it was. I heard an electronic band that was melodic and scary sounding and thought that it was fucking amazing. All of a sudden I’m into it. I don’t sit on Pitchfork everyday. When I read about stuff nowadays, I read MetalSucks when you guys talk shit about Emmure.
[Laughter]
That’s my day right there. I’m so lost about the whole genre thing and this, that and the other – what’s hipster and what’s not. I got really into that [Inaudible] record too and someone was like “that’s some hipster bullshit”. I was like “okay, it sounds like new wave”. I have no idea what the hipster shit is.
I have no idea. I used to have a beat on that stuff when I worked at labels and stuff, but these days I just don’t even have any idea. Alright, Witch-house, MetalSucks’ readers are going to get a kick out of that – quite possibly at your expense. But who gives a fuck?
Yeah, yeah. I’m already expecting it.
[Laughter]
I’m always looking for stuff that isn’t metal. Probably for the same reasons that you are. I’m going to check it out, maybe it’s cool.
Yeah, totally. There is another thing that is super hipster too called Hooray for Earth that I’ve been really into. We were talking about our top 10 of the year, and I’m pretty sure most of my records came out last year. I don’t pay attention to most of this bullshit. I don’t even know. I totally miss stuff until somebody asks “have you ever heard of this?”
It’s hard when you’re in a band and touring all the time and you can’t sit in front of a computer and click shit all day and check stuff out. It’s hard to keep track of stuff, but that speaks to the authenticity of the music that you guys are making because it’s not just based on what your peers are doing.
Totally. I love Yob; they are one of my favorite bands, even though I am not totally familiar with the entire Yob catalogue. I never really had the time to sit down and absorb it. When it comes down to any influence from anybody around us, I think 90% of what we do is “let’s not do that”. I remember when we were doing the last record, we did a lot of noise stuff in between tracks and we were on a super Pink Floyd kick. We sat there and we worked on all those little parts for fucking ever. When it came out and everyone was like “yeah, there’s a bunch of bullshit between the songs,” I was like “god damn it, it’s not bullshit. We actually worked on that”. Then we were talking to other bands and they said “yeah, you know, for the noise between songs you just turn down 30 pedals and recorded 40 minutes of it and cut it up and put it in there,” it was like “dude, really? God damn it, we spent so much time making noise on that record purposefully”. Most of the time when we’re hearing shit, the next time we do this, this is what we have a problem with and everybody else is doing it. So fuck it, we’re not doing it.
So it was a conscious effort on this record to forego all that stuff and just write tunes?
We basically walked in there knowing that we didn’t want to have noise between songs; other than that, we just kind of went for it. That was the only thing that we walked in there knowing, what we weren’t going to do. Everything else was like “let’s see what goes on”. There was a song that only Tony, our drummer, and I knew. We played it how I had it laid out. I came back from work the next day and it was all done. It was like “holy fuck that just happened”. We weren’t thinking about what it should sound like or worrying if it’s to hipster or too doom or whatever. It didn’t matter to us. It was whatever came out.
Yeah, yeah, totally. What else can you tell us about either the new record or writing process or tours you guys have coming up?
We have a couple of things that we’re working on as far as tours going but nothing solidified yet, so it’s probably not worth mentioning. There’s a show out in Philly in February that I think we’re going to do, and then I think we have some March U.S. touring and we’re working on some Europe stuff right now. At this time, I don’t have anything confirmed by any means. I’m really stoked about the record; I think it came out great. I’m very happy with the results on it all. I think Chris Bruni [of Profound Lore Records] is doing a fucking killer job getting it out there to the right crowd. With Candlelight, they were just throwing us out there to the doom crowds. That’s like throwing someone into cold water. We’re only sort of a doom thing. Profound Lore has pushed us towards an audience that will get it, and I think he understands how we want to be perceived.
That’s an interesting perspective but it brings up: where do you guys want to go? Do you want to be, for a lack of a better term, in a smaller more underground metal world or do you see the Atlas Moth growing into something potentially much bigger?
Obviously it would be kick ass to not worry about having to pay my electric bill every month.
[Laughter]
That would be awesome. I think being real with the fact with what is possible and what you can accomplish in music is a very important thing. You can’t put too many hopes and wishes in something. At the same time, we’re a working band. We go out there and tour and do all that. We definitely want to see our hard work pay off. I’d be happy doing this how it is with my friends for as long as I can. Do I think we’re going to push our shit beyond what we already have? Yeah, most likely. When we were in the studio doing this record, there were definitely a lot of times when we were looking at each other going “dude, people are going to fucking hate this”. [Laughs] We were just totally ready for people to say that this entire record sucks.
Some people hate it and some people love it.
I want you to have some emotion about it. I don’t want you to be middle of the road about it. I think that was the problem with the last album. We worked hard on it and were really excited about it, and the people were literally like “yeah, whatever. It’s average. It sucks”. I’d rather people either love it or hate it – no middle ground.
I haven’t heard anyone hate this record.
Thank god. [Laughs] The reviews have been really good. There is obviously some internet trolling going on, but I don’t put much stock in that.
You can’t.
Everyone has an opinion. I know that not everyone is going to like our band, and that’s totally cool because I hate tons of fucking bands. So of course someone is going to hate what I do.
Totally. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Good luck on tour.
For sure, man. Thank you very much. You keep up the amazing articles about shitty metal please.
[Laughs]
There’s nothing I like more than going on there and seeing a bunch of bands’ videos that I fucking can’t stand. It’s fucking amazing.
[Laughs] Alright, man. Do you want me to include that quote in the interview or not?
Please do. More and more of the less serious articles please.
-VN
Bottom photo credit: Samantha Marble for Brooklyn Vegan
