Atheist Interview

Thirteen years on from the demise of Death Metal's greatest purveyor's of technical metal, Atheist are back. Kelly Shaefer, lets loose about the bands reformation, life outside Atheist and and what lies ahead.

Hi guys, how are things with you?
Really great actually thanks!
Can I go back to the re-birth of Atheist? What factors lead to the reunion becoming a reality?
It was a very natural progression really, in the process of watching the change to music through tools like the internet which was literally not a reality when we were together, it turned new people onto our music through of course word of mouth, and as a result, I started looking for a label who would be interested in putting these records out as if they were new records. Relapse came with the enthusiasm needed, and we launched it in September 2005. The touring came as a result of the success of those re-issued albums. We have been blessed with timeless music that means more now than it ever did when we were together, and for that we are very humbled!
How are things now, are all the old issues laid to rest once and for all? Is it a case of being older and wiser?
I cant really say there were "issues" specifically that caused us to not be together any longer, it was more about losing Roger Patterson which led Steve Flynn to consider going to college, which led me to frustration in trying to keep it together, and so it came to a stop in 1993. Myself and Rand are the 2 that really had issue with one another as far as getting along. Me and Flynn have always been very very good friends. But yes we are a little older now and a lot wiser! It has been a blast!
So is the reunion a permanent or temporary situation?
Well I would say it is permanently temporary.
Can we expect new material or a new Atheist record any time soon?
No, we will not jade the integrity of this trilogy of music. It would cheapen it, and we will not do it for the money, or for the props etc. This is all about celebrating what we did that was misunderstood, so truthfully there is not need for new music, this shit has like 10 songs in each song hahaha so it has staying power for those who have not heard it before, each time you listen you will find something new. We just wanted to get out and play these songs for some people who appreciate technical death metal. And they have come out in droves! Metal is smarter than it has ever been!
The immediate commitment for the band is of course the European festival dates in August. How are you all looking forward to heading back to Europe?
Well we are in the thick of it right now, just got done with Wacken Open Air and it was incredible! 60,000 metal heads 3 days, it was SICK! We had been looking forward to all of this, but never expected it to be as good as it has been.
Rand Burkey won't be making the European dates. What's the story here?
Rand had some legal troubles which does not allow him to travel to Europe, it really threw us in a spin cause we had planned this whole thing around the original guys as many as possible. We had already announced dates when this shit went down, so we had a choice on canceling or forging on and making it happen. Fortunately Chris Baker from Gnostic (Flynn's new band) stepped up and did a great job of filling Rand's shoes at the last minute, and that folks is no easy feat!
There is then your first US show since 1991 at the Auditory Assault Festival. Who else is on the bill? You must be thrilled and very excited to be playing on home soil?
I think Monstrosity, Napalm Death, and many others, we are really looking
forward to playing again in the U.S. I am interested to see the difference in the metal scene compared to Europe. I don't think it's as strong as it is in central Europe, but we hope that the American metal fans will get off there asses and get out to limited amount of shows we will be doing. Its gonna be fun!
What can fans expect from the Atheist live show? Will the set be made up of songs from all three records or will you be focusing on a particular album?
No we are doing songs from all 3 records with the emphasis on the Unquestionable album. You can expect the celebration of musicianship, and brutal death metal in a marriage of metal like you have not heard very often. We are wery different than most metal bands you will see these days. We do not wear makeup, we do not have keyboards, its just kicking and screaming guitars....solos, and interesting lyrical topics, and ripping!!
How frustrating is it to have to hand over your guitar duties to Sonny Carson due to your tendonitis? Do you feel your role as the band's front man has changed as a result of being the singer rather than the singer / guitarist?
To be honest, I think it makes us a better live band, through my post Atheist years I went on to form a band called Neurotica, and we toured a lot, we did Ozzfest here in America in 2002 and that put me in front of 20,000 people a day and in that band I found my inner front man hahah. As a result I have learned to entertain in a different way than most are accustomed to in underground metal. It allows me to pull people in where they might be lost or disconnected due to the musical chaos ensuing in front of them. I still play guitar at home every day and I still write a lot so I get my fill of guitar that way.
Relapse Records have recently re-issued the whole Atheist back catalogue. What has been the reaction to the records second time around? Have you found there is a new audience for Atheist?
10 fold! It has surpassed all of our expectations without a doubt. We are really proud that the metal community has embraced it like they have. We owe all of that to smart writers directing the newbie's to our music. Not to mention there are 10 times as many kids into musicianship than was the case in 88-93. Most of the kids at shows are barely as old as the music, that speaks volumes about the music. it stands on its own after all of these years as if it were created last year. That's rare!
