The weather was stifling in Sacramento, CA so I waited on Atreyu's air conditioned bus while drummer / vocalist Brandon Saller finished up a phone call outside.  I tell him to take his time, no hurry, to which members of the band reply, "It's not important, just his wife."  I give my congratulations to the newlywed while the Lead Sails Paper Anchor 2.0 CD makes the rounds to be signed by all the members, save vocalist Alex Varkatzas, who was inside the venue. 

Marc McKnight, the band's bass player eyes the CD and gets excited, "How did you get that?" he asks.  "We haven't even seen that yet." The enhanced CD with photos, bonus tracks and videos was released on April 22.  I pass it over and he gives it a good looking over before signing it and returning it back to me.  Saller asks if I mind going outside to do the interview, "Where it's more quiet."

We discuss the Taste of Chaos tour, karaoke and being the 'only girl in the family.' 

PUM:  So Brandon, how is the tour going so far?

Saller:  It's almost over, a couple shows left, but it's been amazing.  I think it's one of the best tours we've done with tons of kids and the energy's good.  It's been fun.

PUM:  What are your plans after TOC wraps?

Saller:  We're doing some shows in Canada with Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet For My Valentine, then some regular shows, then to Australia with A7X and BFMV.  Then we come back for a break until Projekt Revolution this summer.

PUM:  That's with...

Saller:  Linkin Park.

PUM:  Now Brandon, I have a serious question for you before we delve into the lighter stuff.

Saller:  Sure.

PUM:  While doing research for the interview I came across something on your MySpace page that cause me some concern.

Saller:  Okay.

PUM:  A video of you guys performing a Rick Astley song at karaoke.

Saller: (laughs) Yeah.

PUM:  Care to explain yourselves and where you arrested for assault?

Saller:  (laughs) No, it's a good jam, it's a good song.  That song's been like a joke for like the past four years.  That's the song I always karaoke to.  Some guy just happened to come up with us and sing as well and it was awkward, so we decided to put it on You Tube. (laughs)

PUM:  That's funny.  So speaking of covers, why did you decide to cover Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" and Faith No More's "Epic?"

Saller:  Bon Jovi was a while back.  We'd done a cover and decided to record it for a re-release.  Epic was always one of those songs we'd thought would make a good cover song, you know what I mean?  We never want to do obvious cover songs.  We thought it would be obvious to do another Bon Jovi song or 80's song.  So we chose "Epic" and did it our way and we also covered The Descendents "Clean Sheets," which is an old punk band we all like to listen to.

PUM:  The covers are great.  I actually saw Faith No More live and I think you guys probably did it better.

Saller:  Thanks.  Well, we tried to nail it, we did it pretty much the same, just did our own kind of vocals.

[ed note: Both "Epic" and "Clean Sheets" are featured on the Lead Sails Paper Anchor 2.0 version]   

PUM:  This question concerns Alex, but since you share vocal responsibilities with him I thought you could comment.  How humbling do you think it was for him to take singing lessons for the new album?

Saller:  I think, yeah, but I think he's a person that is always wanting to better himself in every way. He's constantly working out and doing all sorts... and I think singing was just another part of that.  He wanted to sing and he wanted to sing better so it's just a challenge for him, but it's definitely a big thing to take on, big shoes to step into as a singer.  And he could always sing, he just never really did and he wanted to...

PUM:  Hone his craft?

Saller:  Exactly.  It was a challenge but he was excited to do it. 

PUM:  It shows a dedication to the band.

Saller:  Oh yeah.

PUM:  The reviews for Lead Sails Paper Anchor are amazing.

Saller:  Yeah, it's been good so far.

PUM:  It debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200 Chart, number 8!  That's unusual for your genre so I'd call that more than good!

Saller:  Yeah it's crazy.  Our last record was the first record we had in the top ten and this record we did it again.  Which is cool for a heavier band like us to do, to actually accomplish things like that.  We're accomplishing a lot of things that I think bands like us haven't or don't usually, so we're lucky in that sense.

PUM:  Whenever a band evolves their sound they often suffer the label of 'sell out' by fans of their previous work.  How do you respond to that?

