Interview with ALEX VARKATZAS, vocalist with metalcore pioneers ATREYU

admin February 13, 2020 Artist Interviews

Fewer acts can boast the career that Atreyu can. Being a pioneering force in the Metalcore genre, the band has forged a path that is uniquely their own over the last two decades. On the eve of their return to Australian shores for the first time in four years, Maximum Volume had the chance to chat with frontman Alex Varkatzas to talk about the tour, the evolution of Atreyu’s sound throughout the years and the prospect of new music on the horizon.

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us today. Atreyu is coming back down to Australia for your first tour here since 2016 when you came down here with Bullet for My Valentine and Cane Hill, so how does it feel to be kicking off this year’s touring cycle down here?

Oh man, we’re real excited. We love Australia! My wife and I went there two years ago on our honeymoon. It’s one of my favourite places in the world, so it’s a real pleasure to get to play music there you know what I mean?

When you guys have been down here you’ve played a mix of bigger and smaller venues, but when coming to Australia what do you prefer? Do you prefer playing to the larger crowds, or do you like it when fans can get up nice and close and be intimate with the band?

I think both have their place. I think coming all this way from around the world, we want to play to as many people as we can. So there’s a lot to be said about opportunities to play big festivals or shows and stuff like that. But it’s also nice to play normal size shows and connect with people in that way too you know?

Yeah definitely, and I can certainly understand that from the band’s point of view. What is it that you are most looking forward to about returning to Australia? I guess I want to know if there is anything unique that the band is yet to encounter down here, that you want to experience this time round?

You know it’s hard to say, I just like the country overall. It reminds me and feels very much of where I live and grew up in Southern California and stuff, so for me it’s like a piece of home. I’m a hard traveller, it’s hard for me to be away from home. I get homesick and miss my kids and stuff like that, so it’s nice to be in a place that feels like home to me. So I’m coming home Australia!

Very nice! One other thing I wanted to ask was what excited the band about Australian fans? I’ve been to festivals overseas and know that different crowds interact with bands in different ways, but what is it that excites Atreyu about Australian fans?

I think that… like the wild? Wild Motherfuckers for the most part. They are very cool, laid back people but Australians know how to have a good time, and for me that’s what an Atreyu show is all about. It’s having a great time. So it’s great to connect with a bunch of similar minded people you know what I’m saying?

Talking from personal experience at your last show here, Porter (McKnight) actually came over and gave fans some water because they were feeling it in the front row, because everyone wants to be right in there and at it.

Yeah you know normally I like to be down there with the crowd and mixing it up, but I’ve been plagued. 2019 has been a tough year for me. It’s taken me almost a year to heal, so I’m almost back to where I can interact. Does that make sense? Like if I jump off stage and something goes wrong, or if I’m out in the crowd, in the pit and someone hits me the wrong way it could be really bad you know? It’s taken me a year to recover and Porter has really picked up my slack I guess. So it’s rad because we love that. We love coming out there. We are used to being on that side you know? That’s where we spent a lot of our lives and we still do.

Definitely. That’s good to see that Porter has stepped up in that regard and it’s good to also see that you are getting back on track with all of your health issues, because I do know that did plague your last year a fair bit.

Yeah you have to try and beat it! I’ve got a positive outlook and I’m stoked. My back is a lot better, I can walk! So being able to walk is always good.

Your last album In Our Wake has been out for a little over 12 months now. Everyone has had the time to digest it, but I guess I want to know how have the fans been reacting to it live. I mean you hear stuff online that “Its not like the old Atreyu” and I get that…

When you think about it, that statement. Sorry to interject real quick. It’s kind of a weird statement, because ‘the old Atreyu’s. We have been getting interesting comments since ‘Death Grip’ (A Death-Grip on Yesterday) you know, and then with ‘Lead Sails’ (Lead Sails Paper Anchor) it became even more. So it’s like every time we put out a record, someone says “Atreyu doesn’t sound like they used to”. We have more records not sounding like we used to, than we have records sounding like we used to. Does that make sense?

That’s actually a very good point and I never really thought about it that way. I’m all for the way the band has transformed it’s sound.

To me it’s just trolls. Those aren’t real fans of the band. They are just their to interact for their own needs does that make sense? They’re not really trying to say anything. They don’t really give a fuck about the band, otherwise they wouldn’t be saying stupid shit like that which doesn’t make sense you know what I mean? That’s like me saying “I like old Rancid”, it’s like your a fucking idiot — Rancid sounds like Rancid. They have maybe some records which you like more, but that band sounds like that band! It’s always been me singing. It’s always been Brandon (Saller) singing, it’s been the five of us forever, so it’s just kind of funny to me. People live in the past, and I fell victim to this too. I’m like “Oh man we don’t write songs like this anymore, we need to write like this type of song” and the dudes were like “we really haven’t written any songs like that in 15 years, what are you talking about?” and then it made me go oh, your right. So I’m not trying to be cagey or defensive about it, but it’s an interesting way to look at it.

It is an interesting way to look at it, and it relates to something I was going to ask about how you guys have always written introspective music. It’s always been very self-searching and I think you’ve previously outlined it that the music was a cathartic release, and that self introspection is something that comes through your music whether it be on In Our Wake, or Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses.

Yeah I think that’s kind of my point. We were kids when we started and we couldn’t convey all the emotions the right way through the music. So we all sounded “aghhhhh” (Imitates screaming), and then as we got older and we grew at our craft, we have more ways to convey to you that feeling. If it’s a sad song, the vocals should sound sad, not be (imitates screaming) “gahhh I’m gonna fuck you up”. That doesn’t fit the song and a lot of our songs are sad. They are about deep personal soul searching fucking shit that we all go through and I think that’s why it’s so relatable to people. I’m just Joe Q, I’m your general public guy in real life. I like normal, general public things so we all go through the same shit and my lyrics just capture that, and we have a better way of putting it now. I could only put it in one package before, but now I can put it in different packages.

Again, that’s a very good way of explaining it, and hopefully that’s something that a lot of fans whoa re clinging onto that older viewpoint can see.

Of course, I think there’s very few bands around that you like their newest material more than the shit that got you into them.

Yeah, definitely!

I like the first Rancid records the best because I have a nostalgic emotional attachment to them. If was a smarter person with more psychological education in my background I could tell you why humans do that. You have a physical attachment to bad songs. You even see it, there’s some bands that shouldn’t be around today, they’re horrible motherfuckers who have tried to do nefarious things, and they get to go play music because people have an emotional nostalgic attachment to songs. I can’t think of any band that I like where I think “I like this new stuff more than the stuff that got me into them”. It’s just a rare thing.

Last week you posted a photo on Instagram which looked like you might have been in the studio. Does that photo indicate that you might have begun work on a follow up to In Our Wake?

Yeah. I don’t know why, but when we go to record we don’t post stuff on social media. It’s not like a cognitive thing, but we go to war when we record. It’s a good, stressful, 1-2 songs, fresh ideas are written and brought to the table every single day. There’s nothing stale or dated. We aren’t bringing you a riff we wrote two years ago, or if we are we’ve repackaged it and made it better. It’s all fresh ideas. So we are going to record in two chunks for this next album. We’re halfway done with the first chunk of recording. We have about 18-19 songs in the bank. We’re going to go back in April and we are going to bang out another 10-15 songs, so we have a massive body of work to choose from to make our most dark, introspective, fucked-up, soul-searching record ever.

Alex, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. See you when your down here for the Australian tour!