How did the deal with Relapse come about? Was it a case of the reunion, then the re-issues or the re-issues lead to the reunion?
	The re-issues led to the reunion for sure. After the success of the records being out there again, I spoke with Gordon Conrad at Relapse who is someone I have enormous respect for, and I asked him if he thought anyone would give a shit if we did some shows, so we put the hook in the water and the first fish was Wacken, that's a biggie and from there the doors flew right open. We were offered just about any festival we wanted to play, but we all have new babies and its not really feasible for us to climb on a bus and leave our homes and families for 8 weeks, so we picked what we wanted to do, and what we were able to do. We are doing a lot of flying though, we have 3 trips to Europe in about 9 weeks, that's a lot of back and forth and very expensive, so we are literally doing all of this without a crew, without a tour manger just to make it affordable for promoters to bring us to there festivals, this is not about money, its about music.
	Atheist have taken on an almost legendary status since the bands demise in 1993. Was it all daunting or even worrying when discussions began about reforming the band? You know former glories and all.
	Well we never want to disappoint, so we took great pride in making sure we rehearsed as much as we could, but we all live about 500 miles from one another so it was very hard to have to fly up to Atlanta for 3 days, jam for hours, and repeat that about 4 times before we headed over for the first shows. It's very difficult stuff to play, and top that off with the fact that we had to work Chris and Sonny in as new guitar players, that made it quite a challenge, but we have never been the kind of band that shies away from a challenge so we got it done! We knew that there would be a crowd of people who have heard about the legend of Atheist and they would have a "Impress me" kind of attitude. So that drove us to make it as good as it has been!
	Having been away from the scene for a number of years, or at least not in the guise of Atheist. What do you feel are the most significant changes, if indeed any?
	The demand for good musicianship, the knowledge of the roots of metal and the appreciation for the classics. This scene is now 20
years old, there are roots that are traceable and that was not the case early on when we were first together. There are many many great new bands, I think its just a perfect time for metal. The internet has been huge in the development of underground metal!
Does it feel at all strange taking to the stage knowing that many of the audience would have been in dippers when "Piece Of Time" was originally released?
Hell no, I love to educate my younger metal brethren. They all tell me they wished they were old enough to have experienced it back then, but I tell them its a much better time for it right now, its very cool!
With the number of 'classic' bands reforming for tours and albums are you at all worried the Atheist re-union will be seen as band wagon jumping?
Oh please brother? We have never been a band wagon band, we started this journey 3 years ago, before anybody else was reforming, and we are not doing it like any other band. We are not trying to re-live our youth and capitalize on all of this by putting out some shitty new album, just because we can ,you know what I mean? This is as honest a reunion as it can be. I think most people can feel that this is coming from the most pure of places.
You must be very proud to have "Unquestionable Presence" named in the top 20 Death Metal records of all time? Did you imagine 15 years on from the recording people would still be talking about the record?
No fucking way! This has all been a refreshing surprise and very very rewarding. When you can as an artist, create art that last longer than 15 minutes its a good thing, but 15 years... I have said in many interviews that I would not trade the legacy and integrity of Atheist for 100,000 record sold EVER! Most of the bad we were up against back in the day, and a mere footnote now, and they all outsold us in terms of shows and record sales, but never made the art that was capable of transcending generations of metal fans, that shit is priceless!
Have all other projects been put on hold for the time being, or are you all still continuing with outside interests?
Oh no I have more going on now than I should hahaha! I have my new label Starrfactory Records, and we are gonna be launching some great new bands in the coming years starting with Steve Flynn's new band Gnostic. They will be huge in the tech metal scene very soon. I have Unheard www.myspace.com/unheard which is my Sabbathy, stoner rock project that I put together with my good friend Mike Callahan on vocals. I have a project that I was asked to be involved in by the legendary Brian Johnson of ac/dc its called Big Machine www.myspace.com/bigmachine, that's a very vintage Bon Scott era AC/DC type thing, Brian wrote all of the tunes and asked me to sing on the demos that we are shopping. And then the mighty Neurotica will see the light of day in 2007 in Europe with a full length. Neurotica did really well here in the States , but never got a Euro release so I am working on that next year. Busy busy busy always!
Any final words for all the Atheist fans out there?
You have all inspired us, thank you all so very much for allowing us into your metal lives! we hope to play for you all in the coming year, turn on a friend, come out to the shows, we want to meet you all, and thanks to you for covering the band my friend. See you all at the shows. don't be a bootlegger, buy your music!

All images used with the kind permission of Atheist.com and Relapse Records.