ATOM BAND INTERVIEW

Atom Band by Paddy Eriksen

Hi its Riaan Nirhoo, rhythm guitarist from Atom Band. Couldn't get the full band so I'll be answering all of your questions :-)

How long have you all known each other/how did you all meet?

Riaan: So firstly here's a little back story to Atom Band's formation.
Atom Band's original formation as a project and not as a full band unit goes as far back as late 2011 or early 2012. Back then we never jammed together as a full band longer than a few months - we've always lost drummers. Most recently our original lead guitarist and also one of the original founding members of Atom Band, left sometime in 2013. Our other founding members that's  myself, my brother Vassan Nirhoo (Vocals) and our bassist Ryan di Domenico, who's been a close friend since our Varsity days, are the only surviving members of the original line-up.

I would definitely say Atom Band as a fully fledged band unit only formed in mid 2014 with the addition of our new lead guitarist Robert Krause and drummer Bernard Burg. This we consider the rebooted version of Atom Band and our current line up has been going strong for 3 years now. Robert and I met while I was on vacation in Cape Town around January 2012. We both shared common tastes in music and we immediately bonded. I was pretty ecstatic when he moved up to Johannesburg later that year.  Bernard found us through a Gumtree AD we placed online. Since Atom Band's sound has always been rooted in post-punk, Bernard's legendary history as a session drummer for some of the most influential post-punk bands from the Manchester scene, was a perfect fit.

 Who are your major influences?

Riaan: Each of us in the band have such diverse influences but personally there has only been 1 constant in my life and that's Radiohead. They have been my favourite band since I was 9 years old and it's not surprising that they are my major influence as a guitarist. In popular music for me Radiohead's body of work represents an unprecedented scale of epic artistic innovation and beauty, brain searing intelligence and material that can switch from horror to melancholy whilst being extremely socially relevant and forward thinking ...as someone put it "They are the Kafka and Samuel Beckett of our generation"  and their albums for me easily rank alongside the greatest accomplishments in art. Like Jonny Greenwood or even Robert Fripp (King Crimson), I too wish I could throw the blues scale out the window and go completely left-field but I'm also a avid lover of great rock n' roll and Indie music in general and I cannot resist the visceral power of riff monster legends like Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), James Williamson (The Stooges), the sheer dynamite swagger cool of Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones) or the innovative pioneers in Indie such as Graham Coxon (Blur)  the jangly melodic brilliance of Johnny Marr (The Smiths) and the noise landscapes of Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine). I'm a kid of the 90's and I rejected most American bands at the time so I almost exclusively dived full on into the British Indie and Trip Hop scenes. I was massively into bands like Blur, Suede, Oasis, The Verve, The Stone Roses, Primal Scream, Spiritualized, My Bloody Valentine, Massive Attack and Portishead. These bands still remain a major influence for me when I create music for Atom Band.

 Most recently I've been inspired sometimes by even non guitar sources such as classical or avant-garde composers like Steve Reich, Krzysztof Penderecki, Bernard Hermann and also jazz giants like Charles Mingus, Miles Davis as well as neo-soul pioneers like D 'Angelo.

As a band our debut EP was influenced by melodic sources like The Smiths, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Bowie and our second EP drew inspiration from edgier/darker sources like Manic Street Preaches (Holy Bible era), the noise-rock of Sonic Youth, The Horrors and Iceage. Though we draw influence from a massive repository of bands, we never directly homage these bands. We instead take in their influence and inspiration  to create our own unique sound.

How has your music evolved since you first began playing together?

 Riaan: There has been a noticeably huge evolutionary leap forward in our sound since Atom Band's original formation. With the original line-up back in 2012 we were still in the infant stages: finding our feet with song writing and most importantly learning to play our instruments! I only picked up the guitar for the first around 2012! Like most bands we started off as a garage rock band....our sound leaned heavily towards noise-rock and no-wave punk those days.

Personally although I still love those genres, the music I truly wanted to make needed to be directly derived from my art and Indie rock background: I wanted to make more melodically layered and nuanced songs that were also far technically superior than anything in our old catalogue.....Not that we completely scrapped our old songs, in fact a few of our old songs still appear in our live set lists and studio recordings. The essence of those older songs like "Betsy" and "Panic in Needle Park" haven't been lost, they're just far more polished and layered these days.

So when we started jamming again with such versatile and technically professional musicians like Robert, Bernard and Ryan in 2014, Vassan and myself were sort of thrown into the deep end and we were forced to push ourselves artistically as well get our technical skills several notches up!  So it's pretty rewarding to finally put out the type of music you've always wanted to make.