Saller:  It's something you learn to shut off.  Our band has always played and wrote music that we like and we want to hear ourselves, so it's fun for us to play it.  So we really don't care.  If you like it, that's amazing, that's the goal but if you don't like it, we don't really care to hear about it, that's fine.  You don't have to like a band, no one is putting a gun to your head... shut the fuck up! (laughs) Nobody cares!I sleep the same at night whether 13 year old kids think that our new record sucks or they love it. Whatever.

PUM:  I find it ironic, that attitude with bands who explore new realms and challenge themselves because they are taking a gamble, a risk of alienating their established fanbase.

Saller:  We could easily have written The Curse again and kept those same 400,000 fans that bought that record and stop there, been happy and not gone anywhere and not done well anywhere else, but why would we?  That's dumb.  It comes down to bands having the balls to just do it.  You either put up or shut up.  We could write the same shit but that would be the pussy way out.  We actually have the balls to write what we want and have fun because we like it.  The greatest bands in fucking history weren't huge because they did cookie cutter shit.  They did things on their own and did it their way.  It's funny you mentioned Matt (A7X) saying their label didn't ask for those songs on that album.  Our label signed us because they loved Atreyu and we wrote the songs we did for the album and they were like whoa, cool!  This is awesome!

PUM:  And I understand that Hollywood Records doesn't sign a lot of heavy bands.  You share a label with Hillary Duff and Raven Simone! (laughs)

Saller:  Yeah, Breaking Benjamin is the heaviest band on the label and they're not really heavy.  That's why we went to that label.  We could have been thrown in with a bunch of bands like us or we could be the only ones.

PUM:  You probably get more attention, like the only girl in a family.

Saller:  Exactly!

PUM:  That was a smart move and I feel like the fans who don't appreciate your changes are probably unwilling to accept that they, themselves, are stunted and not ready to mature and move on.

Saller:  Exactly, all the people who like what we're doing still are the people who have grown with us.  Kids who were our age when we wrote Suicide Kisses and The Curse are our age now, they get it.  It's hard for people to move on, but I don't understand.  There are bands that I listened to, that I love, that have changed, but you like a band for what it is.  We take each record for what it is.  Our band will never have only one sound.  It's funny.  A lot of people who hated our record at first have told me in person or on our website, "I hated your record at first but then I hear it at my friend's house and I think it's my favorite record you've ever done."  It's like they heard something different the first time and tuned out and then sat down and paid attention to it and like it.

PUM:  Well as an individual I have really eclectic tastes, so I can imagine five members, each with their own tastes, it has to be a challenge to come up with a sound you all agree on and say, "Okay, this is Atreyu."

Saller:  That's why it sounds like it does, because there is five different people with five different ideas.

PUM:  You managed to bring it together.  It's a nice blend with lots of depth.  Now, I understand you have a lot of fans in the military.

Saller:  Yes!

PUM:  What would you like to say to those men and women who are listening to Atreyu to help them through their difficult tours overseas?

Saller:  That's awesome.  I think that it's cool that our music can help people like that.  I think as a band... I don't want this to come across the wrong way obviously.  No one in our band is overly political or for or against anything, but we understand the fact that being over there fucking sucks.  There's nothing fun about it.  Some of the soldiers who have come to our shows said, "It fucking sucked! I would have shot myself in the face if I didn't have your band."  You're sitting in the desert with huge bugs and there's nothing to do and it's hot and there's no reason to be there.

PUM:  And no porn or beer!

Saller:  (laughs) There's nothing.  I can empathize with the fact of you're in hell for absolutely no reason. 

PUM: You're on a tour of your own.

Saller:  Yeah, but I at least have an air conditioned bed to sleep in every night.  For them it sucks, so it's cool that we can help people like that.  My wife's dad wasn't military but he worked in Iraq and was there for a couple of months.  He had a group of escorts, about eight of them, and they loved our band so we sent them a bunch of shirts and CDs and stuff.  It might make them happy for a week or whatever.  So it's always cool. It's a good thing.  It's awesome that we can help them in any way.  It's really cool.

By: Karma Jensen - Contributing Writer

 

For more Atreyu, including pictures from Taste of Chaos 2008,

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