Audible Mentions interview with Atoms!

What are Atoms? Atoms are made of electrons, neutrons, and protons. In this case, Atoms are a San Diego band made of punk rock, spastic pogo maneuvers and recycled originality. When I say recycled originality, it is not a bad thing. There are influences for every era and this generation needed a fresh take on the originators of punk rock. First time I heard Atoms play, they reminded me of The Dickies and Devo. While listening, I felt like I was at a punk rock show in Delmar’s parent’s garage down in Chula Vista. (Those who grew up here in the music scene and were into local punk bands like Amenity and Battalion of Saints know exactly what I am talking about). The Atoms consist of 5 band members: Dee – Electric Guitar, Joey – Vocals, Branden – Bass Guitar, Kait-O – Keys and Christy Beats - Drums. Atoms just released their self-titled EP on Sweet Tooth Records. Without further ado, let’s meet the band called Atoms.
SDI: Being a Devo fan myself, I could not help but notice your photos with Mark Mothersbaugh on your myspace page. How did you get to meet him and what did you talk about?

JOEY: The first time we met Mr. Mothersbaugh came about when Kaitlin (Keyboards) and I stalked DEVO outside the house of blues before their gig. After waiting around for what seemed like hours, we finally spotted Mark’s giant metallic frames and immediately ambushed him. He was rather kind about the whole thing and invited us in for their sound check. At the time we were actually underage so it was quite a treat to watch a private show when we couldn’t even get into the venue. The second time we met him at his art gallery showing in Santa Ana. He was having a signing for his new book and we were able to give him a copy of our new record, which he much appreciated. In fact, he began reading our lyrics and studying our insert right away!

SDI: What came first, beauty or the beat? What I mean by that is, how did you meet? Did you come together because of your similar style or because you all played music?

JOEY: Neither. Derek (Guitars) and I met in high school in 2002 and I turned him onto the nostalgic punk sounds that my parents had turned onto me. I had an old keyboard under my bed, and found an old guitar my dad had and lent it to Derek. Naturally, when we started out we were quite phenomenal even without prior instruction on how to play our instruments (ha-ha). We then recruited a couple schoolmates who wanted to play bass and keyboard. We tried to follow preprogrammed beats from a boom box stereo that we had. Of course it wasn’t flexible enough for the live show so our bassist and second keyboardist quit at the same time and the ATOMS project went on hold until after high school. At the time the biggest buzz was post-’hardcore’ music. Derek became curious with this craze and met Branden in this scene. Branden had been looking around for a band to play in and Derek invited him in for the sole purpose that we needed a bassist. Honestly, his style and musical taste was the furthest thing from our idea or a rock band but as soon as he heard and understood our direction he was interested. Later, Derek brought in his friend Kaitlin to play keys, and she was a tad hesitant at first because she thought that we would sound like another bland, regurgitated hardcore scream thing. Upon listen to our early demo he had provided, she was hooked. Kaitlin brought in her school chum Melissa (Christy Beats) who had dabbled in some percussion dance beats. The line-up has been
solid ever since.

SDI: Atoms and the study of atoms are a world unto themselves. Do you consider the Atoms to be in a category of your own in the music scene at this time?

JOEY: Yes (I hope so that is). I envision ATOMS as a product or reaction to sounds from the past and ideas of today and tomorrow. We get pigeon-holed as a ‘throw-back’ or ‘77′ group quite a bit because at a glance it’s easy to pick up on our high-energy punk-rock behavior. Those same people that write about us, have never watched ATOMS live, never read our lyrics or studied our album art (which are pretty pop influenced actually). Rock n’ roll right now is all a big mess with most bands regurgitating music that was digested years ago. We want to separate ourselves from this herd by experimenting with new sounds and structures within a 2:50 min. pop song while tackling subjects that effect humans presently and in the near future. Basically, we hope to chock catchy, weird pop songs with enough fresh vital information to keep your brains from spinning in this fast, ‘modern’ world.

SDI: Why did you decide on the name Atoms?

JOEY: The whole world is connected by atoms and we would like to connect to that world through our music.

SDI: Speed question: First band, book, color, movie, and record store to come to each of your minds.

For this question, each band member picked a category-
JOEY - Sparks
DEREK - Playboy or Girl
Brand-O - Purple, no, black, no, purple, yeah… black
KAIT-O - Meatballs!
Christy-Beats - Record City (my twin works there)

SDI: Who cuts your hair?

JOEY: Hahahaha - My mother. She’s actually the official Atoms hair stylist. Yes, that’s right kids; Atoms do care about hair-do’s and don’ts!

SDI: How did you get on the Sweet Tooth Records label and who runs it?

JOEY: We used to hang around Record City quite a bit. Employee Kelly Alvarez heard our demo and immediately wanted to put us on wax. It took awhile but we did it, it’s been quite a battle ever since. Getting our record heard by the masses and all, but we’re up for the challenge.

SDI: Out of all the shows so far, where have you had the most fun and felt your music was really being appreciated?

JOEY: Branden (Bassist) actually became a Che core member recently. Meaning, he co-operates the facility so we play there quite often. It can be a real cluster fuck because there’s no security or authority whatsoever but that’s also why we like it. Pretty bittersweet. Drunk retro punk types, creep out of the surrounding woods but they love the show and we love them.

SDI: Where do you see the band going from here? Do you have a tour scheduled?

JOEY: Nothing is scheduled right now. We are working heavily in the studio/laboratory. Atoms want to make it into show biz pretty bad and that’s no joke. Right now we are content with our place, being easily recognized in town for our achievements but we have bigger goals. Personally, I would love to see ATOMS get some more recognition and alter people’s perception of a rock n’ roll band.

SDI: I saw you play at both The Casbah and Bar Pink Elephant, you put on a great show (I secretly wanted to start a pit). When is your next show in San Diego?

JOEY: Hahaha. You should have! Right now we are working on our new looks, new ideas and most importantly, new sounds. I believe our next show will be at the Ken Cinema in January. It’s part of the Ken’s “5 Crazy Nights of Rock n’ Roll.” Basically, a local band will play each night before a famous rock n’ roll documentary. We get to open for the Talking Heads movie ‘Stop Making Sense’ so we are all stoked on that. Branden also works at the Ken Cinema, and I feel I should mention he is the booker and real team leader of ATOMS so please call him at 851-7867 (that is actually a false number please don’t call this person!).

SDI: Are you all San Diego natives? If so, what part of town did you grow up in? If not, where did you come from?

JOEY: Were all born and raised in Chula Vista. Right before you hit the border.

SDI: According to your page, one of your influences is Anderson Cooper. Did you know he was the son of Gloria Vanderbilt?

JOEY: Yes. At first I think my reaction to that was ‘ewwwww royalty blah’ but I truly believe that his investigations are some of the best to ever hit our TV screens. I mean you have to suspend the notion that he was born with a silver spoon and really look at his delivery on stories like the gay-curing church and that pyscho ‘psychic’ who was ruining people lives with her fake antics- it’s really compelling stuff that ‘3:60′. I am glad that you brought that up because when you usually go on bands Web pages they list only musical influences. We thought we would mix it up with the honest truth, like pop-culture, sex, religion and even biological warfare!

SDI: What is a word or phrase that each of you use regularly?

JOEY: I think the cool-hip phrase we all share is “holy banana bread!”

SDI: Anything else you want your fans to know about the band?

JOEY: If any fans are actually reading this, I’d like to mention that we are in the process of creating Atoms lyric sheet programs and limited edition prophylactics available soon at our upcoming live performances.
We’re all ATOMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Atoms = Building blocks. This band seems to base their building blocks on “popular music for unpopular people!”

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