Is there an ultimate direction or goal for the band?

Riaan: When we started gigging in 2015 our major goal was to reach bigger live audiences and ultimately play a major festival which we did...we played at Oppikoppi in 2015. Our direction changed in 2016 when we recorded our 2 EP's and we focused our efforts on becoming more of a studio recording band.  This change in direction was also due to us not fitting into any of the Joburg live rock scenes . The scenes became progressively smaller since 2016 and noticeably more elite, closed as well as cut throat in almost business like fashions: these bands majority of the time only organized shows that only included bands in their circles (and personal friendship circles as well)  and rarely reached out to a band outside of their scene. So weekend after weekend the live venues across the city would host the same group of bands over and over with little variation. This includes the so-called "underground" and garage rock scenes as well. Also major festival organizers became exclusively interested in booking bands that either fit these fashionable scenes or commercial bands who ranked impressively with their social media statistics. With recorded material we were able to achieve significant radio as well as TV airplay, received glowing reviews and written pieces from well-known music and art publications as well as achieve cult followings when it came to an occasional live performance.  Strange enough I never consider our music to be avant-garde and underground - the fact that we received significant radio airplay (even beating some of the biggest bands like Shortstraw on local charts)  proves that there is potential mass appeal and appreciation for our songs.   In our very early stages of  gigging as a full  band around March  2015  I decided to send in a very rough live demo of one of our more rockier tracks "Description of a Struggle" to one of the Oppikoppi organizers and we were  immediately told that we would playing the festival that year  based alone on how much we impressed with our sound. So I would say our ultimate goal as a band is to create timeless music via recordings that even if when looked back 10 or 15 years from now, will not date and will be still be enjoyed.

What other local bands are you into right now?

Riaan: I am all for the primal, visceral or raw power of rock n 'roll but there appears to be an over abundance of this type of rock in South Africa currently and less of the type of rock that incorporates genuine song writing craft - don't get me wrong the majority of these bands do feature gifted  musicians who do actually create technically impressive music: but I also want music that will linger in my head long after I've rocked out on the dance floor. This means not simply being a throwback or  heavily relying on traditional  rock n' roll traits but rather finding new ways of  approaching rock n' roll  with your own unique angle. The current international rock bands most revered in South Africa like the Arctic Monkeys and Queens of the Stone Age both approach rock n' roll with their own unique slant  and you can hear the variety in their sound across their discography: they can switch from dance-rock, punk to  heavy stoner/desert  hard rock but more importantly  to even slower tempo sweet and  melancholic ballads. All of their songs are memorable and well crafted lyrically. Bands should and can be both sweet/melodic as well as aggressive and edgy.  So at live shows audiences are often surprised when we present our generally more melodic tracks at the beginning of our set lists then we progress half way through with our  darker/ aggressive material.  I feel  SA live audiences sometimes have little patience and become accustomed to bands with a just one sound.  There's also an overabundance of live audiences who are seeking music for the sole of purpose of  complementing partying lifestyles rather than seeking out music for genuine musical appreciation.  Several local bands have exclusively been incorporating dance beats with a combination of goofy vocals and almost  juvenile humour tailor made for these audiences.

To get right back to your question without any further deviation, one of the  local bands I  really admire  is probably Pollinator who are genuinely excellent... strong vocals, awesome song writing and guitar work. Follow Me Follow You are also a amazingly  talented group of musicians and produce of the some of the country's finest  post-rock/math-rock. Sakawa Boys from Cape Town also produce their own impressively layered and atmospheric brand of Indie Rock.  I'm inspired by the darkness of Medicine Boy... we often attempt to top their songs with much more complex arrangements and less reliance on reverb effects. Nakhane Toure has certainly paved his own path in South African music and makes uncompromisingly personal music that I find very powerful.

Who writes the songs and what is the song writing process like? Lyrics or music first? Are there any current projects you are working on?

Riaan: With this rebooted version of Atom Band our song ideas usually originate weirdly enough from myself as a guitar riff or basic guitar  melody (the bones).  I then present the rough sketch to Robert who will then add the significant  flesh and meatier parts at our song writing sessions. At the song writing sessions, which consists of  just the 3 of us (Vassan, Robert and myself), Vassan will usually present vocal ideas and melodies and will start writing down the lyrics.  We then present the partially completed song  to our rhythm section (Bernard and Ryan) at a full band practice to complete as a fully fledged track.

We are currently busy at work writing new tracks that will be included on our first full length album which are hoping to record sometime in 2018.

What is your favourite venue to play in Joburg? Are there any local venues or events that you would like to play that you haven't?

Riaan: We love playing at playing Rumours - their stages, professionalism and superb equipment puts us at ease when we get on stage.  It's always a pleasure to rock out there. We would absolutely love to play at The Good Luck Bar  probably the greatest venue in this country  but as I mentioned earlier due to the exclusive or closed band scenes:  event/festival organizers and the venue management are either impossible to get hold of or are completely non responsive to bands who are not operating within the trendy band circles.

Obligatory band name discussion Question: Why Atom Band?

Riaan: When coming up with the band name I wanted to completely avoid current trends in South Africa such as choosing catch phrases or anything that would come off as goofy. Instead I opted for something that would sound as well as look elegant on paper.  I wanted a name that also had a certain level of  abstraction to it.  My  aim was for people to see us a unique band amongst other Indie bands in the country and therefore take us seriously as a art rock group.

Thank you for your time and allowing me to ramble!

Questions by: Tiffany Livingston

Atom Bands second EP is up on WDTR:

SOUNDCLOUD:
https://soundcloud.com/atom-band

ALL LIARS & THIEVES EP
https://atomband-sa.bandcamp.com/album/all-liars-thieves-ep

THE THOUGHT FOX MUSIC VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPiMqa0QwcQ

FACEBOOK PAGE:
facebook.com/atombandsa

200 GENTLEMEN CALLERS FANS CAN'T BE WRONG

Gentlemen Callers play a mixture of post-punk and hardcore punk. Their intention is anti-escapist, with their sound privileging anxiety over fun. The band formed in Grahamstown in early 2012 out of a sense of disappointment with what they considered to be a largely thoughtless national music scene.

Interested in the Shamanic potential of music, they combine paradoxically dense and primitive rhythms with lyrical concerns ranging from reincarnation and drug use to the rise of the sociopath in contemporary society. They like to describe themselves as neurotic astronauts stuck on an inhospitable world.

Their EPs were recorded on reel-to-reel tape in Grahamstown by friend of the band and producer Matt Sabine. The band decided to record all instruments simultaneously ('live') with appropriate overdubs in post-production. The decision to record in this fashion, as well the use of vintage equipment, came from a desire to experiment with non-digital techniques in order to capture an aesthetic at odds with much in the contemporary landscape.

200 Gentlemen Callers Fans Can Not Be Wrong is a collection of Previously released and unreleased tracks.
Coming Soon to We Did This Records!

When Optimism Becomes Offensive (Formerly An Article About Atom Band)

When Optimism Becomes Offensive

The South African music scene is best understood through the image of the rodeo clown, that figure of frivolity whose purpose is distraction. The rider may be down and the bull may have gorged him, but all attention is focused on the crowd-pleasing shenanigans of a colourful fool. Although all cultures have their musical equivalents of the rodeo clown, the majority of ours are also blind. And they are blind because they have gouged their own eyes out.

Most of the artists occupying the admittedly nebulous category of ‘independent’ music do not appear to be aware of its revolutionary potential. Others simply do not care. As a result, ‘independent’ music has collapsed into conservatism. Geared so aggressively towards positive audience reaction, it has become virtually indistinguishable from feel-good propaganda. Musicians are now remembered if they can inspire a type of forgetting.

This ‘forgetting’ manifests itself in various ways. One niche market reveals an obsession with beach-culture. Ignoring the realities of sunstroke, cancer, dolphin rape, shark attacks and the generally unspeakable terror of the ocean, these bands have something to say that is about as conceptually advanced as Cliff Richard’s ‘Summer Holiday’. A garage-rock front appropriated from the Nuggets compilations of the 60s does little to change this. Atrocities occurring inland and slightly further away from the promenade strewn with KFC bones and ice-cream wrappers remain taboo topics of conversation.

Our national competitions, such as the recent Rolling Stone Rockstarter, require musicians to debase themselves, as well as the audience, by essentially begging for votes when they are not loudly endorsing whatever alcohol is sponsoring the event. In short, it has become anathema to trade in anything except temporary amnesia and that most unsociable of all activities: dancing. But this is hardly surprising in a country where the perversity of Heritage Day being aligned with gathering around a grill to toss dead flesh goes unquestioned.

In a country with a predominantly guilt-ridden conception of whiteness, a disenfranchised sense of blackness, and an increasingly more confused sense of national identity, the independent music scene has steadily adjusted itself to a type of denialism. At what point does the rampant optimism of most South African music become irresponsible? The Greek philosopher Diogenes the Cynic was reported to have said: “Dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them”. But what we have is an epidemic of face-licking. There is a lot to be frustrated about, but very little frustration. Our music either directly perpetuates post-independence myths of national unity or amounts to shake-your-hips banality. And is there even a difference between the two?

One only has to recall the ‘SHOUT’ initiative of recent years, where a selection of South African musicians gathered together in order to tell us that they were against crime. After the nation recovered from this most controversial position, we were left to wonder whether those who were not involved in the campaign were, presumably, ‘for’ crime. As an overestimation of the ability of local musicians to engender social change it was startling, particularly when the lyrical concerns of the performers involved were the poetic equivalent of a 6-piece puzzle.

Our musical culture has become dangerously consolatory instead of transgressive. So unthreatening to the status quo, in fact, that two more images are required to explain it. The first is of a smiling, toothless baby. Endearing to look at for some, but still essentially toothless. The second is of an individual afflicted by paraphilic infantilism, a disorder where adults pretend they are babies. Humorous to look at for some, but still essentially an adult pretending to be a baby. Our musical constellation is the entwined bodies of the rodeo clown, the toothless baby and the adult in diapers. Anyone who has felt affronted by the lack of satirical clout and almost total non-engagement with the intellect in our current musical climate will understand these images. Everyone else will be offended, possibly due to their complicity.

Is this how South Africans make music in good faith in an era of outrage and disappointment? When one of the most popular bands in the country, The Kiffness, write something called ‘The Broccoli Song’, is it not disingenuous to label it harmless fun instead of collective brain death? Who decided music was no longer the place for dissatisfaction, whether politically or personally motivated? What will posterity find when they look back to see what music was being created during the era of ‘Rainbow Nation’ fraudulence? Imagine a new era where musicians who urge you to have a good time are bottled off stage, or where bands are judged based solely on what they have to say? This, at the very least, would minimise, amongst other things, the use of Wes Anderson style typeface and goofy band biographies.

Amidst this state of affairs are many ‘superfluous’ bands. In Russian literature, the ‘Superfluous Man’ was the individual whose interests and concerns did not quite match up with the interests and concerns of the state at large. As such, they were superfluous, extraneous, unnecessary, unwanted. The superfluous men and women of South African music are likewise out-of-step with prevailing musical expectations. Their thoughts are actively discouraged in the current climate, but would be readily accepted if they were more clownish, toothless or infantile. Most of these bands we will never even hear about, as most of them will simply give up.

Johannesburg based Atom Band, one of the more perplexing features in local music, is one of these superfluous bands, and to take them as a case study is illuminating. In many respects, they represent bewilderment between two equally valid courses of action: engagement with the failure of the body politic and depressive disengagement as a form of protest. Guitarist John Shepherd, in a recent interview with the incomprehensible website ‘onesmallseed’, mentions that the group’s interest in the post-punk genre lies in its awkward location ‘post-revolution’. The band is aware that our own revolution, in a sense, either failed or is always arriving, and that it may also require personal examination instead of political sloganeering to make sense of this. Thankfully, they do not take this to mean that they must write songs about saggy bottom speedo swimmers ala Desmond and the Tutus.

Atom Band, like all the other ‘superfluous’ groups, make little sense in the current musical culture of this country. What place does this music have in South African society? What chance does it have of finding an audience? To problematise this further, the band appears embarrassed at the prospect of marketing themselves in any serious way. Aggressive campaigning to win over the hearts and minds of the population is probably about as appealing to them as a music video where they jump off low walls, stroll on the beach or laugh.

New bands are faced with the pressure of either putting on the clown suit or trying to make an artistic statement that is not blind to what is certainly not the endless happy-dance of the society around them. Consider this offensively optimistic lyric from the latest Shortstraw song, Couch Potato: “Cheer up / Something’s got you down”. Let’s talk about the things getting us down, instead of immediately trying to cheer up. In this time of dangerous optimism, upcoming artists who may wish to express painful realities instead of escapist fantasies can adopt such lyrics as a reminder that they have work to do. Their mantra can be the following: I cannot die, or else this goes unchallenged.

- written by Prince Myshkin

Atom Band -  Loosely defined no wave & post punk

http://atomband-sa.bandcamp.com/